Toronto Tempo hire Sandy Brondello as the franchise’s first head coach

The GIST: Former NY Liberty head coach (HC) Sandy Brondello is heading north, tapped as HC for the expansion squad Toronto Tempo on Wednesday. Grab a whiteboard and a marker: We’re breaking down the Xs and Os of the league’s coaching moves.

🏆 Brondello brings championship pedigree to Toronto: She’s a two-time WNBA champ, a WNBA Coach of the Year, and the HC of the consistently overachieving Australian national team. Her experience and her ability to lure superstars to the Six in the W’s most anticipated free agency period could set the Tempo up to replicate the Golden State Valkyries’ expansion success.

📋 Two HC vacancies remain open: With the top candidate off the market, the dominoes have already started falling — yesterday, the Dallas Wings inked former University of South Florida women’s HC Jose Fernandez, whose impressive résumé and long-term commitment to women’s hoops made him a finalist for the same job last year.

• Now, thirteen of 15 HC positions are filled, with six women and seven men at the helm ahead of the 2026 season. That leaves just the Seattle Storm and Brondello’s former team in the Big Apple as the only two coachless squads…for now.

☝️ One more thing: CBA negotiations aren’t going well — but you already knew that. With the October 31st deadline inching closer, public exchanges between the WNBA and the WNBPA are only getting spicier, from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver saying that a revenue share isn’t the best approach to WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson’s fiery response. It’s getting hot in here.