The New York Liberty announced Tuesday that they have fired head coach Chris DeMarco after just one season.
DeMarco came to New York in December after more than a decade as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors. He had no prior WNBA experience before leading the Liberty to an eighth-place regular season finish. After sweeping the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx in the first round of the playoffs, Liberty was eliminated by the Atlanta Dream in three games.
Liberty’s coaching staff made a key mistake in Game 2 of the series, not knowing they had a reset timeout in overtime when the team trailed by three late in the game.
Now New York will search for its third coach in three seasons. General manager Jonathan Kolb did not retain Sandy Brondello after the 2025 season.
ESPN first reported DeMarco’s departure.
After the eventual loss to Atlanta, none of Liberty’s three stars – Brianna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones – gave DeMarco a clear vote of confidence.
“Of course, we want to win a championship every time we go on the court, but it’s really hard in this league and to do that, you need to be consistent over 44 games,” Stewart said when asked about DeMarco. “And I think we were inconsistent throughout the season. I think we started to show some energy and hit some peaks toward the end and the playoffs.”
Ionescu said DeMarco’s future “is not our decision.”
“We appreciate everything he has done this year,” Ionescu said. “Just focusing on the present, him integrating with us and maintaining a positive, calm approach through the ups and downs of the season, it didn’t go the way he wanted it to, either.”
DeMarco is still under contract next season. Now, Kolb will lead his fourth coaching search since 2019.
New York had a disappointing regular season and was two years removed from winning the WNBA championship. Liberty is ranked eighth with a record of 26-18.
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