Liberty Coach Sandy Brondello Jokes About Viral In-Game Collision With Jonquel Jones
With their 76-62 win over the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday, the New York Liberty have advanced to their second consecutive WNBA Finals.
The Liberty have got to be feeling good after this win. Not only did they produce one of their best defensive performances of the season against the two-time defending champions, but they eliminated the same team that kept them from winning a WNBA title just one season ago.
Then again, if someone on the Liberty has a reason to not be feeling good (physically speaking), it's New York head coach Sandy Brondello.
At one point in Sunday's game, Liberty forward Jonquel Jones — who is listed as 6'6", 215 pounds — went sprawling to the floor after trying to save a ball from going out of bounds.
After briefly showing frustration that a foul was not called, she got up and began running back down on defense. But she only got a few steps before she collided with Brondello, who was spectating the action along the sidelines.
This collision sent both Brondello — who was listed as 5'7", 136 pounds during her WNBA playing days — and Jones to the ground.
It took both women a few seconds to get up, and Brondello was offered help up from Aces coach Becky Hammon. Luckily, Jones and Brondello each got up with a smile and appeared all right.
Jonquel Jones and Sandy Brondello wiped each other out on accident 😭 #WNBA pic.twitter.com/92W0PhIaBy
— Tyler DeLuca (@TylerDeLuca) October 6, 2024
Brondello was asked about how she was feeling after the game by media.
"Jumped right back up didn't I? Still got it," Brondello responded per SNY, which had the media room laughing. "I'm a little bit embarrassed, to be quite honest. I was like, 'Oh god, do I dance? What do I do here?' But I was like 'Yeah, no. Nothing happened. We're good. No problem.'
"I'm good, no problem," Brondello concluded.
Sandy Brondello was asked about her collision with Jonquel Jones during the game:
— New York Liberty Videos (@SNYLiberty) October 6, 2024
"Jumped right back up didn't I? Still got it." 😂 pic.twitter.com/lspGj3xXUH
It's good to see Brondello can joke about what could have been a scary collision. Getting a win has got to help matters.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.