Former Liberty assistant lands job while wife, ex-coach Sandy Brondello remains on the market

Former Liberty assistant coach Olaf Lange has landed a new gig, while his wife and former New York head coach Sandy Brondello remains on the job hunt.

Lange has been named the head coach of the German women’s national team, the German Basketball Federation announced Wednesday.

The job will reunite Lange with 2024 WNBA champions Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally. It also potentially sets the stage for Lange and Brondello, the coach of the Australian women’s national team, to coach against one another at next year’s World Cup.

What this means for Lange’s future in the WNBA remains uncertain. It’s not unusual for national team coaches to also have other jobs, including WNBA gigs.

Meanwhile, Brondello is still deciding what her next step will be after the Liberty ousted her last month.

All four WNBA teams with head coaching vacancies — the Seattle Storm, Dallas Wings, Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo — reached out to Brondello to gauge her interest. She’s considered to be in the pool of finalists for the Toronto job, sources said.

Portland is expected to name Cavaliers assistant coach Alex Sarama as the franchise’s first head coach in the coming days after a Fire employee leaked a graphic in a since-deleted LinkedIn post, according to Front Office Sports.

Lange, a native of Berlin, has decades of coaching experience. This will be his second stint coaching the German women’s national team after he held the role from 2001 to 2003.

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He joined Brondello in New York in 2022 after the two coached against one another in the 2021 WNBA Finals when he was with the Sky and she led the Mercury.

Lange also previously served as an assistant on Brondello’s staff with the Australian Opals since 2019.

Brondello is one of the most decorated and experienced WNBA coaches on the market.

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The former WNBA guard was a longtime assistant with the San Antonio Stars and Los Angeles Sparks before she got her first WNBA head coaching position with the Phoenix Mercury.

Brondello spent eight years in Phoenix, taking the Mercury to two WNBA Finals and won it all in 2014.

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She led the Liberty to back-to-back WNBA Finals in 2023 and 2024, and delivered New York its first professional basketball championship in decades a year ago.

The Liberty’s title defense was marred by injury and ultimately fell flat.

The Libs went 27-17 for fifth place in the league and were bounced from the first round of the playoffs.

General manager Jonathan Kolb decided a change was needed, and the Liberty’s coaching search remains ongoing.