At the close of many a regular season in many a sport, a few coaches and/or managers typically find out that they have either coached or managed a team for the final time. Typically, coach and manager firings occur from teams who failed to make the postseason that year.
When the WNBA’s 2025 season concluded, the five teams that did not make the playoffs – the Washington Mystics, Los Angeles Sparks, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun and Dallas Wings did not make any coaching changes.
The Mystics are sticking with Sydney Johnson. Tyler Marsh will return for the Sky as is the case with Lynne Roberts with the Sparks. It appears Rachid Meziane will be back for the Sun and Chris Koclanes is returning for the Wings as the organization looks to build around Paige Bueckers.
A pair of coaching changes will take place – and they are involving teams who made the playoffs but were eliminated in the first round.
One of those coaching changes will involve the Seattle Storm as it was announced shortly after the team was eliminated in the first round of the postseason by the Las Vegas Aces that Noelle Quinn was let go from the organization.
That is a significant change from a WNBA standpoint as a whole. The Storm letting go of Quinn means that, as of this writing, no Black women are head coaches in the W. That, to say the least, is anything but a positive look for a league which is comprised of 80% Black women.
Even outside of the negative racial message it sends, it is clear that Quinn was evaluated more on the Storm’s struggles in the second half of the season as opposed to the success the team encountered in the former portions of 2025. At the All-Star break, Seattle was in line for a top four playoff seed – which means the Storm would have hosted a possible Game 3 of the first round at Climate Pledge Arena.
The Storm eventually became the seventh seed – which means taking on the Aces in Game 3 at Michelob Ultra Arena. Even with this, Seattle nearly pulled off a miraculous upset of a Las Vegas team that was surging into postseason play. That surge was so emphatic it netted A’ja Wilson her fourth MVP award.
It is yet to be known what the Storm’s roster – or that of any team for that matter will look like in 2026. The number of veterans on said roster from Nneka Ogwumike to Skylar Diggins to Brittney Sykes to Erica Wheeler to Gabby Williams looks like a team tailor-made for someone like a Sandy Brondello to replace Quinn in the Emerald City.
Speaking of Brondello, her being fired from the New York Liberty was arguably more of a shock than the Quinn firing. After all, this is the same Brondello which coached the 2024 version of the Liberty to its first championship in franchise history.
Prior to last season, New York was the only remaining Original Eight team to have not raised a championship banner to its rafters.
The Liberty’s title defense was hampered by injuries to many key players – most notably Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. Natasha Cloud – a fan favorite among Lib Loyals – was added to the team prior to the season and Jonathan Kolb looked to bolster seafoam, black and copper fortunes with the addition of Emma Meesseman – who was 2019 Finals MVP with the Mystics.
Even with the injuries, one can say that a Liberty roster that still had Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones at its core should still be a top three team in the W.
And while New York still made the playoffs, the Jones that was the most consistent player for the Liberty during its last two playoff runs (including her Finals MVP run last season) was not the same Jones we saw in these playoffs.
When all is said and done, one should expect both Seattle and New York to be fine. After all, both teams – especially the Liberty – have ownership groups that either have invested or are investing heavily in state-of-the-art practice facilities.
But when a coach gets fired a year after leading a franchise to a first-ever ring or when a coach takes a championship-caliber team to the brink, it only reinforces exactly why so many players (and coaches) for that matter take the money when they have the chance.
