{"id":811752,"date":"2026-07-19T07:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T07:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/811752\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T07:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T07:50:19","slug":"wnba-suspends-sandy-brondello-one-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/811752\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Suspends Sandy Brondello One Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arabic version: <a href=\"https:\/\/ozarab.media\/?p=716494\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u0631\u0627\u0628\u0637\u0629 \u062f\u0628\u0644\u064a\u0648 \u0625\u0646 \u0628\u064a \u0625\u064a\u0647 \u062a\u0648\u0642\u0641 \u0645\u062f\u0631\u0628\u0629 \u062a\u0648\u0631\u0648\u0646\u062a\u0648 \u062a\u064a\u0645\u0628\u0648 \u0645\u0628\u0627\u0631\u0627\u0629 \u0648\u0627\u062d\u062f\u0629 \u0628\u0633\u0628\u0628 \u062a\u0639\u0644\u064a\u0642 \u00ab\u0646\u0648\u0639 \u0645\u062d\u0645\u064a\u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sandy Brondello, coach of the Toronto Tempo and the Australian Opals, has been suspended for one game by the WNBA after using an inappropriate comment during a game against the Atlanta Dream.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-07-19\/wnba-suspends-sandy-brondello-for-angel-reese-comment\/106933368\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABC News<\/a>, during the 111-92 loss to the Dream on Saturday AEST the broadcast picked up Brondello addressing officials after Tempo player Nyara Sabally went down with an injury following contact with Angel Reese. Sabally was called for the foul and Brondello could be heard saying Reese was a \u201cprotected species.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The league said: \u201cThe WNBA expects all coaches and team personnel to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and respect that are fundamental to our league.\u201d Brondello posted an apology on social media: \u201cAngel, I\u2019m sorry,\u201d writing she had \u201cused a phrase that I shouldn\u2019t have used, and I take full responsibility for that.\u201d She added: \u201cMy frustration was with the officiating, but my words unfairly put the focus on you.\u201d Brondello also wrote: \u201cI also understand that my words carried an impact beyond what I intended, particularly for black women in our league, and I\u2019m deeply sorry for that.\u201d She said she had \u201cspent my career competing with, coaching and learning from incredible black women\u201d and that she regretted \u201cthat my words caused hurt to a community I respect so deeply.\u201d Brondello concluded: \u201cI have a lot of respect for you as both a player and a person, and I sincerely apologise to you, your teammates, and the Dream organisation for my comment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Angel Reese responded on social media after the game with \u201cARE WE SURPRISED?!\u201d tagging Brondello\u2019s account and adding a clown face emoji. The ABC News report notes the phrase \u201cprotected species\u201d is commonly used in Australian sports to express frustration about a lack of calls against a player, but in the US the phrase can be considered derogatory towards black people. Brondello will miss Tuesday\u2019s AEST game against the Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n<p>Related sections: <a href=\"https:\/\/ozarab.media\/category\/australia-%d8%a7%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia\/\u0627\u0633\u062a\u0631\u0627\u0644\u064a\u0627<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/ozarab.media\/category\/australia-%d8%a7%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7\/south-australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Australia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arabic version: \u0631\u0627\u0628\u0637\u0629 \u062f\u0628\u0644\u064a\u0648 \u0625\u0646 \u0628\u064a \u0625\u064a\u0647 \u062a\u0648\u0642\u0641 \u0645\u062f\u0631\u0628\u0629 \u062a\u0648\u0631\u0648\u0646\u062a\u0648 \u062a\u064a\u0645\u0628\u0648 \u0645\u0628\u0627\u0631\u0627\u0629 \u0648\u0627\u062d\u062f\u0629 \u0628\u0633\u0628\u0628 \u062a\u0639\u0644\u064a\u0642 \u00ab\u0646\u0648\u0639 \u0645\u062d\u0645\u064a\u00bb Sandy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[724,461,49,48,23760,82,946,45963,630],"class_list":["post-811752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-angel-reese","tag-basketball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sandy-brondello","tag-sports","tag-suspension","tag-toronto-tempo","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}