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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 off 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 balance
02:42the league is with it being expanded and everything but yeah i mean any any time that you have brianna
02:47stewart on your roster you need to be contending for championships and this team other than maybe a
02:52few glimpses never felt like it had that it it factor that like punch that wow you know that you
02:59like this team looks like it's a formidable team and i know we talked about that first round series
03:03against the links and like where has this team been links were unraveling you know again hindsight's
03:09always 20 20 and so i think um i'm not surprised that this this is this happened and you know
03:16colb
03:17he's still the gm so he'll be the one that will be most likely leading this this coaching search and
03:24again we're gonna say the same thing we said a year ago you got to get this right okay before
03:29we get
03:29to the jonathan kobe of it all because i i do want to get to that i think we also
03:34have to talk
03:35about the timing here this comes on election day news breaks at about eight in the morning all right
03:43i 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 i mean look like i think
04:41it was something that again needed to to be done um it you got to listen to your star players
04:48like
04:49your face the franchises um and so yeah i think it it i don't know maybe intentional is a little
04:56too
04:56strong of the word but it does seem intentional so it you know yeah the thing too i want to
05:03say
05:03is that like there isn't it's totally different than a year ago right there were so many more
05:08coaching vacancies that the liberty were competing with you know potential candidates for uh the only
05:15other coaching vacancy is la right and so um maybe you don't feel that sense of urgency that you have
05:23to make a rush or push and i know that obviously last year they didn't really feel a sense of
05:27urgency
05:27as well because they took so much time to have such a thorough coaching search um and i'm sure we'll
05:34have another one of those thorough coaching search maybe we'll be lucky enough to get a liberty unlocked
05:39episode uh giving us a behind the scenes of what's going into it but uh i just think
05:46yeah i think that that also played a factor into it the fact that there's only one other coaching
05:51vacancy that you're kind of competing with up against no it's it's a good point there maddie and
05:57and now i kind of want to get into the jonathan kolb of it all because we understand that he
06:02is a
06:02architect of a championship winning team back in 2024 you just mentioned that he chose
06:08kristen marco to replace sandy brondello and said that he had to get this right so the first part of
06:16the discussion i'd like to say is how much responsibility does he bear for this outcome
06:23and i also want to ask what he needs to do differently in the search but i do think a
06:27fair
06:27question to ask is should he even be leading this search i don't think that is an unfair thing to
06:33ask
06:34considering that he did not get the last coaching hire right and moved on from a
06:38championship winning coach and said that he needs to get it right so if we're talking accountability
06:43should he even be leading the church yeah you know this is his fourth coaching hire in like
06:50seven years um or maybe eight years uh math is not my strong suit off the top of my head
06:55but but you
06:57don't hear a lot of gms get that many coaching hires in such a small window except so except i
07:04don't
07:04mean to cut you off except under the same ownership group man who's running the brooklyn nets has had
07:10that same kind of chance too just just want to put that out there yeah so i mean look like
07:14the size
07:15have a lot of loyalty to their executives so um maybe not so much for their coaches but i do
07:22think
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
07:57came from 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 from
08:13the 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
08:35that's constantly come up in circles uh christy tolliver was a finalist yet last year do you circle
08:39back on that um you know maybe but also do if you're christy do you do you want that you
08:46know
08:46do you want to be back in the mix um just kind of depends on like the person right uh
08:51i don'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
09:23everyone
09:23needs to be on the same page feels like there wasn't everyone on the same page at times and the
09:28other thing brianna stewart's got to be in these rooms you've got to be roping your star players um
09:34jj should be knowing who the candidate is and like getting to know them sabrina should get her
09:40should pick the brain of whoever you know like you've got to loop your star players in because
09:45that's where the buy-in starts right and so i think those are some lessons that could be learned
09:52over you know all of last year so as i was listening to you to say that one of the
09:57things i thought
09:57about maddie is that when people who might be interested in the job are looking at this job
10:04would they have any pause or cause for pause i should say considering that okay this is another
10:10head coach with this organization they just they got rid of a championship winning head coach they
10:14then hired christo marco now he's gone is they might come in i think a fair question for them to
10:20ask in
10:20an interview is what's stability look like around here and i don't think that is wrong for them to ask
10:26one thing i want to add on the jonathan kolb of it all that i think needs to be said
10:31especially how
10:31this news came out and that at the time of us is recording this there has not been any announced
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 and said that he
10:51needed to nail this hire i think it's fair for us in the media and i think fans should want
10:54to know
10:55why did you get this wrong what was wrong about the search what are you looking for in an ex
11:01-head
11:01coach why should fans in the organization trust you to lead this search considering you got this
11:07wrong what are you going to change in terms of your team building and i believe in accountability
11:13and i think sometimes you have to stand up and face the music it is part of the job it
11:18is part of
11:18our job as journalists to ask the tough questions and it's part of the job of people who are leading
11:23organizations teams coaches even players to sometimes have to answer those tough questions
11:28and i think if the liberty go most of this offseason and we do not hear from jonathan kolb until
11:35the new
11:35head coach is announced whoever that would be i think that is a disservice to not just for what we
11:40do
11:41but also to the fans i think the fans deserve to hear on this and there should be accountability and
11:46i'm only saying this because jonathan kolb himself said he had to get this right all right well you
11:53didn't get it right i'm not saying this is the end of the world i'm not even saying the man
11:57should lose
11:57his job i'm just saying i want to hear what accountability sounds like for that and so i i
12:04wonder if we will get to see that happen but we haven't even received a press release from the liberty
12:09about this i would even are yay exactly i would even argue that fans deserved answers within a week or
12:19two of the season ending you know we're reaching a month a month since the the liberty was swept at
12:24the semi-finals and there are so many things that need to be answered for you know the whole
12:29benijah situation everything that went down with that saw too softly there's so many questions and
12:34question marks question marks around you know it will she play next season um is she okay you know
12:40like just basic things that um the gm is one of those people that should have to answer for some
12:47of
12:47those things and obviously the the season at large you know like what did he think about the roster
12:53construction what what did he what what holes did he realize like over the course of the year or
12:59some deficiencies maybe that they need to shore up uh what went wrong with chris what you know
13:06that that's a little question obviously but but you know what i mean like there's so many different
13:09things that as the gm you are in a position of power their fans should want transparency from their
13:19organization you should want your organization to run like the knicks run um which you know means
13:25not answering questions uh evading media and just trusting that fans are going to continue to buy in
13:34and you know fans like season tickets are getting expensive the price of just going to a game is
13:40expensive you know buying concessions and stuff like living in general is expensive um but so if i'm
13:47a fan and i'm spending my hard-earned money to support this team like i i want to know what
13:52the direction
13:52is i want to know what the the plan is yeah and transit i just want to be clear that
13:59transparency
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 kobe 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 offseason i think that will be fine i i know we i
14:40know and i'm
14:41sure maddie be one of the people that will ask the tough questions that need to be asked whenever
14:45that press process comes but i do agree with you fans deserve that transparency and they deserve
14:50to hear that from jonathan kobe so if there's if that transparency is not given i would say that
14:57this is an embarrassing situation because organizations should have that transparency and
15:02you know it's our job in media and as journalists to shine light to the truth and not saying that
15:08we're
15:08uncovering some untruth here but gotta 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 the liberty 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
15:39should they be going for here maddie yeah i think you need to prioritize experience um because again
15:46like this head coach is coming into a high pressure situation uh brianna stewart played like at an mvp
15:52caliber last season um finished with in the top five i think she was top three in mvp voting if
15:59i
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 too 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 think
17:34a lot of it came out of that final press conference we saw after they got bounced by the dream
17:38in the
17:38semifinals is they absolutely should involve their stars as you said but i guess my question here would
17:44be maddie what should that involvement look like right where does the front office draw the line where
17:49maybe it's too much input from the players you know we're talking about a brianna stewart we're talking
17:53about a sabrina nescue or jj where do they kind of draw the line and how much input is particularly
17:59for this hire should they have i think that you have the preliminary conversations of like what do
18:05you want your next head coach like what what trades what personality trades like what what helps you
18:12be the most successful like what's what's the type of person that's going to put you in the best
18:16position for success and so i think that you have those preliminary conversations and then as
18:20the interview process that that gives a baseline for the search committee uh to be like okay these
18:28are the traits that we're looking for they do the you know first second third rounds of interviews
18:32however many and then you bring star players back when you get to like maybe the final round
18:36um to have conversations to see what their vision is to see if they're aligned on what they want for
18:42the franchise and because like i mean obviously everyone that they're going to talk to is going to be
18:46like yeah we want to win championships we want to you know take this franchise back to the finals but
18:51like what does that look like to them and and can do the star players see that as like a
18:56viable
18:58pathway right and so i think it's it's roping them into getting their input and then also just yeah seeing
19:06uh how they're gonna manage like the the liberty are interesting because and i don't i'm gonna say egos
19:13but i don't mean egos in a negative connotation but there are a lot of star players on this roster
19:19and so you are managing different star players and as selfless as a lot of these star players are
19:25that's still something that like sandy brondello was excellent at managing the personalities managing
19:30the egos getting everybody on the same page so you need a coach that can excel in that too
19:35yeah no i agree with that i think sometimes that is lost in coaching and in sports in general just
19:42how much that matters right managing star players managing everyone in the room you're not these are
19:47women and men in men's sports but women in this particular coming in from different backgrounds
19:53different hierarchies on different teams they've played for before and now you're trying to get
19:57everybody to come together for a common goal while they're dealing with adversity through the season
20:01so yeah it's it's it's tough and everybody even in a leadership role is not as skilled at that so
20:07finding the right person for that is definitely important all right before we get out of here let's can we
20:11look at some candidates uh here that you know liberty possibly could look at and i want to start with
20:16some established names um that i think are going to you know get thrown out you you also wrote about
20:20this um in a column on post sports plus as well too but becky hammond las vegas aces head coach
20:28tara lawson duke head coach also led team usa to a gold medal at the fiba games uh world cup
20:35in
20:35back early in the summer and then dawn staley obviously head coach of south carolina based on
20:42i'll try to keep this the basketball fit what do you like about those three names what do you think
20:47each could bring and what do we actually know about whether any of them would actually consider
20:51this job yeah so i think that that's like those are all like dream candidates right all three are
20:58under contract two of them are coaching in the college season that just started and so
21:02seems unlikely that you're going to be able to buy one of those players out and don staley for
21:07example she's getting paid i believe over four million dollars a year at south carolina and that's
21:11just not the going rate for wnba coaches right now and so um it would be a massive jump to
21:17like try to
21:17mass to match that pay i can see don maybe going to philly when they get a wnba team but
21:22that's another
21:23that's another point i can see that 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
21:36and so i i think all three would make sense but i just don't know how attainable they are um
21:42but i
21:43think that we can even go down like down a little bit because there are plenty of viable coaches on
21:49the market um especially when you look at some of the wnba benches you know uh renika hodges um
21:57cassie powell with the valkyries he was the lead assistant um just won a championship he obviously
22:04has head coaching experience too at the g league level um you know lindsey harding is always an
22:09interesting candidate she's on the lakers bench um was the former g league coach of the year at one
22:15point um christy 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 lot
22:38of 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 in 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 of the
23:09i guess we call them non-established names but carol lawson is a name that um i like to hear
23:16as a
23:16candidate 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 at the time of the ordinance 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
23:47like her who would basically finish her season at duke and then have to come in and hit the ground
23:51running and not really have the time to prep for the w season i mean i don't think she would
23:57finish
23:57her season uh because if i remember correctly a lot of the college coaches that are hired like
24:02they end up leaving their program and so that's like that is the challenge in going after a college
24:08coach is that the w nba season is not doesn't line up well um and so i'm not entirely sure
24:17like
24:17how feasible it also gonna come down like does she want to leave duke like i don't think so she's
24:22got a
24:22good thing going there um but but the but the the those lists are more so just to like get
24:29names out
24:30there and to start conversations right like who who would be fun to see in the liberties driving
24:36driver's seat um obviously she has a relationship with branda stewart they both praised one another
24:42during that world cup run so uh that that's something that is obviously appealing if you're
24:49the liberty and so yeah who of those because you mentioned a bunch of folks in the non-established
24:56names or category i hate to just put that label on them but just maybe not as prominent is what
25:01i
25:01would say right like kassipal uh with with the valkyries um i know you even said there's a possibility
25:07at andrew wade liberty's director of player development um could be somebody that's mentioned
25:12here out of that group of candidates you mentioned that are maybe not as prominent who do you think
25:17could be a good fit here with the liberty i i really like um kassipal and like everything that
25:27like in talking with a bunch of people about him and how he operates and stuff um i think that
25:33he's
25:34happy to stay with golden state and be like you know natalie's right hand man i think they have a
25:41good
25:41thing going and when you win sometimes it's hard to leave that but also his stock is extremely high
25:48right now right like he he just won a championship as a lead assistant and he stepped in when natalie
25:55had that scary uh you know fainting episode and even when she stepped away for a day like he was
26:02the
26:02one that was helping him and the staff were leading practices and leading uh planning and stuff like
26:08that and so i think you know that's that's somebody that's like handled those championship moments and
26:14so i think that that's that's somebody really interesting uh lindsey harding already mentioned
26:20her but she's somebody that like i'm really high on um i'm also really high on christy tolliver i just
26:25think it's it's hard to bring somebody back you know what i mean um went through the process right
26:34you went through the whole process of it right that's that's what you mean yeah yeah
26:38yeah so yeah but but like if she wants to then definitely call her up right like you at least
26:45have to make the call i think right yeah you got you got to make the call i like those
26:49candidates i i
26:50wonder um how much they will value people who come from winning environments if they're going to come
26:59into whatever that may be whether it's carol lawson with duke whether it's cassie powell right i wonder
27:05how much that is going to be a value the experience and also the culture they're coming from obviously
27:09the valkyries their culture looks amazing right now if they won a championship in their second year of
27:13existence i wonder how much they will value that and also as we talked about before the experience of
27:19somebody who knows the w so we'll see it's going to be interesting uh yeah do you think we get
27:25a press
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 lately
27:53let us know in the comments what you think do you like this move by the liberty do you like
27:57how it's
27:57been handled do you like the timing of it who do you think should be the next head coach of
28:01the new
28:02york liberty that's going to do it for this episode for the great madeline kenny i'm dexter henry we'll
28:06catch you next time on another edition of liberty lately
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