May 10, 2023
Locked on Women’s Basketball: Jonathan Kolb, Sandy Brondello, New York Liberty stars talk WNBA season
By The Next
Howard and Jackie were at the New York Liberty Media Day to ask them key questions about how this team fits together
It’s time for another Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast episode. Jonathan Kolb, Sandy Brondello and New York Liberty stars Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu gathered to discuss the upcoming 2023 WNBA season at Liberty Media Day. Our Jackie Powell and Howard Megdal were there to ask them all key questions about how this team fits together and how it approaches outsized expectations.
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Jackie asked head coach Sandy Brondello about the team’s culture in year two:
“Look, I think for us; we’re in the process of doing our culture meeting. And we had a really great one today. And I won’t go into much depth into that. But when you build a culture, you build an environment, a culture by values that the players agree on because they ultimately have to drive it. And then that’s our environment. So then we live, eat and breathe; it’s easy for me to hold them all accountable, can’t we?
So yeah, they come up with it, but every team you have, there’s a lot of you talk about teamwork, trust, accountability, their respect, all those things, they always come up, which is great, because that’s how you learn. Just laying the foundations, we talked about having a winning culture in place before we can do anything on the court because that helps to have the most success. So we’re in the process of doing that. It’s been fun. I think we’ve got our word on what we’re going to live by this year, and excited to see how it grows.
And we will face obstacles. You have the culture in place because how do you act when those obstacles we start losing some games, things are not going well? You know, net will happen? How do we handle that to make sure we stay on track and a lot of the principles are really the same. It’s just a new group and you allow them to speak out loud.”
Howard asked Jonathan Kolb about the offseason New York had and the expectations for the team in 2023:
“To have expectations means we’ve earned them right. And that’s from this offseason and we embrace those expectations, but we know what comes with them. And that’s a day-by-day process to get better. And every single player, including Stewie, wants to get better every single day coaching staff and front office. And so that’s what this is really about. And then, from that, I believe, good things will follow. The success will come as long as we’re being really detailed in our process. And so, yeah, look, I think at the end of the day, of course, our goal is to be the last team standing. And we believe that we’ve got a process in place to lead us in that direction.”
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