{"id":814287,"date":"2026-07-20T14:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/814287\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T14:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:19:08","slug":"wnba-suspends-sandy-brondello-for-angel-reese-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/814287\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Suspends Sandy Brondello For Angel Reese Comment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The WNBA handed Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello a one-game unpaid suspension Saturday following an \u2018inappropriate comment\u2019 aimed at Atlanta Dream star Angel Reese.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/49394560\/tempo-brondello-suspended-one-game-angel-reese-comment\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported <\/a>that the incident stems from Friday\u2019s Tempo-Dream matchup,, The broadcast mics captured Brondello protesting a foul on an injured Nyara Sabally by appearing to label Reese a \u2018protected species\u2019 to the referees.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bFollowing the game, Reese <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Reese10Angel\/status\/2078314121850659258\" rel=\"nofollow\">posted to X<\/a> (formerly Twitter) \u201cARE WE SURPRISED?! @SBrondello\u201d with a clown face emoji.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bNative to Australia, where she has coached the national team since 2017, Brondello was using common Aussie sports slang. Multiple Australian sources told ESPN that \u2018protected species\u2019 is an idiom used to describe a player who seems immune to calls or gets preferential treatment from officials.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bIn an American context, however, language framing Black people as non-human carries a deep, derogatory historical weight.<\/p>\n<p>BRONDELLO APOLOGIZED TO REESE<\/p>\n<p>\u200bIn a social media post, Brondello apologized to Reese, saying she takes \u201cfull responsibility\u201d for her remarks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngel, I\u2019m sorry,\u201d Brondello\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SBrondello\/status\/2078509201530176000?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">post read<\/a>. \u201cLast night, in the emotion of the moment after Nyara\u2019s injury, I used a phrase that I shouldn\u2019t have used, and I take full responsibility for that. My frustration was with the officiating, but my words unfairly put the focus on you.<\/p>\n<p>\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. I\u2019ve spent my career competing with, coaching and learning from incredible Black women.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI regret that my words caused hurt to a community I respect so deeply. I have a lot of respect for you as both a player and a person, and I sincerely apologize to you, your teammates, and the Dream organization for my comment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the WNBA said that Brondello will serve her suspension on Monday when Toronto hosts the Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n<p>\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 statement read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA handed Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello a one-game unpaid suspension Saturday following an \u2018inappropriate comment\u2019 aimed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[724,49,48,23760,82,45963,630],"class_list":["post-814287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-angel-reese","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sandy-brondello","tag-sports","tag-toronto-tempo","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814287","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=814287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}