Birthday Lessons: What Liberty Coach Learned in Eventful Year

New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello turns 56 as the team faces the Dallas Wings at Barclays Center.

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

For a few precious moments, head coach Sandy Brondello ditched the New York Liberty's traditional hues of seafoam for red velvet.

That's one of Brondello's favorite brands of dessert and it was presented to her in cupcake form as the Liberty prepared for Tuesday night's game against the Dallas Wings. Brondello turned 56 on Tuesday, which marked the Liberty's return home to Barclays Center after the WNBA's lengthy Olympic hiatus that produced ample hardware on New York's ledgers.

Brondello got a chance to reflect on an eventful year, one that produced supreme victories, heartbreaking defeats, opportunities of resiliency and reflection and everything in between before Tuesday's game tipped off.

"I learn something new every single year, and I think that's the beauty," a contemplative Brondello said. "Life is a journey. There's going to be highs and lows. It's an opportunity for growth. It doesn't matter how old or young you are, you know, I've learned a ton this year."

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

The return from the Olympic break places Brondello back in Brooklyn, where she looks to complete the recovery from last season's heartbreaking defeat in the WNBA Finals. So far, New York has healed well enough to post the league's best record (24-4) and an active six-game winning streak, the longest active tally on the ledgers.

Brondello recently got a taste of redemption in Paris, where she guided the Australian women's national basketball team to a bronze medal at the Olympics. Getting the Opals back to the podium was one of Brondello's preseason goals after the team failed to get out of group play at the Tokyo Games three years prior. Adversity at the WNBA level has surfaced in the form of several medically-induced absences: Tuesday's game alone saw Sabrina Ionescu (neck) and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (knee) sit out while Leonie Febich (rib) had to leave after 12 minutes.

Yet, New York provided Brondello with a sterling birthday gift: in addition to the 94-74 victory, New York's seventh in a row, three New Yorkers (Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot) registered double-doubles in one game for the second time in franchise history and the 24th time in WNBA history overall.

"Obviously, (the year) faced a lot of adversity, like losing (the Olympics and WNBA Finals) until coming back this season and working it out and (dealing with) injuries and everything like that, being away from my family, that's one too that I have to deal with," Brondello said. "That's always hard, but I feel like I get away teary about that too, but it's a wisdom thing."

"I just feel like I've become a better coach, I've become an even better person," Brondello continued. "I'm not always going to be perfect, so I've learned to always learn. I think I'm a quick learner in that regard. I can hold myself accountable when I've messed up, and that's a part of the journey that we're all on. If we can all stay true to that, we're in pretty good shape, aren't we?"

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

The Liberty are in pretty good shape and then some with the final quarter of the WNBA regular season looming: entering Wednesday play, New York is the only team that has secured a playoff spot and holds a 3.5-game lead over Connecticut for the top seed on the bracket.

Continuing to play hard despite the early clinch has been an obvious tenet for the active Liberty but the celebration prompted a must-win scenario for those who took the floor on Tuesday. Vandersloot said that the team "had to" come out and play hard for the holiday while Stewart was relieved that the team did not have to wait 364 days for another attempt at a Brondello birthday bash.

In the spoiled of victory, metropolitan veterans and newcomers alike praised the impact that Brondello has had upon them.

"I think what makes Sandy special is just the fact that first of all, that she's, she's human," Stewart said. "She knows where a lot of us have been because she's a former player. She knows the feelings on the court, off the court, and just the way to continue to bring a team together, it's it's not easy when you have so many great players on one team. I know that she probably gets the brunt of a lot of negativity sometimes, but she continues to kind of motivate us and make us keep going."

"She's just an overall great human being," first-year Brooklynite Kennedy Burke, she of 13 points on 5-of-7 from the field on Tuesday, lauded. "She's honest with me. There was a time where I was going through a slump and she wanted to talk to me. Ever since then, just having that conversation with her, she's helped a lot because she said that she believed in me, and that flipped the switch in my mind, saying, oh, I can do this, because she believes in me."

With another year under her belt, Brondello returns to action with the Liberty on Thursday when they face a rematch with the Wings at Barclays Center (7 p.m. ET, WWOR).

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