Liberty Coach Seeks Olympic Gem For Opals

For New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello, “seafoam season” has given way to an Opal Olympics obsession.

The WNBA’s All-Star/Olympic break is anything but a vacation for Brondello: shortly after her seafoam savants wrapped the W’s first half on a high note, she immediately switched gears to being the top woman for a land Down Under, as she’s set to lead Australia’s women’s national basketball team into the Olympic Games in Paris.

Commonly referred to as the Opals, the Australian women tip-off Group B play in the wee hours of Monday morning against Nigeria (5 a.m. ET, Peacock).

Gathered with the New York media one last time before takeoff, Brondello joked that returning among her fellow countrywomen would give her a chance to go for the hypothetical gold in the speed speaking competition.

“I think I can just talk all my slang, Australian slang, talking 100 miles a minute,” Brondello said with a smirk before her Liberty downed Connecticut on July 16.

Brondello has authored a good bit of Australian national team history, earning three medals in four Olympic appearances. Better known to American audiences for head coaching endeavors (233 wins and a 2014 WNBA title in Phoenix as top woman), Brondello is one of the most accomplished Australian players of all-time and eventually played her success in Oceania into a relatively brief yet fruitful WNBA playing career (1998-2003, including an All-Star bid with the Detroit Shock in 1999).

While Brondello acknowledged that the American group starring Liberty proteges Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart will be the “overwhelming favorite,” she was proud of the squad she assembled with Australian brass: Seattle Storm star Ezi Magbegor is one of six WNBA participants, along with Alanna Smith (Minnesota) and former New Yorker Sami Whitcomb (Seattle). Dual-continent legend Lauren Jackson, a seven-time MVP between the WNBA and Australia’s WNBL, will partake in her fifth Olympics and first since 2012 at the age of 43.

“For us, I’ve think we’ve picked a pretty good team,” Brondello remarked. “We’ve a great bit of versatility … I’m excited to get to the team. We’ll lean into the experiences that we’ve had over the years. The game keeps getting better and better. Whoever plays the best is going to win that (gold) medal but we certainly want to make sure we’re on that podium.”

The 2024 season could become defined by redemption for Brondello-led squads: the prelude to the Liberty’s quest back to the WNBA Finals after last season’s heartbreaker against Las Vegas has been long-written but the Opals have their own brand of absolution to look forward to.

Australia’s last Olympic affair didn’t go well, as an eighth-place finish in the 2021 staging in Tokyo was the program’s worst since making its ringed debut at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. The Opals took on another hit mere days before the Opening Ceremony when another Liberty alumna, Rebecca Allen (Phoenix), endured a hamstring injury that ended her medal dreams.

Brondello acknowledged the pressure facing her second tour as Olympic leader and remarked that the established “culture” should sustain the group well, as least from a mental standpoint.

“It’s a great honor to coach a country. I played in four Olympic Games so to be able to coach this program, that’s a big responsibility and a huge privilege,” Brondello said. “We have a great sisterhood. We’ll talk about the culture we have on the Opals. It’s the most amazing culture I’ve ever been a part of.”

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