- 27 minutes ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:02what's up everybody welcome back to another edition of liberty lately dexter henry alongside
00:07our fantastic women's sports reporter for the new york post the one and only madeline kenny
00:12manny busy day busy day it is election day but this has nothing to do an election the liberty
00:18have made a change at head coach they have fired chris demarco how are you doing before we get
00:25into things i'm good i'm good i was on my way to the gym this morning when the news broke
00:32and
00:32obviously came home wrote up some stories and stuff and called called up some people to try to
00:38get some more information and yeah coaching search second year in a row let's get let's let's get it
00:45going well all season's got a whole lot more interesting it's liberty now looking for another
00:50coach as maddie just said uh maddie liberty moving on from chris demarco after one season
00:56based on your reporting thus far what you've been able to do what drove this decision and do you
01:03think the liberty made the right call here i think that there was time they after the season took some
01:09time to decompress um to make sure that they were thinking everything through uh can't act off of pure
01:16emotions but let's just say that that press conference with what you know brianna sabrina jj
01:24not outwardly uh giving that that that press conference felt like the kiss of death in a lot
01:29of ways right like nobody went really hard or went to bat you had sabrina giving the pr answers of
01:36like
01:36we're thankful for everything he did this last year uh even in the scrums outside the locker room it was
01:42a
01:42lot of the same sentiment and so it just kind of felt like this didn't work and that the franchise
01:48was going to go have to go in a new direction um obviously jonathan cole he said a year ago
01:55that they
01:56had to nail this hire uh firing a coach a year after they win a championship is a major decision
02:03um i'm not
02:04gonna say it was the wrong decision at the time i think that there was a little breakdown um between
02:11the communication and between colb and sandy and like i i understand why it happened right like
02:17we're not we're not gonna go all the way back in time to talk about that um but i think
02:22this was
02:24hire that he had to hit a home run on and yeah they won the commissioner's cup you know how
02:30i feel
02:30about the commissioner's cup they finished eighth they are just one win less than a year ago
02:37um but finish eighth that kind of speaks to the parody of the league and how much more balanced
02:42the league is with it being expanded and everything but yeah i mean any any time that
02:46you have brianna stewart on your roster you need to be contending for championships and this team
02:51other than maybe a few glimpses never felt like it had that it it factor that like punch that wow
02:58you know that you like this team looks like it's a formidable team and i know we talked about that
03:02first round series against the links and like where has this team been links were unraveling
03:07you know again hindsight's always 2020 and so i think um i'm not surprised that this this is this
03:14happened and you know colb he's still the gm so he'll be the one that will be most likely leading
03:23this this coaching search and again we're gonna say the same thing we said a year ago you got to
03:27get
03:27this right okay before we get to the jonathan kobe of it all because i i do want to get
03:33to that i
03:34think we also have to talk about the timing here this comes on election day news breaks at about eight
03:40in the morning all right i know you said they took some time to look at this but this
03:47the timing feels i'm trying to be diplomatic strategic interesting i was trying to avoid using
03:53the word interesting very strategic almost as if uh they wanted it to be buried they didn't want
04:00this to be a big deal now there's people in the fan base fans i've talked to who wanted to
04:05see this
04:06happen people who were on the fence i know we think teams want to be thorough with their decision but
04:12i find it hard to believe even if you want to be thorough that if you knew after when the
04:16season
04:16ended and losing to atlanta that if this wasn't the right choice you needed to move into a different
04:21direction that you wouldn't have made this decision earlier what what do you make of the timing of all
04:27of this and this coming out today on election day it's like the oldest pr trick in the book right
04:32dumps friday news dump election day news dump uh but but but i mean look like i think
04:40it was something that again needed to to be done um it you got to listen to your star players
04:48like
04:49the face of the franchises um and so yeah i think it it i don't know maybe intentional is a
04:56little too
04:56strong of the word but it does seem intentional so it you know yeah the thing too i want to
05:03say is that
05:04like there isn't it's totally different than a year ago right there was so many more coaching vacancies
05:09that the liberty were competing with you know potential candidates for uh the only other coaching
05:16vacancy is la right and so um maybe you don't feel that sense of urgency that you have to make
05:23a rush
05:24or push and i know that obviously last year they didn't really feel a sense of urgency as well because
05:28they took so much time to have such a thorough coaching search um and i'm sure we'll have another
05:35one of those thorough coaching search maybe we'll be lucky enough to get a liberty unlocked episode uh
05:40giving us a behind the scenes of what's going into it but uh i just think yeah i think that
05:48that also
05:48played a factor into it the fact that there's only one other coaching vacancy that you're kind of
05:52competing with up against no it's it's it's a good point there maddie and and now i kind of want
05:58to get
05:58into the jonathan kolb of it all because we understand that he is a architect of a championship winning
06:04team back in 2024 you just mentioned that he chose krista marco to replace sandy brondello and said
06:11that he had to get this right so the first part of the discussion i'd like to say is how
06:18much
06:18responsibility does he bear for this outcome and i also want to ask what he needs to do differently in
06:25the search but i do think a fair question to ask is should he even be leading this search i
06:31don't think
06:32that is an unfair thing to ask considering that he did not get the last coaching hire right and moved
06:38on from a championship winning coach and said that he needs to get it right so if we're talking
06:42accountability should he even be leading the church yeah you know this is his fourth coaching hire in
06:50like seven years um or maybe eight years uh math is not my strong suit off the top of my
06:55head but but
06:56you don't hear a lot of gms get that many coaching hires in such a small window except so except
07:04i
07:04don't mean to cut you off except under the same ownership group man who's running the brooklyn nets
07:09has had that same kind of chance to just just want to put that out there yeah so i mean
07:14look like the
07:15size have a lot of loyalty to their executives so um maybe not so much for their coaches but i
07:22do think
07:23that uh you know if cole was leading this search which all signs point to that that's the situation
07:30that's happening it'd be great if we could talk to him um before or at some point just about this
07:35decision um but you know i think that you can't run it the same way you ran it a year
07:43ago right there
07:44was such an emphasis on like this this coach needed to have an nba background they have to come from
07:49that
07:49that tree and i think you know we've seen a lot of coaches who were successful this season that came
07:57from the college ranks and so and maybe didn't have nba background you know look at what jose
08:02fernandez did in his first year with the dallas wings carl smesco second year with um the atlanta
08:07dream they went to the finals and so i think that the whole thinking that you have to poach a
08:13coach
08:13from the nba is doesn't it's this this this whole experiment kind of showed that that's not a
08:21guarantee success and so um i think that your approach you cast a wide net you go after uh some
08:29of the obvious coaching candidates out there um a lindsey harding is somebody that you know a name
08:34that's constantly come up in circles uh christy tolliver was a finalist yeah last year do you circle back on
08:39that um you know maybe but also do you if you're christy do you do you want that you know
08:46do you
08:46want to be back in the mix um it just kind of depends on like the person right uh i
08:52don't want
08:52to speak for anyone obviously and so i think that that's the big thing is like you got to cast
08:57a wide
08:57net you got to talk to a bunch of coaches from different backgrounds and um kind of go from there
09:02and i think claire woo uh needs to be like you know take a very hard critical look at the
09:10franchise
09:11and the past few years and talk to your stars talk to to people around the organization get a clear
09:17sense of where the where they want to go right like what do you want this identity to be um
09:22everyone
09:23needs to be on the same page feels like there wasn't everyone on the same page at times and the
09:28other
09:28thing brianna stewart's got to be in these rooms you've got to be roping your star players um jj should
09:35be knowing who the candidate is and like getting to know them sabrina should get her should pick the
09:41brain of whoever you know like you've got to loop your star players in because that's where the buy-in
09:46starts right and so i think those are some lessons that could be learned over you know all of last
09:53year
09:54so as i was listening to you to say that one of the things i thought about maddie is that
09:58when
09:59people who might be interested in the job are looking at this job would they have any pause
10:05or cause for pause i should say considering that okay this is a another head coach with this
10:11organization they just they got rid of a championship winning head coach they then hired
10:15christo marco now he's gone is they might come in and i think a fair question for them to ask
10:20in
10:20the interview is what stability look like around here and i don't think that is wrong for them to
10:26ask one thing i want to add on the jonathan kolb of it all that i think needs to be
10:30said especially
10:31how this news came out and that at the time of us is recording this there has not been any
10:37announced
10:38media availability for jonathan kolb to talk to the press uh including myself and maddie i think that
10:45needs to happen i think considering the fact that jonathan kolb came out last year
10:49and said that he needed to nail this hire i think it's fair for us in the media and i
10:53think fans
10:54should want to know why did you get this wrong what was wrong about the search what are you looking
10:59for in the next head coach why should fans in the organization trust you to lead this search
11:06considering you got this wrong what are you going to change in terms of your team building and i
11:12believe in accountability and i think sometimes you have to stand up and face the music it is part of
11:17the job it is part of our job as journalists to ask the tough questions and it's part of the
11:22job of
11:22people who are leading organizations teams coaches even players to sometimes have to answer those tough
11:27questions and i think if the liberty go most of this offseason and we do not hear from jonathan kolb
11:34until the new head coach is announced whoever that would be i think that is a disservice to not just
11:40for
11:40what we do but also to the fans i think the fans deserve to hear on this and there should
11:45be accountability
11:46and i'm only saying this because jonathan kolb himself said he had to get this right all right
11:53well you didn't get it right i'm not saying this is the end of the world i'm not even saying
11:56the man
11:57should lose his job i'm just saying i want to hear what accountability sounds like for that
12:02and so i i wonder if we will get to see that happen but we haven't even received a press
12:08release
12:08from the liberty about this i would even are yay exactly i would even argue that
12:15bands deserved answers within a week or two of the season ending you know we're reaching a month
12:21a month since the the liberty were swept at the semi-finals and there are so many things that need
12:27to be answered for you know the whole benijah situation everything that went down with that
12:32saw too softly there's so many questions and marks question marks around you know it will she play next
12:37season um is she okay you know like just basic things that um the gm is one of those people
12:45that
12:46should have to answer for some of those things and obviously the the season at large you know like
12:52what did he think about the roster construction what what did he what what holes did he realize like
12:58over the course of the year or some deficiencies maybe that they need to shore up uh what went
13:03wrong with chris what you know that that's a little question obviously but but you know what i mean like
13:08there's so many different things that as the gm you are in a position of power their fans should want
13:18transparency from their organization you should want your organization to run like the knicks run um which
13:24you know means not answering questions uh evading media and just trusting that fans are going to continue
13:33to buy in and you know fans like season tickets are getting expensive the price of just going to a
13:39game
13:39is expensive you know buying concessions and stuff like living in generals expensive um but so if i'm a fan
13:47and i'm spending my hard-earned money to support this team like i i want to know what the direction
13:52is
13:53i want to know what the the plan is yeah and transit i just want to be clear that transparency
13:59because i agree that's the perfect word you use there maddie transparency is not going to be somebody
14:03might say well hey dex and maddie when they hired the new head coach you know jonathan cobe will talk
14:09then yeah but i can tell you and i'm sure maddie will agree with me on this that how that
14:14is likely
14:14going to play out and that'll be oh we're moving the page this is a new chapter in liberty history
14:19and there'll be the pr spin around that that's not transparency like transparency is exactly what
14:24maddie talked about in the fact that a couple you know within a couple of weeks maybe a week after
14:29the season ended you can have your gm talk to the media address the media overview what went with
14:35the season what you're looking for into the off season i think that will be fine i i know we
14:40i know
14:40and i'm sure maddie be one of the people that will ask the tough questions that need to be asked
14:44whenever that press process comes but i do agree with you fans deserve that transparency
14:49and they deserve to hear that from jonathan cobe so if there's if that transparency is not given
14:56i would say that this is an embarrassing situation because organizations should have that transparency
15:02and you know it's our job in media and as journalists to shine light to the truth and not saying
15:08that we're
15:08uncovering some untruth here but got to call it as it is there should be transparency and i don't think
15:14there's anything wrong with that but we could talk about that all day uh what kind of head coach
15:19should deliberately be looking for here because you mentioned the experiment of trying to hire nba
15:24coach that seemed to be to use an old term all the jazz recently in the last couple of years
15:30that
15:31wmba teams were going for should it be another first time head coach should it be somebody with
15:35experience and i will also add particularly around women's basketball what kind of head coach should
15:40they be going for here maddie yeah i think you need to prioritize experience um because again like
15:46this head coach is coming into a high pressure situation uh brianna stewart played like at an
15:51mvp caliber last season um finished with in the top five i think she was top three in mvp voting
15:59if i
15:59remember correctly yeah top three um and so you need somebody that can handle that that has that
16:05experience you need somebody that is good with player development that can establish a defensive
16:09identity that was something that this team uh struggled with and yeah injuries obviously play a part
16:15with that but um you know that was something that you know they wanted to do something defensively
16:21you're holding out hope that satu sabli is going to come back at some point and those types of
16:25injuries are hard right like i don't think we talk enough about if you lose a player to a season
16:30ending injury it's like the end right you know that that player is not going to come back you
16:35you're not going to bank on that player coming back so you have to pivot and i think when you
16:39are holding out hope that a player is going to come back maybe you don't fully pivot because you're
16:45expecting to go back to what was working like before that player went down and so i think like
16:50that adds like somebody you need somebody that's going to be able to manage all of that manage a
16:54rotation uh have a staff have a staff that maybe is more established too i do think having experience
17:02in the women's game in the wnba is important and i think that that was kind of uh a clear
17:10thing with the with the staff last year that they were kind of lacking is just that institutional
17:14knowledge and just getting up to speed on the league um and so i think that those are some of
17:19the
17:19things that they got to prioritize yeah i'd agree with all that i do think experience should matter
17:23i do think knowing the w should matter as well to having some of that institutional knowledge and
17:28we'll see if that's what they are valuing in their hire one other thing i agree with you on and
17:34i
17:34think a lot of it came out of that final press conference we saw after they got bounced by the
17:38dream in the semi-finals is they absolutely should involve their stars as you said but i guess my
17:43question here would be maddie what should that involvement look like right where does the front
17:48office draw the line where maybe it's too much input from the players you know we're talking about
17:52a brianna stewart we're talking about a sabrina nescue or jj where do they kind of draw the line
17:57and how much input is particularly for this hire should they have i think that you have the
18:03preliminary conversations of like what do you want your next head coach like what what trades what
18:09personality trades like what what helps you be the most successful like what's what's the type of
18:15person that's going to put you in the best position for success and so i think that you have those
18:18preliminary conversations and then as the interview process that that gives a baseline for the search
18:25committee uh to be like okay these are the traits that we're looking for they do the you know first
18:31second third rounds of interviews however many and then you bring star players back when you get to
18:35like maybe the final round um to have conversations to see what their vision is to see if they're aligned
18:41on what they want for the franchise and because like i mean obviously everyone that they're going to
18:45talk to is going to be like yeah we want to win championships we want to you know take this
18:50franchise back to the finals but like what does that look like to them and and can do the star
18:55players see that as like a viable pathway right and so i think it's it's roping them into getting
19:02their input and then also just yeah seeing uh how they're gonna manage like the the liberty are
19:09interesting because and i don't i'm gonna say egos but i don't mean egos in a negative connotation
19:15but there are a lot of star players on this roster and so you are managing different star players and
19:22as selfless as a lot of these star players are that's still something that like sandy brondello was
19:27excellent at managing the personalities managing the egos getting everybody on the same page so you need
19:33a coach that can excel in that too yeah no i agree with that i think sometimes that is lost
19:39in coaching
19:40and in sports in general just how much that matters right managing star players managing everyone in
19:45the room you're not these are women and men and men's sports but women in this particular coming in
19:51from different backgrounds different hierarchies on different teams they've played for before and now
19:56you're trying to get everybody to come together for a common goal while they're dealing with
20:00diversity through the season so yeah it's it's it's tough and everybody even in a leadership role
20:05is not as skilled at that so finding the right person for that is definitely important all right
20:10before we get out of here let's can we look at some candidates uh here that you know liberty possibly
20:14could look at and i want to start with some established names um that i think are going to
20:18you know get thrown out you you also wrote about this um in a column on post sports plus as
20:23well too but
20:24becky hammond las vegas aces head coach carol lawson duke head coach also led team usa to a gold medal
20:32at the fiba games uh world cup in back early in the summer and then don staley obviously head coach
20:39of south carolina based on i'll try to keep this the basketball fit what do you like about those three
20:46names what do you think each could bring and what do we actually know about whether any of them would
20:50actually consider this job yeah so i think that that's like those are all like dream candidates
20:56right all three are under contract two of them are coaching in the college season that just started
21:02and so it seems unlikely that you're going to be able to buy one of those players out and don
21:06staley
21:07for example she's getting paid i believe over four million dollars a year at south carolina and that's
21:11just not the going right for wnba coaches right now and so um it would be a massive jump to
21:17like try to
21:17match to match that pay i can see don maybe going to philly when they get a wnba team but
21:22that's
21:23another that's another point but i becky's interesting because the aces are kind of at an
21:28inflection point but i don't know any person that would want to leave asia wilson right um you know and
21:36so i i think all three would make sense but i just don't know how attainable they are um but
21:43i think
21:43that we can even go down like down a little bit because there are plenty of viable coaches on the
21:50market um especially when you look at some of the wnba benches you know uh renika hudges um kassi
21:58powell with the valkyries he was the lead assistant um just won a championship he obviously has head
22:04coaching experience too at the g league level um you know lindsey harding is always an interesting
22:10candidate she's on the lakers bench um was the former g league coach of the year at one point um
22:17christy tolliver is somebody that's been in conversations i know we already mentioned her
22:22but but yeah like there's plenty of candidates out there it's just kind of gonna go what are you
22:28looking for and even at the college level like one name that i wrote down just now is like north
22:32carolina coach courtney banghart um she was at princeton for a while and like obviously had a
22:38lot of success at princeton and she's gone to six straight ncaa tournaments you know if you can find
22:43somebody that maybe doesn't love the whole college landscape what it is now with nil um you know that
22:50could be a good fit uh and and i think courtney's a great coach so i think that there's if
22:56you're a
22:56liberty fan you take you find solace and knowing that there are a lot of exciting options out there
23:04um but the liberty got to get it right let me before before i just want to circle back on
23:08some
23:08of the i guess we call them non-established names but carol lawson is a name that um i like
23:15too here
23:16as a candidate but there's challenges as you just mentioned with trying to pull a coach from college
23:21who's currently college basketball just started yesterday time was recording this just started
23:26their season duke is a good team they're expected to play deep into the tournament come early this
23:32spring is there any chance that liberty could get one of these established college coaches you know
23:38like a carol lawson who's got experience coaching w players which is why i think she would be
23:42attractive uh obviously in a international game but is there really a chance to bring in a coach like
23:47her who would basically finish her season at duke and then have to come in and hit the ground running
23:52and not really have the time to prep for the w season i mean i don't think she would finish
23:57her
23:57season uh because if i remember correctly a lot of the college coaches that are hired like they end
24:02up leaving their program and so that's like that is the challenge in going after a college coach is
24:08that the w nba season is not doesn't line up well um and so i'm not entirely sure like how
24:17feasible
24:18it also gonna come down like does she want to leave duke like i don't think so she's got a
24:22good thing
24:22going there um but but the but the the those lists are more so just to like get names out
24:30there and to
24:30start conversations right like who who would be fun to see in the liberty's driving driver's seat um
24:37obviously she has a relationship with branda stewart they both praised one another during that
24:42world cup run so uh that that's something that is obviously appealing if you're the liberty
24:50and so yeah who of those because you mentioned a bunch of folks in the non-established names or
24:57category i hate to just put that label on them but just maybe not as prominent is what i would
25:01say
25:01right like kassipal uh with with the valkyries um i know you even said there's a possibility at
25:07andrew wade liberty's director of player development um could be somebody that's mentioned here out of
25:12that group of candidates you mentioned that are maybe not as prominent who do you think could be a
25:18good fit here with the liberty i i really like um kassipal and like everything that like in talking
25:28with a bunch of people about him and how he operates and stuff um i think that he's happy to
25:35stay with golden state and be like you know natalie's right hand man i think they have a good thing
25:41going
25:42and when you win sometimes it's hard to leave that but also his stock is extremely high right now right
25:49like he he just won a championship as a lead assistant and he stepped in when natalie had that
25:55scary uh you know fainting episode and even when she stepped away for a day like he was the one
26:03that
26:03was helping him and the staff were leading practices and leading uh planning and stuff like that and so
26:09i think you know that's that's somebody that's like handled those championship moments and so i think
26:15that that's that's somebody really interesting uh lindsey harding already mentioned her but she's
26:20somebody that like i'm really high on um i'm also really high on christy tolliver i just think it's
26:26it's hard to bring somebody back you know what i mean um went through the process right you went
26:34through the whole process of it right that's that's what you mean yeah yeah so yeah but but
26:40like if she wants to then definitely call her up right like you at least have to make the call
26:45i think right yeah you got you gotta make the call i like those candidates i i wonder um how
26:53much they
26:53will value people who come from winning environments if they're going to come into whatever that may be
27:00whether it's carol lawson with duke whether it's to see powell right i wonder how much that is going
27:06to be a value the experience and also the culture they're coming from obviously the valkyries their
27:10culture looks amazing right now if they won a championship in their second year of existence
27:14i wonder how much they will value that and also as we talked about before the experience of somebody
27:19who knows the w so we'll see it's going to be interesting uh yeah do you think we get a
27:25press
27:25conference before the coach is announced i i don't know i don't have an answer for you if i did
27:33i would
27:33let you know as soon as i know that there's press conference we'll both everyone will know we'll both
27:38know at the same time uh hopefully they do look the offseason got a lot more interesting we will see
27:42what the liberty will do who will be the next head coach of liberty and uh if jonathan cobe is
27:48still
27:48going to be leading the charge for that search that's going to do it for this edition of liberty
27:53lately let us know in the comments what you think do you like this move by the liberty do you
27:57like
27:57how it's been handled do you like the timing of it who do you think should be the next head
28:01coach of
28:01the new york liberty that's going to do it for this episode for the great madeline kenny i'm
28:05dexter henry we'll catch you next time on another edition of liberty lately