{"id":809666,"date":"2026-07-19T06:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T06:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/809666\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T06:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T06:21:11","slug":"wnba-news-2026-sandy-brondello-suspended-without-pay-for-angel-reese-hot-mic-comment-protected-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/809666\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA news 2026: Sandy Brondello suspended without pay for Angel Reese hot mic comment, protected species"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian coach Sandy Brondello<\/a> has been suspended for one game without pay due to an \u201cinappropriate comment\u201d aimed at Atlanta\u2019s Angel Reese. <\/p>\n

Brondello, one of the WNBA\u2019s most accomplished coaches, was caught during her team\u2019s 111-92 loss to the Dream saying Reese was a \u201cprotected species\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sandy Brondello has been suspended without pay for one game. \u00a0Sean D. Elliot<\/p>\n

This was after Toronto player Nyara Sabally was called for a foul on Reese after Sabally went down with an injury after contact. <\/p>\n

The league suspended the 57-year-old coach without pay for \u201can inappropriate comment she made regarding\u00a0Angel Reese\u00a0of the\u00a0Atlanta Dream\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe WNBA expects all coaches and team personnel to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and respect that are fundamental to our league,\u201d the league said in its statement announcing the suspension.<\/p>\n

Brondello will serve the suspension when Toronto play the Las Vegas Aces at home on Tuesday (AEST). <\/p>\n

Online, many came to the defence of Brondello, saying the \u201cprotected species\u201d phrase is used in Australian sports to express frustration for a lack of calls against a player – but in the US, the phrase suggests that someone isn\u2019t human and could be seen as derogatory toward black people. <\/p>\n

Reese reposted the moment on X and said \u201cARE WE SURPRISED?!\u2032 and tagged Brondello. This promoted Brondello to apologise to Reese and the Dream organisation on Sunday morning (AEST). <\/p>\n

Brondello is currently at the helm of the Toronto Tempo in their inaugural year after spending four with the New York Liberty. During her tenure with the Liberty, she won the 2024 WNBA Championship. <\/p>\n

She also spent eight years with the Phoenix Mercury and won a championship with that team in 2014, being one of three coaches in the league to win a title.<\/p>\n

Brondello is also the head coach of Australia\u2019s national women\u2019s basketball<\/a> team, the Opals<\/a>, a position she\u2019s held since April 2017 and has signed to continue into Los Angeles 2028. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian coach Sandy Brondello has been suspended for one game without pay due to an \u201cinappropriate comment\u201d aimed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-809666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}