The New York Liberty will bring on Golden State Warriors assistant Chris DeMarco to serve as its new head coach.
Down by the Bay, the New York Liberty reportedly found its new head coach.
Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Liberty will name current Golden State Warriors assistant Chris DeMarco the 10th head coach in franchise history. The 40-year-old DeMarco succeeds Sandy Brondello and will take on his first domestic head coaching job.
DeMarco has been stationed with the Warriors franchise since 2012, beginning in their video and scouting departments before moving onto the bench. The Wisconsin native and former Division III athlete at Edgewood College has partly overseen each of the team’s four championship runs in that span, the most recent coming in 2022.
He is the latest former Steve Kerr assistant to land a major head coaching gig, a list that also includes Alvin Gentry, Willie Green, Luke Walton, and Steve Nash, the lattermost of whom served as the boss of the Liberty’s NBA roommates, the Brooklyn Nets. As a holdover from Mark Jackson’s previous regime, DeMarco was retained by Kerr and earned a personal recommendation to stay from team management just before their new-century run of prosperity began.
DeMarco Brings NBA and International Experience to Brooklyn
Though DeMarco is taking on his first WNBA job, his prior experiences should appeal to Liberty franchise faces Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones.
Ionescu, a Bay Area native from Walnut Creek, is close friends with fellow deep-shooting legend and Warriors franchise face Stephen Curry, who called DeMarco as “part of the core” of the Warriors’ championship era in a 2021 video from the team.
DeMarco’s prior head-coaching experience had him leading the Bahamas’ men’s national team, which will no doubt intrigue the Freeport native Jones, who has routinely spoken about expanding the game in her home nation. Under DeMarco’s watch, the Bahaman team (featuring NBAers like DeAndre Ayton, V.J. Edgecombe, Eric Gordon, and Buddy Hield) placed second at its 2024 Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Valencia, falling one step short of its first Olympic showing.
Liberty Look to Bounce Back with Demarco
DeMarco faces a tall task in Brooklyn: the Liberty is searching for redemption after its first postseason championship fell short of expectations, as the follow-up to its 2024 title saw it place fifth on the WNBA playoff bracket. That led New York to bid farewell to prior boss Brondello after four seasons and a franchise-record 107 wins. Brondello has since been named the head coach of, ironically enough, the expansion Toronto Tempo.
While New York’s roster situation, like those of their WNBA sisters, is obviously in flux due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the league’s collective bargaining agreement, general manager Jonathan Kolb has the “utmost confidence” that headliners Ionescu, Jones, and Breanna Stewart would return to Brooklyn.
Currently under contract is international sensation Leonie Fiebich, who established herself as a starting five staple during the 2024 championship run, and her fellow German and Finals heroine Nyara Sabally, who saw her own follow-up derailed by injuries. New York endured several medically-induced exits during the 2025 campaign, as Ionescu, Jones, Sabally, Stewart, and season-long absence Betnijah Laney-Hamilton all missed significant time due to various ailments.
Time will tell how, or if, DeMarco finishes out his current duties in the Bay Area, where the Warriors (9-8) are set to face the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night (10 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Bay Area). The Warriors are due in Brooklyn to face the Nets on Dec. 29.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
