11/03/2026 09:05:00
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11/03 09:03 CST New York Liberty fire coach Chris DeMarco after one
disappointing season
New York Liberty fire coach Chris DeMarco after one disappointing season
By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --- The New York Liberty have fired coach Chris DeMarco after
only one season, the franchise announced Tuesday.
DeMarco came to New York in December after serving for more than a decade as an
assistant with the Golden State Warriors. He had no prior WNBA experience
before guiding the Liberty to the eighth seed in the regular season. After an
impressive first-round playoff sweep over the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx, the
Liberty were ousted by the Atlanta Dream in three games.
The Liberty coaching staff made a crucial mistake in Game 2 of the series not
knowing that they had a reset timeout left in overtime with the team trailing
by three late in that game.
Now New York will be looking for its third coach in three seasons. General
Manager Jonathan Kolb didn't retain Sandy Brondello after the 2025 season.
ESPN first reported DeMarco's departure.
After the final loss to Atlanta, none of the Liberty's three star players ---
Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones --- offered a definitive
vote of confidence of DeMarco.
"Of course, we want to win a championship every single time we step on the
court, but it's really hard in this league, and in order to do that, you need
to be consistent for the full 44 games," Stewart said when asked about DeMarco.
"And I don't think we were consistent throughout the season. I think that we
started to show some life and peak a little bit towards the end and in the
playoffs. But this is not like cramming for a test. You got to be ready and
ready to go since the jump."
Ionescu said DeMarco's future was "not our decision."
"We're thankful for everything that he's done this year," Ionescu said. "Just
focusing on the now, the way he's poured into us and stayed positive,
level-headed through the ups and downs of this season as well that didn't go
the way that he wanted either."
DeMarco was under contract for next season. Now Kolb will lead his fourth
coaching search since 2019.
New York had a disappointing regular season two years removed from winning the
WNBA title. The Liberty finished eighth with a 26-18 record.
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