Liberty fire Chris DeMarco: only 3 WNBA coaches have lasted more than two seasons
The New York Liberty will not keep Chris DeMarco. Only 3 of 15 WNBA head coaches have lasted more than two seasons with their current team. Cheryl Reeve has 17 with the Lynx. The six coaches with two seasons and the four with one have 16 seasons combined. Open-job day counts are in the 2027 WNBA coaching tracker.
Every WNBA head coach, Nov. 4, 2026
Cheryl Reeve, Becky Hammon and Nate Tibbetts are the three. New York and Los Angeles have no head coach on their WNBA.com team pages.
| Team | Head coach | Hire date | Seasons | Regular season | Win % | 2026 playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota Lynx | Cheryl Reeve | Dec. 8, 2009 | 17 | 397-201 | .664 | 0-2 |
| Las Vegas Aces | Becky Hammon | Dec. 31, 2021 | 5 | 148-56 | .725 | 2-4 |
| Phoenix Mercury | Nate Tibbetts | Oct. 18, 2023 | 3 | 62-66 | .484 | Missed |
| Atlanta Dream | Karl Smesko | Nov. 13, 2024 | 2 | 60-28 | .682 | 8-4 |
| Golden State Valkyries | Natalie Nakase | Oct. 10, 2024 | 2 | 55-33 | .625 | 9-4 |
| Indiana Fever | Stephanie White | Nov. 1, 2024 | 2 | 52-36 | .591 | 1-2 |
| Washington Mystics | Sydney Johnson | Dec. 23, 2024 | 2 | 44-44 | .500 | 0-2 |
| Chicago Sky | Tyler Marsh | Nov. 3, 2024 | 2 | 26-62 | .295 | Missed |
| Connecticut Sun | Rachid Meziane | Dec. 4, 2024 | 2 | 22-66 | .250 | Missed |
| Dallas Wings | Jose Fernandez | Oct. 27, 2025 | 1 | 27-17 | .614 | 1-2 |
| Toronto Tempo | Sandy Brondello | Nov. 4, 2025 | 1 | 11-33 | .250 | Missed |
| Portland Fire | Alex Sarama | Oct. 17, 2025 | 1 | 17-27 | .386 | Missed |
| Seattle Storm | Sonia Raman | Oct. 28, 2025 | 1 | 8-36 | .182 | Missed |
| New York Liberty | Vacant | Nov. 3, 2026 | 0 | |||
| Los Angeles Sparks | Vacant | Sept. 25, 2026 | 0 |
Source: hire dates are the dateline or publish date on the linked team or WNBA.com release. For New York and Los Angeles, the date is the day the job opened. Regular-season wins and losses are that team's line on the WNBA.com standings for each season in the stint. The 2026 playoffs column is that postseason only. White's row is her current stint. The Fever hiring release says she also coached Indiana in 2015 and 2016, a 37-31 overall record and a 6-6 playoff record. Data through Nov. 4, 2026. Methods: one season is one WNBA regular season the coach was that team's head coach, in the current uninterrupted stint. The coach is the name on the WNBA.com team page on Nov. 4, 2026. Missed means no 2026 playoff game. No current row is an interim. Download CSV (CC0)
The median stint among the 13 coaches still in a job is 2 seasons.
Liberty head coaches, 2022 through 2026
Sandy Brondello coached 2025 and Chris DeMarco coached 2026, so the next hire is the third Liberty coach in three seasons. Brondello coached the team from 2022 through 2025, the Toronto Tempo release says, and that release calls her a 2024 WNBA champion.
| Season | Coach | Regular season | Seed | Playoff result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Chris DeMarco | 26-18 (.591) | No. 8 | Beat Minnesota 2-0, then lost to Atlanta 0-3 |
| 2025 | Sandy Brondello | 27-17 (.614) | No. 5 | Lost to Phoenix 1-2 |
| 2024 | Sandy Brondello | 32-8 (.800) | No. 1 | Won the title, beat Minnesota 3-2 |
| 2023 | Sandy Brondello | 32-8 (.800) | No. 2 | Lost the Finals to Las Vegas 1-3 |
| 2022 | Sandy Brondello | 16-20 (.444) | No. 7 | Lost to Chicago 1-2 |
Source: regular-season lines are the WNBA.com standings. Seeds are the league playoff seeds. The coach for 2022 through 2025 is the Tempo release. DeMarco's season is the Liberty hiring release of Dec. 3, 2025. The 2024, 2023 and 2022 results are the Liberty team history page. The 2025 series is the WNBA.com bracket, Phoenix wins 2-1. The 2026 series is the 2026 bracket. Data through Nov. 4, 2026. Download CSV (CC0)
Why New York moved on
On Nov. 3, 2026, the Liberty account posted "Thank you, Coach DeMarco." The graphic reads "THANK YOU" and "CHRIS DEMARCO." The same morning, Alexa Philippou of ESPN reported that sources said the team will not retain him. That story's publish time is 1:03 p.m. UTC, which is 5:03 a.m. Pacific. Philippou also reported that after the semifinal sweep, DeMarco said he expected to return in 2027. The WNBA.com team page lists no Liberty head coach.
The hiring release, published Dec. 3, 2025, says the Liberty hired DeMarco, a Golden State Warriors assistant, that day. General manager Jonathan Kolb is the person quoted.
In 2026 the Liberty went 26-18 and were the No. 8 seed. On June 30 they beat Las Vegas 93-85 in the Commissioner's Cup final at Barclays Center, on the WNBA.com game page. They then beat the No. 1 Lynx 2-0, in our recaps of Game 1 and Game 2. Atlanta, the No. 4 seed, swept the semifinals, 92-82, 101-98 in overtime and 85-83, in our recaps of Game 1, Game 2 and Game 3.
The WNBA named Cheryl Reeve Coach of the Year on Sept. 28, her fifth time, with 40 of 74 votes, after a 33-11 season. The release puts her career regular-season wins at 397, the win total in the Lynx row above, and says the Lynx trailed New York 1-0 in that first-round series. New York finished the sweep in Game 2. What the roster does next, including Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones, is in five moves after the sweep. Service time is in the 2027 free-agent file.
Both Finals coaches were in their second season
Natalie Nakase and Karl Smesko were hired 34 days apart, on Oct. 10 and Nov. 13, 2024. Both coached in the 2026 Finals in their second season. Nakase's Valkyries won the series. The WNBA.com recap of Game 7 says Golden State beat Atlanta 68-63. Our recap is Game 7.
Smesko's two seasons sum to 60-28. Atlanta's 2026 line on the standings is 30-14, so 2025 was 30-14 too. Nakase's two seasons sum to 55-33. Golden State was 32-12 in 2026, so 2025 was 23-21. Down 2-1 in the Finals, Nakase started Tiffany Hayes and Kaila Charles in Game 4, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Hayes scored 11 points in Game 7 on the WNBA.com box score.
Eight hires had a first season in 2025: Nakase (Oct. 10, 2024), White (Nov. 1), Marsh (Nov. 3), Smesko (Nov. 13), Roberts (Nov. 19), Meziane (Dec. 4), Johnson (Dec. 23) and Chris Koclanes in Dallas (Dec. 23, 2024). Koclanes was not the 2026 coach. Fernandez's Oct. 27, 2025 release names him as the next Wings coach.
Leave out Golden State, Portland and Toronto, the expansion teams whose current coach is the first, and leave out the two vacancies. Seven of those 10 jobs are in a first or second season.
Connecticut's row is 22-66. The Sun were 11-33 in 2026, so 2025 was 11-33 too. Morgan Tuck told USA TODAY Sports on Oct. 30 that the plan is to keep Meziane when the franchise plays in Houston in 2027. "Our plan is to keep Rachid and that he'll be with us next year," she said. The table still lists the Connecticut Sun, the name on the WNBA.com team page on Nov. 4.
Hires whose first season was 2026
Five of those hires have a date on a release: Alex Sarama (Oct. 17, 2025), Fernandez (Oct. 27, 2025), Sonia Raman (Oct. 28, 2025), Sandy Brondello (Nov. 4, 2025) and DeMarco (Dec. 3, 2025). The Fire release is dated Oct. 17, 2025 on the team's news list. DeMarco's job is the one that opened on Nov. 3.
Los Angeles
The Sparks parted ways with Lynne Roberts on Sept. 25, 2026, effective that day. Special advisor Farhan Zaidi's quote on the release thanks her through "our last game last night." The hiring story, dated Nov. 20, 2024, says the team announced it Tuesday, which was Nov. 19. Her two seasons were 21-23 in 2025 and 16-28 in 2026, 37-51 (.420). Both seasons were outside the eight-team playoff field. The 2026 Sparks were 16-28, 11th on the standings.
How to read the count
Tenure is the number of WNBA regular seasons in the current uninterrupted stint, through Nov. 4, 2026. Vacancies are rows, and they are left out of the median. Stephanie White is counted from 2025. The files are free to use and republish (CC0). Column definitions are in the data dictionary.
Correction, Nov. 4, 2026: Liberty seeds are the league playoff seeds. An earlier version of this page added an East tag. In 2023 the Liberty were first in the East and the No. 2 seed, per the team history page.
How this story was made: Full Court Buckets articles are written by Ryan Moalemi, sometimes with AI assistance, and every stat is checked against official WNBA box scores and the sources cited in the story. How we make Full Court Buckets
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