Liberty fire head coach Chris DeMarco after one | College News
The New York Liberty have fired Chris DeMarco after just one season as head coach, the staff announced Tuesday.
DeMarco, who had no prior WNBA expertise, led the Liberty through a rocky season that included a Commissioner’s Cup win in June before ultimately ending 26-18 and incomes the No. 8 seed for the playoffs. The staff swept the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx 2-0 in the first spherical, turning into the first No. 8 seed to get rid of a No. 1 seed in league historical past.
But the Liberty have been then swept 3-0 by the Atlanta Dream in the semifinals. The collection included a huge Game 2 mistake by the Liberty teaching employees of not understanding they’d a reset timeout left to use in the ultimate seconds of the 101-98 loss.
After the Liberty have been eradicated, DeMarco said he anticipated to return for the 2027 season. Instead, the franchise will probably be wanting for its third head coach in three years. This will also be Liberty common supervisor Jonathan Kolb‘s fourth coaching search since 2019.
DeMarco was named coach of the Liberty in December, after the franchise chose not to renew former coach Sandy Brondello‘s contract for the 2026 season. A former WNBA player as well as longtime coach of the Phoenix Mercury, Brondello’s four-year tenure with New York included main the staff to its first ever WNBA championship in 2024.
A former assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors, DeMarco arrived to New York with 14 years of NBA expertise as nicely as having served as the coach of the Bahamas males’s national staff from 2019 to 2025. When requested during his introductory news convention in December about how he was making ready to coach girls for the first time in his profession, DeMarco said he had “ordered every book on the New York Liberty you can find online.”
Following their remaining loss to Atlanta, Liberty stars Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones didn’t have a lot to say concerning DeMarco’s future with the franchise other than it wasn’t their resolution.
But Stewart, who helped carry the staff for a lot of its injury-laden season, said then that she “1000%” believed the staff has the expertise to win a championship and described the season as “a missed opportunity.”
“Of course we want to win a championship every single time we step on the court, but it’s really hard in this league,” Stewart said. “And in order to do that, you need to be consistent for the full 44 games … and I don’t think that we were consistent throughout the season. … This is not like cramming for a test, you got to be ready to go since the jump.”
The Liberty’s teaching emptiness is the second in the WNBA after the season. The Sparks fired second-year coach Lynn Roberts after the conclusion of the common season in September.
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