Chris DeMarco, New York Liberty’s new coach
The New York Liberty have reached an agreement to hire Chris DeMarco as their new head coach. DeMarco, who served as an assistant for the Golden State Warriors for a long time, will take over the position on the WNBA team.
The Liberty executives and DeMarco’s agent, Brian Elfus, finalized the terms of the agreement on Friday. DeMarco, who has been with the Warriors since 2012, has held various roles, including assistant coach and player development coach, as the team won four NBA titles. Since 2019, he has also been the head coach of the Bahamas men’s national basketball team.
Although DeMarco will be on the Warriors’ bench in the near future, he is expected to join the Liberty at some point this season. The exact schedule is yet to be determined.
DeMarco was responsible for the Warriors’ defense and worked closely with Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole during his time on the team.
Among the other candidates considered by the Liberty were Will Weaver, former assistant of the Brooklyn Nets; Kristi Toliver, former WNBA champion and current associate coach of the Phoenix Mercury; and Jama Mahlalela, assistant of the Toronto Raptors.
The Liberty are one of the five WNBA teams that have made a head coach appointment this offseason. Predecessor Sandy Brondello’s contract expired in September.
After winning their first WNBA championship in 2024, New York seemed capable of defending the title with a 9-0 start in 2025, but injuries to stars like Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart, among others, led the team to be eliminated in the first round of the postseason.
Upon Brondello’s departure, Kolb said the franchise was seeking “evolution and innovation” and asked: “How do we position ourselves to be at the top of the league in a truly sustainable way as the league evolves?”
Brondello, who was with the team for four seasons, has said that she believed there was not a good alignment between her and the Liberty’s management, and indicated that there was a lack of partnership. She was officially hired as the first coach of the Toronto Tempo earlier this month.
With most of the roster in free agency this offseason, as players await a new collective bargaining agreement, New York only has two players under contract: veterans Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally. However, Kolb said he has the “utmost confidence” that stars like Stewart, Jones, and 2020 No. 1 draft pick Sabrina Ionescu will want to return to Brooklyn in 2026.
Ionescu contacted Warriors star Steph Curry during the recruitment process to ask about DeMarco.
