Brondello: From suspension to hunt for Olympic gold

• Sandy Brondello is a celebrated Australian basketball coach and former player
• She's led the Australian Opals and WNBA teams to numerous victories
• Brondello's coaching career spans multiple top-tier teams and international competitions

Toronto Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello won a WNBA championship with the New York Liberty in 2024 and was out of a job almost a year to the day. She is now building the league's first team outside the United States, and she is doing it while still coaching the Australian Opals.

Almost four decades separate the backyard court in Mackay from the bench in Toronto. What follows is the whole of it.

A court in the backyard

Brondello, 57, was born in Mackay, Queensland, on August 20, 1968, the daughter of a sugar cane farmer, and learned the game on a court her father built at home.

She entered the Australian Institute of Sport in 1986 and was named Australian Basketball Player of the Year in 1992.

She played 10 seasons in the WNBL and won the league's Most Valuable Player award in 1995 with the Brisbane Blazers, adding All-Star selections in 1994 and 1995.

Ten years in Germany

From 1992 to 2002 Brondello played for BTV Wuppertal in Germany, winning 10 national championships and the FIBA Women's European Champions Cup in 1995-96.
It is the part of her career Australian audiences saw least and the part that shaped the coach.

"The WNBA turns 30 next year; I've been in it 27 of those years, as a player, assistant, and head coach," she said at her introductory press conference, in comments published by basketball.com.au.

"It's a global game, and I've coached around the world and with my national team. I know what it's like to go to a different country and have success."

A late start in the WNBA

Brondello was 29 when the WNBA drafted her, taken 34th overall by the Detroit Shock in the fourth round in 1998. She averaged 14.2 points in her first season and made the league's first All-Star Game in 1999.

She played five WNBA seasons across three teams, Detroit, the Miami Sol and the Seattle Storm, where she lined up alongside Lauren Jackson and Tully Bevilaqua. She finished with 155 games, 11.4 points a game and a career three-point percentage of .410.

Four Olympics in green and gold

As a player Brondello went to four Olympic Games, in 1988, 1996, 2000 and 2004, and came home with three medals: bronze in Atlanta, then silver in Sydney and Athens. She added World Championship bronze in 1998 and 2002.

She won 302 caps for Australia. Only two Australians have worn the singlet more often.

Learning the trade

Brondello moved into coaching in 2005 as an assistant at the San Antonio Silver Stars, took over as head coach there in 2010 and went 14-20 in a single season in charge. She spent 2011 to 2013 as an assistant with the Los Angeles Sparks.

That is nine years of apprenticeship before a second head coaching job, and it is the least discussed stretch of her career.

Phoenix, and 29-5

Phoenix Mercury hired her ahead of the 2014 season, and that first year made her name. The Mercury went 29-5, a WNBA record for wins in a season at the time, Brondello was named Coach of the Year, and Phoenix swept the Chicago Sky for the championship.

She stayed eight seasons and went 150-108, reaching the Finals again in 2021 before the club parted with her.

The Opals job

Basketball Australia appointed Brondello head coach of the Opals in 2017. She took Australia to silver at the 2018 World Cup in Tenerife, to bronze on home floor in Sydney in 2022, and to bronze at the Paris Olympics in 2024, the country's first Olympic women's basketball medal since 2012.

"I think the best decision that I ever made was to name Tess Madgen as the captain," she told the podcast Cut to the Jase.

"Because of the passion and pride that she takes in wearing the green and gold. My fondest memories are playing for Australia, hands down, with the highs and the lows, and she just lives and breathes it."

The Paris campaign was not built on preparation.

"Really I mean before Paris, no one knows this but, we had one five-on-five practice because everyone was injured," she said.

New York, and a record 25 years old

The Liberty hired Brondello in January 2022. They missed the playoffs in her first season, reached the Finals in 2023, and won the franchise's first championship in 2024, beating the Minnesota Lynx 3-2.

In August of her final season she recorded her 101st win as Liberty head coach and passed Richie Adubato as the winningest coach in the club's history, a mark that had stood for 25 years.

"Who would have thought a sugar cane father's daughter could now be leading a New York team," she told basketball.com.au.

"I was just happy we beat LA and not the record. I am sure it will mean more when I retire."

Out at the Liberty

New York started their 2025 title defence 9-0. Then Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones missed a combined 13 games, Sabrina Ionescu missed six and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton missed the season. The Liberty finished 27-17, fifth in the East, and lost a first-round series to Phoenix.

Asked at the post-game press conference whether Brondello should still be coaching the team in 2026, Stewart's first response was unprintable.

"To anybody that questions Sandy being here, this is a resilient group, and she has our back and we have hers," Stewart said.

"The way she dealt with the cards she was dealt was incredible."

Her contract was not renewed. She left 107-53 across four seasons, with a title, a Finals appearance and a Commissioner's Cup.

"Sandy finishes her tenure in New York as the winningest coach in franchise history, and she took us to never-before-seen heights as the first head coach to lead the Liberty to a championship," general manager Jonathan Kolb said in a statement.

Building Toronto from nothing

A month later the Toronto Tempo named her their first head coach. The franchise was awarded in May 2024, is owned by Kilmer Sports Ventures with Serena Williams among the co-owners, plays at Coca-Cola Coliseum and is the first WNBA team based outside the United States.

When she took the job there were no players on the roster.

"This is the place I wanted to be," Brondello said. "I had interest from a few teams, took my time, wanted the right fit."

"Being able to build from the beginning, team, culture, legacy, really intrigued me."

"The goal is to bring a championship to Toronto. I like winning, it's fun, and I know it's hard."

The hardest week

On Saturday, July 18, 2026, in a 111-92 loss to the Atlanta Dream, Tempo forward Nyara Sabally went down after contact with Angel Reese. Protesting to officials, Brondello said "Angel, she's a protected species", and courtside microphones picked it up. The WNBA suspended her without pay for one game.

"Angel, I'm sorry. Last night, in the emotion of the moment after Nyara's injury, I used a phrase that I shouldn't have used, and I take full responsibility for that," she said in an apology.

"I also understand that my words carried an impact beyond what I intended, particularly for Black women in our league, and I'm deeply sorry for that."

Speaking later, close to tears, she added: "I did make a mistake, and I'll try and keep my Australian thing, Australianisms, I suppose, out, but it was never meant to be personal. So I am truly sorry."

Reese said she appreciated it.

"I appreciate Sandy's apology, but I also appreciate the love and support that I have had for the last 48 hours," Reese said.

"There's no place for discrimination or hate in this league from anyone, from fans to coaches to players."

Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon backed her on the day she served the suspension.

"I just gave her a big hug when I saw her," Hammon said.

"I know that's not where her heart is. I know her as a very, very high-quality person."

Basketball Australia declined to comment.

Still the Opals coach

None of it touched the national team job. Brondello re-signed with the Opals through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and Paul Goriss was appointed associate head coach to run the program when she has WNBA commitments.

"Coaching the Australian Opals is an honour, I never take the responsibility lightly," she said.

"Having represented at six Olympics as a player and now coach, the Opals is such a big part of my life and one that I am most proud of."

Four as a player and two as a coach make six. Los Angeles will be her seventh Olympic Games and her third in charge.

"It's a new campaign now, it's the road to LA," she said at the Opals' first camp of the cycle.

"The last four years have been good but it's now how do we get that elusive gold medal."

A passion for the WNBL

Brondello has been vocal about what the WNBL needs to grow, using the WNBA's own expansion as the reference point.

"I think our (WNBL) players should be more household names and that's a passion of mine," she said.

"It starts with the clubs and investment from above, and commitment to excellence, it takes everybody."

"Number one, you need deep pockets, and you need a commitment."

She scouts it in person, courtside at an Adelaide Lightning game in November 2025, days after the Toronto appointment.

"Obviously I've got my Opals hat on here," she said. "A few years ago we didn't really have too many point guards, and now we have an abundance."

What the record says

Brondello has coached 13 seasons as a WNBA head coach for 271 wins and 181 losses, a 60 per cent win rate, with championships at Phoenix in 2014 and New York in 2024 and Coach of the Year in 2014. She has coached three WNBA All-Star Games, in 2015, 2018 and 2025, and won the Commissioner's Cup in 2023.

She was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Brondello turns 58 on August 20, with an expansion team to build and a fourth Olympic cycle to run.