"If You Got A Got A Good Coach, You Keep Them": Becky Hammon Reacts To New York Liberty's Dismissal Of Head Coach Sandy Brondello

On Tuesday, the New York Liberty made headlines when they announced the dismissal of head coach Sandy Brondello following the team’s first-round exit at the hands of the Phoenix Mercury. While there are a variety of opinions regarding the wisdom of this decision, another WNBA head coach has spoken up in defense of Brondello.

In a viral clip posted on X, Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon made it clear that she was not pleased with the fate that met Brondello, who had led the Liberty to the WNBA title just a year ago.

“If you know you have a good coach, you keep the good coach,” Hammon said at a media availability after the Brondello news broke. “It doesn’t mean you win every year. There can be rough years in between, but you continue to stay competitive. You invest in what you have, you invest in your leadership.”

Hammon, a former San Antonio Stars player who was coached by Brondello in the late 2000s, appears to be giving a spot-on description of the Liberty head coach’s situation. In each of Brondello’s four seasons in New York, the team finished with a winning record and booked a spot in the playoffs. The Liberty reached the WNBA Finals in back-to-back seasons, ultimately winning the championship in 2024.

The 2022 and 2025 seasons, then, would equate to the “rough years” that Hammon was talking about. Unfortunately for Brondello, who was also a champion head coach with the Phoenix Mercury, the Liberty has decided to no longer invest in her leadership.

To emphasize her point, Hammon pointed to the situation of yet another coach that Brondello is familiar with.

“Can anybody find out how many years Cheryl [Reeve] has been in Minnesota?” she asked reporters at the media availability. When one reporter confirmed that the Lynx had kept Reeve in her coaching position since 2010, Hammon commented, “That should be the model.”

Reeve, who won four WNBA titles in the previous decade but none so far in the 2020s, was the same head coach that Brondello went up against in last year’s Finals. In Hammon’s view, the type of longevity that the Lynx have allowed Reeve to enjoy, should have been the standard that the Liberty upheld in the case of Brondello.

Now that Brondello is no longer employed by the Liberty, there could be other WNBA teams looking to enlist her brilliant basketball mind. Given Brondello’s track record in the league, this appears to be a matter of when, not if.