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Winning back-to-back titles is one of the hardest things in sports — and it’s no different in the hyper-competitive WNBA.
The New York Liberty opened training camp on April 27 as favorites to claim a second straight title after outlasting the Minnesota Lynx in a thrilling five-game 2024 WNBA Finals. But despite two straight 32-8 seasons ending in WNBA Finals appearances, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello knows that repeating as champions would be a major feat.
Liberty HC Sandy Brondello Discusses Difficulties of Winning a Title
“To go back-to-back, that’s the hardest thing to do,” she told reporters after the first day of training camp, as reported by the New York Post.
“We’ll make sure we stay true to what we want to accomplish this year and win the day as we say. And I thought it was a great start, and look, I always said you can’t bring back the same when you win, and we have a real good, nice freshness about us.”
Brondello speaks from experience. She was the WNBA’s Coach of the Year in 2014 after leading the 29-5 Phoenix Mercury to a title. She coached there until joining the Liberty in 2022.
Without Diana Taurasi in 2015, the Mercury’s hopes of a repeat ended in the Western Conference Finals against the eventual champions, the Lynx. The WNBA’s history shows how rare repeats are: While the Las Vegas Aces went back-to-back in 2022 and 2023, no team had done it since the 2001-02 Los Angeles Sparks.
New York isn’t quite returning the same roster that claimed the city’s first WNBA championship. Veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot left for Chicago in free agency, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, the team’s starting forward, suffered a meniscus injury that will cost her much of the season while playing in Unrivaled. The team also lost key reserve Kayla Thornton to the Golden State Valkyries during the expansion draft.
To bolster a roster that already features stars Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones, the Liberty acquired Natasha Cloud from the Connecticut Sun in exchange for the No. 7 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft and a first-round pick in 2026. Cloud, who spent most of her career with the Washington Mystics, is a three-time All-Defensive team selection and won the league’s Dawn Staley Leadership Award in 2019.
The Liberty also re-signed Marine Johannes, who missed New York’s 2024 campaign to prepare for the 2024 Summer Olympics, and they signed veteran Isabelle Harrison in free agency.
A flurry of activity in the offseason has plenty of other teams looking to make New York’s back-to-back quest more impossible than difficult. Las Vegas replaced Kelsey Plum with Jewell Loyd and still has reigning MVP A’ja Wilson. Minnesota returns its entire starting five, including Napheesa Collier, from a near-championship roster. The Indiana Fever added DeWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard to a lineup also featuring Caitlin Clark.
New York may have the inside track, but as Brondello said, it won’t exactly be easy.
New York tips off the preseason against Connecticut on May 9 and begins the regular season at home against the Aces with ring night on May 17.
