Brondello knows who she is, and her authenticity is undeniable to those who work with her. She has a strong sense of self and a consistent demeanor.
“You never have to guess with her, is she being genuine or not?” O’Brien told The Next. “It’s always genuine. You’re always going to get the real version of her.”
This image of Brondello mirrors the philosophy that she preaches not only to her players, her assistants and her colleagues, but also to the reporters who cover her regularly.
Many Brondello-isms have developed over her 20-year WNBA coaching career, but one of the most famous is the way she communicates the importance of having a level head. “Never too high, never too low,” she has repeatedly said about the moments when the Liberty have either triumphed or fallen.
That phrase has served as her North Star in a plethora of moments she’s dealt with as a head coach, especially in high-pressure situations. It’s her North Star when she’s trying to understand the complex personalities of the players she teaches and supports every day. It’s her North Star when she balances her level of care and kindness alongside how she holds people accountable.
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Brondello has developed a reputation that she’s often doing “the yeoman’s work” to hold teams together and get them to play at their best when it matters most. Look no further than when Brondello led the No. 5 seed Phoenix Mercury all the way to the 2021 WNBA Finals when not many people expected the Mercury to get that far. That work includes getting a bunch of people on the same page, establishing non-negotiables and using limited practice time incredibly wisely.
This combination and balance between earning trust, respect and results is what allowed Brondello to land the New York Liberty job in 2022, the year before stars Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones took a chance on a franchise that was still without a championship.
But now — after Stewart, Jones and Sabrina Ionescu helped Brondello lead the Liberty to the mountaintop at last in 2024 — New York’s head coach looks to lead her team to repeat as champions after an inconsistent and sometimes puzzling regular season.
On Sunday, the No. 5 seed Liberty will take on the No. 4 seed Mercury, Brondello’s former team, in the first round of the playoffs. New York started the season 9-0 but finished 27-17 as Jones, Stewart and Ionescu all missed extended time due to injuries. Key role players Leonie Fiebich, Kennedy Burke and Natasha Cloud also missed time due to the EuroBasket championships, a calf strain and a broken nose, respectively. Young center Nyara Sabally, who was the hero in Game 5 of the 2024 WNBA Finals, has only played in 17 games this season while trying to rehab a right knee that historically has gone through the ringer. This was all on top of integrating midseason signing Emma Meesseman, who has still only played 17 games with the team.
The intrinsic qualities that Brondello brings to coaching, including her emotional intelligence and emotional regulation skills, will now be more vital than ever. The Liberty have a real uphill battle to return to the WNBA Finals. And the goal in New York has always been about establishing the franchise as a perennial WNBA dynasty rather than a one-hit wonder.
In addition, loads of uncertainty is about to hit the WNBA once the postseason ends, and rosters around the league could change dramatically in free agency. So this could be the last chance for Brondello to win again with this core group.
Brondello’s entire coaching philosophy, including her intangibles, will be tested beginning on Sunday. But what are its origins, and how has she managed coaching in New York, full of the most media attention and pressure in the world?
Why is Brondello the way she is?
New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello walks out for a ceremony before a game against the Las Vegas Aces at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 17, 2025. (Photo credit: Wendell Cruz | Imagn Images)
It’s ironic that Brondello’s approach to coaching in the WNBA has been called “yeoman’s work” because it’s who she is and what’s in her blood. Historically, a yeoman is someone who owns and works on their own land. That’s exactly how Brondello began her life as the daughter of Dino Brondello, a sugarcane farmer near Mackay in Queensland, Australia.
Brondello grew up as the youngest of four children, with two brothers and a sister. She worked on her father’s sugarcane farm, where she’d lift 20-foot-long water pipes, pick up rocks, and sometimes drive the tractor and some donkeys. Hard work and toughness were traits Dino passed on to her.
And those traits, in addition to the inner drive that is required of farmers, are very much what set the foundation for the late nights Brondello, her husband and Liberty assistant coach Olaf Lange, and the rest of her staff spend poring over game film and discussing schemes. It’s the same energy that motivates Brondello in a timeout to draw up a play that will fool her opponent.
Her life included going to a small school of 50 children until high school, when she had to drive an hour to get to the closest school. She grew up in a middle-class home where her father ran the farm and her mother Estelle didn’t receive higher education and had to work instead. Brondello’s authenticity comes from how her parents raised her and the values they instilled in her.
“There was a freedom and a simplicity with how we lived,” Brondello told The Next. “Values that were set from my mum and dad, that’s what I still live with today. I mean, you treat others as you want to be treated. Be respectful, but stand up when you need to stand up for people.”
Standing up for people of all backgrounds is something that Brondello didn’t just begin to do when she played in the most diverse in the league in the world as a WNBA player in the late 1990s. This was instilled in her growing up. While she was a decorated track athlete in high school and, in her words, was “popular” because of her athletic prowess, she didn’t leave anyone behind who was bullied or struggling.
“I felt sorry for people being picked on or anything, so I would obviously be nice to them,” Brondello said. “I suppose I’ve always had that, but from a young age, because — I don’t know, I don’t know why, where that comes from. Yeah, just my mum.”
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Brondello’s empathy and emotional intelligence that she inherited from her mother help her keep an open mind and try to understand why people around her act the way they do. As the youngest growing up, Brondello was able to observe the family dynamics.
“There’s people who are born with it,” Lange said about Brondello and Estelle’s high level of empathy, emotional intelligence and general people skills. “Some have learned it, but you have to have some affinity to that. You can’t learn something if you have no base level of empathy and affinity [for] this. But it can be learned to some extent, but not for everyone.”
Brondello dealt with her mother’s passing in late December 2024. Estelle, who died of a stroke, had watched almost all the games Brondello coached from miles and miles away.
It’s been tough for Brondello, as she’s had moments this season where all she’s wanted to do is call her mom, but then she remembers that Estelle isn’t here anymore.
“You have regret that you weren’t there [in Australia] enough,” Brondello said through tears. “My mum is the coolest person you’ve ever met.”
Brondello’s empathy for others also comes with having an ability to hold those same people accountable when necessary. She finds this balance as a former player. Her players know and respect that she’s been in their shoes and had similar experiences.
“Because she’s been on the inside, she may not know exactly what [players] say here because she’s now a coach, but she’s been there, and she knows what type of conversation is probably taking place,” Lange said. “So now she has empathy and she understands that. Now she can navigate that.”
When the Liberty played in Phoenix for the first time this season, Brondello decided to give guard Natasha Cloud the coach’s suite at their hotel, the Global Ambassador. It was going to be an emotional trip for Cloud, who played for the Mercury in 2024 and hadn’t been back to Phoenix since she was traded to the Connecticut Sun in February and then to the Liberty about a month later.
Brondello herself also has awkward feelings about the Mercury. She and Lange own a large house in Phoenix that they bought before the franchise let her go after she led them to the Finals in 2021.
Cloud appreciates Brondello’s kindness coupled with the extra care she shows to players during the heat of a season. Cloud noticed how Brondello sometimes walks into the training room to check on players before and after practices during lifts and treatment sessions. This was something Cloud hadn’t experienced at other stops in her professional career.
“I think she has a healthy balance of understanding what it means to play at this level, and the expectations, the pressures, all of that, the fatigue of a season,” Cloud said on July 5. “She understands all that, but also understanding where from a coach that she needs to push us to just get into our ass.
“So especially over that last road trip, I saw [Brondello] getting into us a little bit, and because of her nurturing spirit as like a mama, you’re able to take all of those criticisms. You’re able to take all the heat of her tones when it does come because there’s such a nurturing spirit about her.”
What is in her mental health toolbox?
New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello is restrained by her staff after receiving a technical foul during a game against the Dallas Wings at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, on Aug. 8, 2025. (Photo credit: Jerome Miron | Imagn Images)
Two common stereotypes of Australians are their relatively laid-back and friendly nature, and these are characteristics that Brondello often emulates.
Being calm, cool and collected on the outside can be tough work, especially when what’s going on externally isn’t positive or going your way. Brondello’s desire to be the calming force for her team can be quite lonely and difficult for her mental health.
She exuded some uncharacteristic anxious energy prior to the Liberty’s 92-82 loss to the Dallas Wings on July 28. That was the team’s first game without almost their entire frontcourt, as Sabally, Stewart and Burke were all out. During her pregame press conference, Brondello was antsier than usual, and after the team fell to the Wings, it became much clearer why.
To deal with the high-stress and more human moments, Brondello makes sure she builds community outside of the Liberty. She belongs to a leadership collective called Aleada Connect, an organization that specializes in collaborative leadership. She meets with leaders across not just professional sports but also other disciplines like education, the corporate world and entertainment.
This group has functioned like therapy for Brondello. It’s a safe space where she can openly discuss what it’s like coaching a women’s professional basketball team in New York. She’s been able to network with and become friendly with other coaches in pro sports, like Steve Kerr of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and Emma Hayes, who coaches the U.S. women’s national team in soccer.
When Brondello needs to decompress, she opens up Amazon Prime Video. Without even knowing what various television shows and films are about, she clicks on what’s new or what’s been deemed popular. She did watch “The Summer I Turned Pretty” with her daughter Jayda, but she’s much more interested in period dramas like “Bridgerton,” “The Gilded Age,” “Downton Abbey” and “Outlander.”
In addition, Brondello is quite selective about who she lets into her life. There isn’t room for negativity, people who see the world through a pessimistic lens or energy vampires. Yet she’s made sure to have a rolodex of visitors this season, including her cousins; one of her brothers; and close friends like Rachael Sporn, a former Australian Opal and WNBA player. They’ve been a comfort to her while she’s gone through a difficult season both on and off the court.
A significant challenge ahead
New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello holds her coaching board while guard Natasha Cloud asks her something during a game against the Minnesota Lynx at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Aug. 16, 2025. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)
While Brondello has had to deal with the Liberty’s revolving door of injuries, she’s also gotten pressure internally and externally when it comes to the lineup combinations she’s chosen. For weeks, she chose midseason signing Stephanie Talbot to play meaningful minutes over Rebekah Gardner. Brondello trusted Talbot because she had coached her before.
But with the postseason beginning on Sunday, Brondello has changed course, and Gardner will most likely earn a meaningful role in the series against the Mercury. That will send electric shooting guard Marine Johannès to the bench to play a much smaller role.
But while grieving the death of her mother in addition to dealing with the pressures of trying to get a team without a lot of season-built chemistry back to the WNBA Finals, there is belief that Brondello will be able to lead the Liberty on a long playoff run and help the franchise rewrite the narrative of its 2025 season.
Dan Hughes, the coach who gave Brondello her first coaching job in the WNBA, has noticed that when the lights are brightest and the pressure is at its highest, Brondello finds a way to get buy-in quickly and get her teams to perform better.
“I always knew that [Brondello] was a real architect of momentum around playoff time,” Hughes told The Next. “She had veteran teams, and I don’t know if it was a reflection of those teams, but I always knew that [Brondello’s] team would be a tough out in the playoffs. I don’t care where they were coming in, what seed they were.”
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For the Liberty to survive and advance, it’s going to take Brondello being not only at her best but also her most creative. Out-of-the-box and instinctive thinking are things that she has become known for over the years.
Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle, who’s become a friend and a mentor to Brondello, told her all about what he thought of how she coached Game 5 of the 2024 WNBA Finals and how Sabally won that game for the Liberty.
“Man, you got balls,” he told her. “You went for a lineup that I don’t know [that] many of the rest of us would have done.”
Brondello’s response? “Well, you would have lost.”
Ultimately, Brondello’s job as a head coach is to do whatever it takes for the team to win. It’s not about her ego and status, but about the collective that she works for. Her empathy, emotional intelligence and ability to thrive under pressure will fuel and bring confidence to the Liberty’s 2025 run.
“I’m not afraid to make hard decisions, and whatever consequences come out, they are what they are,” she said. “… What do I feel is best to help us win? That’s my job.”