Toronto Tempo general manager Monica Wright Rogers whittled down the wide net she cast in July for a head coach to a list of finalists in September. The former player desired a person with extensive knowledge of the league, knowing the turnaround was tight. She wanted a coach who could attract premier free agents, understanding the chaos about to be unleashed in a monumental offseason.
“Then something happened in New York,” Rogers said. “We were able to have a crack at one of the best coaches in WNBA history and I took a swing.”
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The Tempo officially introduced two-time WNBA champion Sandy Brondello as the first head coach in franchise history on Tuesday, exactly six weeks after the New York Liberty declined to renew her contract, one year removed from the first WNBA championship in team history.
It is a franchise-defining opportunity that fell into Toronto’s lap and a place where Brondello can seal her legacy. They’re inclusive of each other, a harmony no one knew could happen until everything fit just right.
Sandy Brondello and Monica Wright Rogers during Tuesday’s press conference. (Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
(Nick Lachance via Getty Images)
“Obviously, you would be unwise not to try and land her,” Rogers said. “We just put our best foot forward, and we were ourselves. And I think being ourselves, that aligned with Sandy’s core values, and just made a perfect fit.”
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The Tempo carry the weight of an entire nation as Canada’s team, the only one of six expansion teams entering the league by 2030 that will play outside the U.S. They needed a calculated splash that garners attention while projecting wins. Brondello checks both boxes as an established winner with an engaging personality.
Entering the unknown landscape, the Tempo set themselves up for immediate success with this one hire. Because, as Brondello made sure to mention twice, most of the league will be free agents when the period opens (whenever, or if, it does in 2026).
“Yes, the expansion [draft] is there, but there’s also, with the CBA, there’s a lot of free agents as well, and that’s exciting,” Brondello said. “So we have an opportunity to bring in the right players and we’re excited about that.”
Rogers wanted a coach who could attract free agents to “take advantage of the space that we’re in right now as a franchise,” she said. Brondello is the best of the available bunch as a 21-year coaching veteran of the league, with an almost unparalleled base of knowledge and relationships. The Portland Fire do not have that asset with their new coach Alex Sarama, a longtime NBA assistant more likely to need time learning the league’s players, the way Becky Hammon’s new assistants did in Las Vegas.
Elite players want to play for a coach of Brondello’s caliber, and will be more likely to prioritize that above any cons they feel about a brand-new franchise. Her relationships extend widely from her time as a player — she was drafted in 1998 — to an assistant and head coach.
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She crossed paths with Rogers, a two-time champion with the Minnesota Lynx, as an assistant in Los Angeles. In Phoenix, she coached Diana Taurasi, DeWanna Bonner, Penny Taylor, Brittney Griner, Alanna Smith and Sophie Cunningham. Her All-Star-studded superteam in New York consisted of league MVPs Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart and Emma Meesseman; and All-Star guards Sabrina Ionescu and Natasha Cloud.
Those New York players vouched heavily for her in the aftermath of their first-round WNBA playoff loss, one of many signals Brondello is the “player’s coach” she described on Tuesday. That is, after she tapped into a subtext that has trailed her since the split with New York, when asked what kind of coach she is.
“A pretty good one, I think,” Brondello quipped.
The crush of new fans to a league entering its 30th year expunged a broader historical context that swept up Brondello in recent years. Insinuations that the game passed her by didn’t help. She is one of two head coaches in league history to win WNBA championships with different teams. Brian Agler won in Seattle (2010) and Los Angeles (2016). Four coaches have won more titles than Brondello.
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There’s a chance in Toronto to cement what she’s built, a nod she made herself regarding the pressure of having reached the playoffs every year as a head coach. She’s 281-181 in the head chair with four seasons below .500.
“The legacy component is to be a high-performing team and be a world-class franchise; I think that’s legacy,” Brondello said. “And hopefully you bring championships. I’ve won two; it’d be great to win the third one with three different organizations. I think that’s the goal.”
As for the absent piece of a defining day, the Liberty are the only team actively without a head coach. General manager Jonathan Kolb said last month that while Brondello will live in Liberty lore, she was not the coach of the future.
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“We need to nail this,” Kolb said of the coaching search.
Toronto, in taking their championship head coach, did.
