Effective this morning, New York Liberty HC Chris DeMarco is now just Chris DeMarco. The Liberty front office relieved him of his duties as the sun came up on the East Coast. DeMarco was hired last offseason to replace current Tempo HC Sandy Brondello, whose contract was not renewed shortly after New York was beaten in the playoffs by the Mercury in Round 1.
Now, after the Liberty were swept by the Atlanta Dream in Round 2 this year, DeMarco meets the same fate. The decision isn't totally out of the blue. Despite making it farther in the postseason than Brondello did in her last year, DeMarco didn't become popular with the fanbase whatsoever—at some games, they would actually boo him during intros.
Then there's the questionable rotations he would throw out in-game, the mismanagement of Breanna Stewart and her minutes/her lack of rest, and his timidness during post- and pre-game pressers. That timidness also had a knack for showing itself on the court, as he would always wait for the coach opposite him to make the first sub during games.
And of course, the reset timeout thing. The less said about that incident, the better.
Add all that up, and you have a coach who may have won a fair bit, but did himself no concrete favors when concerning his job security. Obviously, with major hindsight in play, we can all now with confidence say that letting go of Brondello AND hiring DeMarco in her place was a very bad decision.
However, his hiring only highlighted the poor judgment in that decision. Take DeMarco's hiring out of it—getting rid of a coach who had proven they could win a title in your organization not even 12 months after doing so was... interesting, to say the least.
GM Jonathan Kolb stated that the Liberty aren't a "results-based organization" and that they wanted to "keep up with the league as it changes". Last April, Kolb expressed that New York fans "must be patient with the process" when referring to DeMarco's hiring.
Let's break those three statements down, shall we?
Sure, the Liberty may not be a " results-based organization," but they are after titles. Coach Brondello was the coach who brought the Liberty their first, and so far only, title. The players were all behind her—when asked about her potentially not being there in 2026, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu (who had Brondello in the middle) defended her honor valiantly. They hardly did the same for Coach DeMarco.
As for keeping up with the league, the Liberty had made plenty of player moves in order to keep up. Brondello had won two titles in two different eras of the sport: 2013 and 2024. She obviously had her flaws—every coach does—but there was zero issue regarding Brondello and her following those two guidelines, and yet she was shown the door anyway.
Then, after telling the world to express patience with Coach DeMarco, Kolb fires him after one year.
Again, he did himself zero favors, but New York wasn't a total fire sale this year—they did knock off the #1 seed and win the Commissioner's Cup. That probably could've been leveraged as part of the process Kolb talked about. Instead, Kolb changed his mind and sent him packing, too.
With all that said, now it's time to ask this question: What exactly is the plan?
Kolb wanted to keep up with the changing league and win titles while doing so. He had a coach who did it—Brondello oversaw two Finals teams, with one being, of course, the '24 team that won it all. Evidently, that didn't fit the bill.
He changed the tune—time to be patient with Coach DeMarco. Let him work out the growing pains of learning to rotate, what lineups work best, and work through the tentativeness. Even if the fans don't like it, we've gotta be patient. That was Kolb's MO.
Then, even after sweeping the #1 seed and winning the in-season tourney, Kolb sided with the rest of the fanbase and decided the growing pains were too painful. Again, that's fine. It's just extremely questionable when you not only expressed patience with him, but also got rid of your only championship head coach in team history when the players didn't believe she should go to get him.
Now, you're back at square one. What exactly is the plan? Who fits this head-coaching mold that the Liberty seeks out, and would they come over to New York? Whatever the answers are, New York is obliged to figure it out. That's what keeping up with the league is, after all.
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