Sandy Brondello cherishes rare family weekend during WNBA All-Star festivities
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INDIANAPOLIS — There's nothing quite like an impromptu family vacation to Indianapolis, right?
OK, so maybe that city doesn't top the average list of desired getaway spots. And this weekend is technically a work trip for Liberty coach Sandy Brondello and her husband and assistant Olaf Lange.
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But family time can be a rarity for them, especially with their oldest son, Brody, playing basketball in Australia and their teenage daughter, Jayda, living at the family's home base in Phoenix.
So anytime together is better than being apart. And this trip is worth cherishing.
'It wasn't planned,' Lange told The Post, 'but we're grateful.'
3 Assistant coach Olaf Lange (L) and head coach Sandy Brondello of the New York Liberty talk in the second quarter of Game Two of the 2023 WNBA Playoffs finals against the Las Vegas Aces at Michelob ULTRA Arena on October 11, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Admittedly, Brondello thought she was free from All-Star coaching obligations since the Mercury were a half game ahead of the Liberty in the WNBA standings with only the Wings on deck earlier this month before the top two WNBA coaches were picked.
But the Mercury surprisingly lost their July 3 game, which meant the Liberty had the second-best win percentage in the league.
So much for those plans to lay low and enjoy a summer weekend in New York ahead of the second half of the Liberty season.
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Don't get it wrong: Brondello was honored to be named a coach for Saturday's All-Star Game, and the rest of her family was excited to spend time together.
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'We'll enjoy the whole part of it,' Brondello said. 'They love being around the team. They love getting to know the players and it's great that we get to share [this] with our family.'
The family of four planned to go to dinner and attend several of the events taking place over the weekend, including Sabrina Ionescu's party on Thursday. They also attended Friday night's festivities and watched Natasha Cloud win the skills challenge and Ionescu become the 3-point champion.
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Talk about an amusing Friday night for this — as Lange put it — 'family of all basketball fanatics.'
'It's become this fun weekend where there's a little bit of work to do but [not nearly as much] that happens during the season,' Lange said.
3 Olaf Lange and Sandy Brondello look on before the game against the Minnesota Lynx during Game 3 of the 2024 WNBA Finals on October 16, 2024 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Brondello and Lange's intense passion for basketball has been inherited by their two children.
Neither Brondello nor Lange forced Brody and Jayda to play the sport they made careers out of, but the two naturally gravitated toward the game at a young age.
Jayda plays on her high school basketball team, and Brody is in Brondello's native country developing his game.
When he was at Liberty practice last week, he took some reps going up against WNBA players.
Given that Jayda lives a shorter flight away, she's around the Liberty more often. After practices, Lange has been seen working with her on her floater and Brondello on the 15-year-old's catch-and-shoot 3s.
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This lifestyle — one that they've been practically living since Brondello and Lange met in Germany in the 1990s — works for them.
Brondello and Lange, who married in 2005, have coached alongside one another in San Antonio, Russia and for Australia's national women's basketball team.
3 Kiki Iriafen of the Washington Mystics and head coach Sandy Brondello of the New York Liberty react during the 2025 AT&T WNBA All-Star practice sessions at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 18, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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They coached against one another in the 2021 WNBA Finals when Lange was then an assistant on the Chicago Sky's staff and Brondello headed the Phoenix Mercury.
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'We've been doing this for almost 30 years, it works for us,' said Lange, who joined Brondello in Brooklyn in 2022. 'I understand that many people say, 'I couldn't work with my spouse.' But we've been doing this since we were young. So for us, it's just our life. And we got home, we still talk about basketball every day, and we love it.'
His kids enjoy it, too.
'It's really fun because I always know that they're telling me the right things and they're always going to be honest,' Jayda said. 'It's very nice to have all the resources and opportunities just to learn more. It's really fun.'
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Attending WNBA Finals games, being part of last year's championship parade in New York and getting behind-the-scenes access to this year's All-Star festivities are just some of the perks.
'When they're grown up and they're looking back on all those years, they will realize how special these days were,' Lange said. 'You never realize it as much when you're in the moment.'
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