Roz Gold-Onwude

It took the Liberty 28 years, the entire existence of the WNBA, to get their first ever championship.

They had been close other times, but Sandy got them over the hump.

It's their only chip.

You look at the last three seasons for Sandy Brandello.

2023, she made the finals.

They fell short.

The very next season, they run it back, make the finals again.

They win the chip.

This season, they fall short.

They lose in the first round.

You know, look, she also had a season this year, and I've been there covering the team all season, riddled with injuries to literally starters, star players, did not have the roster continuity, consistency, fatigue, lack of practice, really practice time for the team to be able to

be coached, tough scheduling.

And I do think the injuries were really significant and, you know, still trying to overcome that.

So I think there were real reasons why the Liberty fell short this season that were largely outside of their control and that Sandy has very commendable achievements and admirable achievements for the franchise.

a fire because I feel like do we think that it's supposed to be a fairytale season every season Roz like because you have some great points there if I'm here to put on a hat of objectively looking at why this may have happened and again this is breaking news that just happened honestly minutes ago there could be signals right so some missteps that Sandy had this season um

You know, given the talent, the team often had effort and urgency issues this season.

And it was very public, discussed by the coach and the players publicly this season.

There were multiple times they did not come ready to play.

There were some really bad head-scratching losses.

And perhaps, you know, brass and the executives upstairs thought it showed a lack of preparedness for a team with that much talent.