Remember what happened in Game 2 against Atlanta? The Liberty were trailing by three with 4.3 seconds left in overtime. They still had a reset timeout, which would have allowed them to advance the ball and attempt a more organised three-pointer. But they didn’t use it. Even Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko was surprised. “I thought they had a timeout left. I was expecting it to be advanced, but it wasn’t,” he said.

The postgame explanations made the situation even more uncomfortable for New York. Breanna Stewart said the officials had told her the team had no timeout left, while Sabrina Ionescu revealed that she had received conflicting signals from the referees. Ionescu even took responsibility for not being more assertive in seeking clarification. DeMarco, meanwhile, acknowledged that the Liberty should have pushed harder, but offered little beyond saying, “It is what it is.” That difference in how the situation was handled caught ESPN reporter Alexa Philippou’s attention.

“… It felt like someone like Breanna Stewart, in particular, kind of took more of a leadership role in kind of getting the team over the hump than maybe even DeMarco did, especially if we look back to that recent timeout debacle,” Alexa Philippou said while talking with ESPN’s Malika Andrews. “But it was really notable to me after the Liberty did get eliminated and how no one went to bat for Chris DeMarco; none of the players went to bat for him when asked about his future.”

Philippou also pointed to DeMarco’s lack of experience in the women’s game. He had spent 14 seasons with the Golden State Warriors and won four NBA championships, but had never coached in the WNBA before taking the Liberty job. His experience with the Bahamas men’s national team was another part of his coaching background, although the international calendar offered a very different challenge from managing a 44-game WNBA season.

The questions around his leadership were not limited to the timeout incident. In fact, Stewart’s influence appeared to extend beyond what she was doing on the court. After New York’s elimination, The Athletic’s Annie Costabile reported that Stewart was asked whether she had been consulted about DeMarco’s appointment. She paused before a Liberty spokesperson interrupted, telling her, “You don’t have to answer that.” Stewart responded, “Do you want me to?” before choosing not to elaborate.

There was also a considerable difference between DeMarco’s expectations and the team’s eventual assessment of the season. After the semifinal elimination, he said he expected to return in 2027. Stewart, however, made it clear that she intended to share her thoughts with management about the team’s coaching and roster decisions. Ionescu and Jonquel Jones also left the decision to the front office rather than publicly campaigning for DeMarco’s return.

The season itself was more complicated than the final record suggests. New York finished 26-18, down from 27-17 in 2025 and 32-8 during its 2024 championship campaign. However, DeMarco also led the Liberty to their second Commissioner’s Cup title and a historic first-round playoff sweep of Minnesota, becoming the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in WNBA history. The problem was that New York could not sustain that level against Atlanta, which swept the Liberty in the semifinals.

Injuries played a significant part in that inconsistency. The Liberty used 15 different starting lineups during the season, while Sabrina Ionescu missed 13 games with foot and back problems. Offseason addition Satou Sabally managed only 13 appearances before a second concussion in less than nine months ruled her out for the rest of the campaign. Leonie Fiebich also missed time. DeMarco was therefore dealing with a constantly changing rotation, although the inability to establish a reliable identity remained a concern.

Breanna Stewart led the team in scoring, averaging 20.8 points per game, while adding 8.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.3 blocks per game. She also finished fifth in MVP voting and raised her production to 27 points and 6.8 rebounds per game across New York’s five playoff appearances. Her 35-point, 11-rebound, six-assist performance in Game 2 against Atlanta was particularly telling: even one of the best individual performances of the postseason could not prevent the series from slipping away.

But Stewart’s concerns went beyond the team’s offensive production. After elimination, she pointed directly to New York’s defensive identity, saying, “Defense wins championships.” She also noted that Atlanta had three of the league’s leading players in steals and that the Liberty needed to understand their own identity much earlier in the season.

That assessment connects to another detail from The Athletic’s reporting. Only four players from New York’s 2024 championship roster remained in 2026: Stewart, Ionescu, Jones and Fiebich. The franchise had also lost Kayla Thornton and Nyara Sabally through the expansion-draft process. Fiebich pointed to the toughness and chemistry that had helped the 2024 group succeed, explaining that the team had won because “we brought the toughness and we had the talent and we had the team chemistry.”

Atlanta exposed how much that identity had changed. The Dream played a faster, more athletic style, with Angel Reese getting the better of Jones across the series and Atlanta’s backcourt putting pressure on New York’s guards. Notably, the Dream were without leading scorer Allisha Gray for most of the semifinal series. This made the sweep even harder to dismiss as simply a case of facing an opponent at full strength while New York was short-handed.

This is also why Philippou believes the next coaching appointment is so important. Since taking over as general manager in 2019, Jonathan Kolb will be making his fourth head-coaching hire. He previously moved on from Sandy Brondello after the 2025 season, despite her having delivered the franchise’s first WNBA championship in 2024 and taken it to the Finals in 2023.

“Moving forward, this is general manager Jonathan Kolb’s fourth head coach hire in his tenure, and so they have to get this right, and they’re gonna have to maybe take some time with this, maybe look with someone who has a little bit more experience in the women’s game or has more head coaching experience. But you have a limited championship window here. That’s something that really was apparent when Breanna started speaking after that elimination game about she doesn’t want to take anything for granted…,” Philippou added.

The Search Is On For DeMarco’s Successor

When Sandy Brondello was let go last year as the Liberty Head coach, she indicated that perhaps it was the right time to step out of the role.

“I just felt that it probably wasn’t the right fit anymore, to be quite honest,” Brondello said on Sue Bird’s podcast in Oct. 2025.

Brondello’s departure was particularly notable given her achievements in New York. She finished as the winningest coach in franchise history and became the first to lead the Liberty to a WNBA championship. Her comments on Sue Bird’s podcast suggested that the relationship with the organisation had reached a point where continuing was no longer the right fit. The Liberty’s decision to move on from her, followed by DeMarco’s one-season tenure, has now left Kolb searching for another head coach.

The issue facing the next appointment goes beyond maintaining a winning record. Stewart, Ionescu and Jones are all under contract through 2028, giving New York an established core, but the supporting cast and the team’s overall identity need attention. Whoever takes over will have to find a way to make the roster more athletic, rebuild its defensive standards and get more consistent production around Stewart.

Still, it remains one of the most coveted jobs in the WNBA to coach a team that has won two championships this decade, and a few names are doing the rounds for DeMarco’s successor.

One of them is Kristi Toliver, who was linked with the Liberty during their previous coaching search. A former WNBA All-Star, Toliver has two WNBA championships as a player and considerable experience on NBA coaching staffs. She worked as an assistant with the Washington Wizards and Dallas Mavericks before joining the Phoenix Mercury’s coaching staff. Importantly, she is Phoenix’s associate head coach, not its head coach. Her experience in both the WNBA and NBA gives her a credible background for the vacancy, although there has been no confirmed appointment or formal shortlist announced by New York.

Another name that is being floated is Teresa Weatherspoon. She needs no introduction in New York. A Naismith Hall of Famer, she spent eight seasons haunting opposing backcourts en route to two Defensive Player of the Year awards and five All-Star nods.

Her coaching record, however, has had its setbacks. Weatherspoon coached the Chicago Sky in 2024, finishing with a 13-27 record before the franchise parted ways with her after one season. She had previously coached Louisiana Tech and served as a player-development coach and assistant with the New Orleans Pelicans. She has also continued to build her coaching credentials in Unrivaled, where she has been named to lead Vinyl BC for the league’s third season after guiding the club to consecutive playoff appearances. Her history with New York and standing in the women’s game could make her an intriguing possibility, although she has not been confirmed as a Liberty candidate.

There are plenty of other names doing the rounds on social media. However, it’s anybody’s guess at this point who will ultimately get the job. The bigger question for Kolb is whether another coaching change alone can solve the problems that have followed the Liberty since their championship season. The team needs a coach who can establish a clear identity around Stewart, but it also needs the right supporting talent and a roster capable of matching the athleticism of the league’s leading contenders.