Brondello will have to build her team from scratch with the new expansion franchise. Her hire became official Tuesday morning, as the Tempo held a press conference to announce Brondello as the very first head coach for the WNBA’s 14th franchise.
At the core of this team now are two former WNBA players — Brondello and general manager Monica Wright Rogers. They know that the way to ensure team success is by doing everything with the players in mind, considering they know what it’s like to be in that role. The Tempo have created a fresh feel for the team, yet are still built on the values of people who have decades of WNBA experience under their belts.
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Brondello was all smiles as she was introduced to a room full of Toronto media.
“This is a little overwhelming, to be quite honest,” Brondello said at the podium before taking questions. “I’ve been doing this for such a long time, and I don’t get very nervous, but I’m feeling a little bit nervous now.”
Although she is coming from a big market in New York, she noted it felt like there were more people in the room than she usually saw in Brooklyn. Nonetheless, Brondello embraced it all, answering questions for nearly half an hour, while explaining why she was the perfect pick ahead of the franchise’s inaugural season.
Brondello is ready for a new challenge
As previously mentioned, Brondello’s journey with the Tempo will be unlike anything she’s experienced before in her coaching career. In her previous head coaching roles in New York and Phoenix, Brondello was brought in to win championships, even noting on the podium that she has made the playoffs every year.
“That’s still the narrative,” Brondello said to the media, “I like winning.”
Yet, in Toronto, she will have to do so in a very different way. She isn’t inheriting one (or more) WNBA No. 1 overall draft picks like she did in her previous two stops. She doesn’t even have a single player on her roster yet. Everything she builds in Toronto — roster, culture, development of players — will have to be from the ground up.
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Tuesday, she made it clear that she’s ready for that challenge, and it’s part of the reason she chose to come to Toronto despite being offered other jobs around the WNBA. The idea of getting to establish a culture from the ground up was also intriguing to Brondello.
“I think culture now is a bit of a buzzword, isn’t it?” She said in response to a question about building the Tempo’s identity. “We have a vision of what our identity should look like,” she noted, before stating that the players establish the culture they want to have. “What kind of legacy do they want to leave behind? What are the values we want to live by? Once we have that culture, it allows us to have accountability and support, make sure that we’re growing this franchise in the right way.”
When asked what kind of coach she is, Brondello confidently replied, “a pretty good one,” going on to note that she’s adaptable and keeps the players in mind first. She’s the only coach in WNBA history to win championships with two different franchises, and she hopes to add a third in Toronto.
Why Brondello is the best person for the Tempo coaching job
Tempo general manager Monica Wright Rogers said at the press conference that she started her search for the team’s head coach in July. Making sure she cast a wide net, she kept an open mind about who would be the best for the job. Yet, all of that was put to the side when Brondello and New York parted ways after the Liberty were eliminated from the WNBA playoffs.
“I took a swing,” Rogers told the media. “It would be unwise not to try and land her.”
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Rogers noted as well that she knew that competition would be stiff and that Brondello would receive multiple offers from other teams, but she also knew that Toronto’s front office “put their best foot forward, and we were ourselves.” In the end, Rogers thinks it was that factor that helped show Brondello that this was the place she wanted to be, because their core values aligned with those of Brondello’s.
Rogers also made note of the fact that she looked for someone with WNBA-specific experience, despite current WNBA coaching trends. As a former player, Rogers felt it was important to find someone who also had the player’s interests at heart.
Why Brondello’s international experience matters
Unsurprisingly for a Toronto press conference, there were a lot of Toronto and Canada-specific questions. That’s to be expected when the league is introducing its first-ever international team to the mix, and the Tempo know that’s a badge of honor (or honour, to make it Canadian).
Brondello, an Australian with experience on Australia’s national team as both a player and coach, hopes to be an ambassador to bridge the WNBA and Canada together. She repeatedly mentioned the fact that Canada and Australia are both part of the Commonwealth, understanding the relationship the two nations have.
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She also emphasized that she knows how much Canada loves its sports, taking the time to congratulate the Blue Jays on their historic MLB World Series run, despite the ache of Toronto losing Game 7 still being fresh. Her international experience is one of the many reasons why the Tempo believe she is the best fit for this role as the team’s head coach.
Rogers told The IX Basketball in the summer that the Tempo were prioritizing finding someone who could be an international leader and ambassador in their coaching search. When asked how she would do just that, Brondello said that she is definitely bringing her 27 years of WNBA experience with her, but will also lean on her global experience with the game.
“I know what it’s like to go to a different country and have success there,” Brondello said. “Being an ambassador, I take that very seriously. I want to promote the Tempo, but also the WNBA, because basketball is truly a global game.”