The new New York Liberty boss is stepping into one of the most dangerous, if not desirable, coaching situations in recent WNBA memory.
Toward the end of his opening statements as New York Liberty head coach, Chris DeMarco was accosted by one of his new potential proteges, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. Hardly hidden among the media amassed, Laney-Hamilton was handed the microphone as the de facto rep among a metropolitan quarter seated in the front row of DeMarco’s conference.
The exchange led to humorous panic from the new boss, who quickly informed the WNBA Finals heroine that he did not “get [her] a notepad,” referring to a gift that each of the expected questioners received upon their arrival. Fortunately, Laney-Hamilton’s query was literally more tasteful, as the team’s self-professed “foodie” asked about his anticipation of working in “arguably the best food place in the world.”
The pessimist can view Laney-Hamilton’s lack of notepad as a dire seafoam omen, but a paper shortage is a crisis for Dunder-Mifflin, not Barclays Center. If that’s the biggest issue the Liberty face this season, the Borough of Churches will be particularly euphoric and Lower Manhattan better clear out for another parade next fall.
Fans, your New…York….Libertyyyyyy#WNBA #LightItUpNYL pic.twitter.com/znnvhCFKhN
— Geoff Magliocchetti (@GeoffJMags) December 10, 2025
DeMarco Knows What’s Ahead of Him
DeMarco has bigger fish to fry (and sample) as the new bearer of the Liberty’s torch. He fills what could’ve well been the most dangerous, if not desirable, coaching vacancy in recent basketball memory, one where the pieces—and expectations—are well-positioned toward a championship.
The double-edged seafoam sword was prominently brandished when the Liberty parted ways with the accomplished Sandy Brondello, the overseer of the first professional basketball championship the hardwood-crazy city had experienced in over five decades. Her successor, a position created shortly after the Liberty dropped its title defense’s opening round set to Phoenix, would no doubt both wield and fear it, fully aware of its dual nature.
But it appears that DeMarco wouldn’t have it any other way.
“If you ever played any sport and you’re competitive, this is what you want,” DeMarco said. “You want to be around the best players in the world. You want to be in the best situations for your career, and you want a chance to win. If you don’t, then this is probably not the right career for you.”
DeMarco is best-known for his lasting tenure with the Golden State Warriors to the casual observers, witnessing and creating one of the most dominant extended runs in NBA history. Stationed in the Bay Area since 2012, playoff pressure thus became routine for DeMarco, whose modern playoff workload would probably be rivaled by only narrating staple Mike Breen.
But DeMarco’s buried bit of head coaching experience was referenced several times amidst an eventful afternoon.
DeMarco is noted for his player development work in Golden State: while the modern Warriors are obviously defined by the antics of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, DeMarco seemed particularly proud of his work with Shaun Livingston, who shot 52 percent over five final seasons in Oakland.
Trouble in Paradise Helped DeMarco Cross Coasts
But the Liberty were even more intrigued by what DeMarco did when the virtue of patience wasn’t on his side. DeMarco previously served at the helm of the Bahamas’ men’s national basketball team, where one false move could kick a program seeking mere Olympic inclusion back to square one.
A subsequent globe-trotting seven-game winning streak amassed over a year-plus, but the Bahamas was on the cusp of its greatest hardwood triumph to date: the group went perfect in a pre-qualifying tournament in Argentina (defeating the hosts in the championship finale) before falling one step short of ringed advancement through an eight-point loss to Spain.
The experience was encouraging to DeMarco, who was pleased with the way his group not only responded to pressure but also the way he was able to keep a consistent pace up despite domestic and international interruptions stifling the player development he had become known for at the onset of Golden State’s historic run.
“Anybody who’s played on a national team or been around national teams, you have limited practices. Player development isn’t a real thing because your players are out of market the entire time,” DeMarco noted. “You go into a game where, if you lose, the World Cup is shot, your chance at the Olympics is shot. We had to win, I think, 10 straight games with the Bahamas, twice in Argentina, to even have a shot to play in the championship game against Spain in Spain to go to the Olympics.”
“To me, that’s real pressure. You got a country that you’re representing, and this means everything to the players. Everybody wants to do something special for their country. So again, I’ve always embraced it. I love that part of the sports.”
That more or less mirrors what DeMarco will have to work with in New York: while it was hard to query him about the Liberty roster with the collective bargaining agreement negotiations still raging on, general manager Jonathan Kolb previously professed the “utmost confidence” in keeping the headlining core of Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, and Breanna Stewart together.
Evidence for Kolb’s confidence is plentiful: Stewart offered a verbal commitment after the Liberty’s elimination while unofficial Bay Area ambassador Ionescu will likely cherish the chance to work with a close collaborator of her friend Curry. DeMarco’s interest in advancing Bahaman basketball will likely intrigue Jones, who was trying to showcase the Finals/Finals MVP trophy to her native Freeport the second she got her hands on both.
Of course, any coach with such an arsenal should be careful what he or she wished for. The Liberty earned it all in 2024 and there’s only one thing to get the team that has, or at least had, everything: more. That was evidenced when it cut loose Brondello, the winningest coach in franchise history that had to deal with a plethora of injuries in her final hours, in favor of a name more versed in the modern game.
To further highlight DeMarco’s success in intense adaptation, Kolb lauded the way he succeeded in a “tactical session” the major candidates went through. That test led to Kolb and his team formally attempting to convince DeMarco to switch coasts. With ink to paper, a new brand of pressure closes in and Kolb believes that right man is in place to withstand it.
“When you look at his experience as a head coach with the Bahamas national team, he orchestrated a historic run, and he led a program to unprecedented success, and in that role, he demonstrated an elite ability to quickly adapt,” Kolb declared. “He was adapting to new rule sets, fluctuating rosters and high pressure elimination environments, and while doing so, he proved that he can do more than just manage a system, but he can build one that fits the talent in front of them.”
“Chris possesses a rare combination of tactical, savvy, emotional intelligence as well, as well as an unrelenting work ethic that aligns well with our players as well as just like who we are as a franchise,” Kolb continued. “So we believe that Chris is the right person at this time to unlock the full potential of our group and to lead the New York Liberty to the levels that we all expect.”
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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