The New York Liberty have fired coach Chris DeMarco after just one season, the franchise introduced Tuesday.
DeMarco got here to New York in December after serving for greater than a decade as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors. He had no prior WNBA expertise earlier than guiding the Liberty to the eighth seed within the common season. After a formidable first-round playoff sweep over the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx, the Liberty have been ousted by the Atlanta Dream in three video games.
The Liberty teaching employees made an important mistake in Sport 2 of the collection not realizing that that they had a reset timeout left in extra time with the workforce trailing by three late in that sport.
Now New York might be on the lookout for its third coach in three seasons. Common Supervisor Jonathan Kolb did not retain Sandy Brondello after the 2025 season.
ESPN first reported DeMarco’s departure.
After the ultimate loss to Atlanta, not one of the Liberty’s three star gamers — Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones — provided a definitive vote of confidence of DeMarco.
“After all, we wish to win a championship each single time we step on the courtroom, nevertheless it’s actually onerous on this league, and with a view to do this, it is advisable to be constant for the complete 44 video games,” Stewart stated when requested about DeMarco. “And I don’t suppose we have been constant all through the season. I believe that we began to indicate some life and peak a bit of bit in direction of the tip and within the playoffs. However this isn’t like cramming for a check. You bought to be prepared and able to go because the leap.”
Ionescu stated DeMarco’s future was “not our determination.”
“We’re grateful for every part that he’s completed this 12 months,” Ionescu stated. “Simply specializing in the now, the way in which he’s poured into us and stayed constructive, level-headed via the ups and downs of this season as nicely that didn’t go the way in which that he needed both.”
DeMarco was underneath contract for subsequent season. Now Kolb will lead his fourth teaching search since 2019.
New York had a disappointing common season two years faraway from successful the WNBA title. The Liberty completed eighth with a 26-18 report.
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