---
title: "WNBA Suspends Brondello for One Game Over Remark About Reese"
description: "The league suspended the Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello for one game after she described the Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese as a protected species while complaining to officials. Brondello has apologized. Reese said she appreciated the apology and was grateful the league acted."
category: "Sports"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/sports
author: "Thomas Berger"
published: 2026-07-20T13:33:19.000Z
updated: 2026-07-20T13:33:19.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/wnba-suspends-brondello-for-one-game-over-remark-about-reese
tags: ["wnba", "basketball", "angel-reese", "sandy-brondello"]
---
# WNBA Suspends Brondello for One Game Over Remark About Reese

The league suspended the Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello for one game after she described the Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese as a protected species while complaining to officials. Brondello has apologized. Reese said she appreciated the apology and was grateful the league acted.

The WNBA has suspended Sandy Brondello, the head coach of the Toronto Tempo, for one game over a remark she made about the Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese.

The account below is drawn from [ESPN's report](https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49403126/reese-appreciates-brondello-apology-grateful-ban) of the incident and its aftermath.

## What happened

Atlanta beat Toronto 112-92 on Friday. During the game, the Tempo player Nyara Sabally went down injured after contact with Reese, and Sabally was called for the foul.

While addressing the officials about it, Brondello referred to Reese as a "protected species," a complaint about how she believed the game was being refereed.

The league called it an inappropriate comment and said it "expects all players and staff to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and respect." The suspension is for a single game, to be served on Monday when Toronto host the Las Vegas Aces.

## Brondello's explanation

Brondello said the phrase is not what an American audience took it to be.

"It's a statement that's very common in Australia, it wasn't directed at Angel," she said, before adding: "It was just unfortunate. I was pretty emotional with Nyara, her being injured again."

She has apologized, saying "I am truly sorry" and "I never want that to happen to anyone."

Brondello is Australian, and the expression she used is a familiar one in Australian sport, where it is aimed at officiating rather than at a person. That is her account of what she meant. It is not a defense the league accepted as sufficient to avoid a sanction.

## Reese's response

Reese was measured about it.

"First, I appreciate Sandy's apology, but I also appreciate the love and support," she said, adding: "I am grateful that the league did take action."

That is the whole of what she is reported to have said on the matter, and it is worth not extrapolating from it.

## What the case is really about

The disciplinary question here is narrower than the argument it has generated.

A phrase can be an unremarkable idiom in one country and land very differently in another, particularly when directed at a Black player in a league where a majority of players are Black and where the treatment of individual players by officials is already a live and racially charged debate. Brondello says she did not intend the meaning that was heard. The league's position, in suspending her, is that intent is not the only thing that matters in how a coach speaks about a player.

Both of those can be true at once, and the one-game penalty suggests a league treating the remark as a lapse rather than as something worse.

Neither the reasoning behind the length of the suspension nor any appeal has been detailed publicly.

## Sources

- [Reese appreciates Brondello apology, grateful for ban](https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/49403126/reese-appreciates-brondello-apology-grateful-ban)