Why Brondello was suspended for Reese comment
Natalie Esquire and Terrika Foster-Brasby debrief Toronto Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello's one-game suspension after she called Atlanta Dream star Angel Reese a 'protected species' during the teams' matchup.
Video Transcript
Welcome to the WNBA on NBC.
I'm Natalie Esquire, and I'm joined today by Terica Foster Brasby.
And, you know, last night we had a game on Peacock between the Toronto Tempo and the Las Vegas Aces, but the, the leading headline going into that game was not that A'ja Wilson was coming to town or that these two teams were gonna be taking each other on, but it was that Sandy Brondello, the head coach of the Toronto Tempo, would be serving a one-game suspension for s- a comment that she made about Angel Reese when the Toronto Tempo played, played the Atlanta Dream the game before.
And so, there was a person online, on Twitter, who said, "Calling a Black woman a species, dot, dot, dot."
And Angel Reese quoted, that person and she said, "Are we surprised?"
And she tagged Sandy Brondello with a clown emoji.
And so, just to give a little context to, to what actually happened, when the Toronto Tempo played the Atlanta Dream, like I said, it was their, their prior game before they played Las Vegas last night.
There was a play where Angel was trying to score, Niyiara was defending her.
There was some contact, and you know, players that play down low, that, that, that happens.
But a defensive foul was called.
It was called on Niyiara, and Niyiara also got injured during that play.
And so Sandy Bronz- Brondello was upset, and she was, you know, making it known, her feelings to the referees that she was upset.
And in doing that, she referred to what we have now all heard.
If you listen to the replay, it's been, like, circling on social media.
She referred to Angel as a protected species.
So when that fan said, "Referring to a Black woman as a species", that's what she's talking about.
Sandy Brondello referred to Angel as a protected species, and, that was heard on the broadcast, and it made its rounds on social, and people weighing in.
And when that occurred, then Sandy Brondello issued an apology to Angel Reese.
And so she actually did that from her own account on X.
And I have to say, I thought I was impressed with the apology.
And, and maybe, maybe I shouldn't say I'm impressed with it, because when you offend someone, you should apologize, right?
But sometimes we know apologies are not handled properly, and I thought Sandy handled this properly.
And so she said, "Angel, I'm sorry.
Last night, in the emotion of the moment, after Niyiara's injury, I used a phrase that I shouldn't have used, and I take full responsibility for that.
My frustration was with the officiating, but my words unfairly put the focus on you.
I also understand that my words carried an impact beyond what I intended, particularly for Black women in our league, and I'm deeply sorry for that.
I've spent my career competing with, coaching, and learning from incredible Black women.
I regret that my words caused hurt to a community I respect so deeply.
I have a lot of respect for you as both a player and a person, and I sincerely apologize to you, your teammates, and the Dream organization for my comments."
Okay?
So Sandy Brondello had that to say, and then in response to that, when the, the Atlanta Dream had media availability, Angel Reese responded to just the aftermath of what had occurred and to Sandy Brondello's apology.
Let's hear from Angel on what she had to say.
Hello, everyone.
I'm sure everyone knows about the situation that happened last game.
I'm gonna address this one time.
First, I appreciate, Sandy's apology, but also appreciate the love and support that I have had for the last 48 hours.
It has been very overwhelming, with a lot of love and also other things.
But, I am grateful that the league did take action on what the situation had happened.
There's no place, for discrimination or hate in this league from anyone, from fans to coaches to players.
And I'm just grateful that we are able to move on from the situation and, just play win- winning basketball.
The WNBA is supposed to be positive, and we are going in a great light right now, so I just wanna continue that and move forward.
So that was Angel Reese.
And so there's so much to unpack here, but the one thing that I wanna say is, like, obviously she opened her statement by saying she, you know, she's only addressing this once, and she appreciates Sandy's apology, and then also went on to address the support of others.
There was a conversation before this even happened where it was just like Sandy apologized, and you know, people were just even having conversations obviously to, you know, breaking down whether they thought the apology was it good, was it not, whatever.
But there was also this sort of conversation around, you know, whether or not, you know, it's Angel's, it's Angel who has to accept the apology.
And when I say has to, I don't mean she has to do it.
I'm saying we can't say like, "Okay, this is a good apology, and that's good, and Angel should forgive her, and not, you know, still take offense."
It's up to Angel whether she accept this or not, or acknowledges it or not.
She obviously did acknowledge it and said she appreciates it, but that still doesn't tell us much about how Angel's feeling except that she appreciates the apology.
And I just wanna make clear that that's okay.
When you, when you're offended, when someone does something offensive to you, regardless of the intent, you don't have to forgive them.
You don't have to accept their apology.
You would like it if they do, but it's completely up to Angel, and she should not have to be required to.
But if she does Great.
And if she doesn't, that's totally okay as well, and I just need people to accept, accept that.
No matter where you come down on this, and we will dig into it, Angel is entitled to her feelings.
They are valid, and we don't get to disregard those because you feel she should feel differently.
So, Tsareka, so much happened, right?
Where, where, where do you fall on just how this all played out?
Yeah, this is a very, This is a very interesting situation, and I feel like there is a ton of emotion, understandably so, from people outside of the three people involved in this situation, which is Angel, Niarra, and Sandy Brondello.
I was on the call for that game.
I was working alongside my partner Brendan Glasheen, and at the time, we were trying to figure out what was going on with Niarra.
And if you've ever Well, not if you've ever, but for the context of when you're working a broadcast, there are tons of things going on at the same time, right?
You've got your headset on.
You hear the natural sound in the background, which includes the fans, the coaches, the refs, the players.
You hear your producer in your ear.
You also hear your play-by-play or analyst depending on where you're sitting.
So there's a lot of things going on in your ears at the same time, and on top of that, you're actually trying to talk through what's happening on the court.
And so in that moment, I initially did not hear Sandy's comments.
I could hear Sandy talking to the referees, but I mean, we hear coaches talking to the refs and saying things all the time.
Our job was in that moment trying to be able to tell the viewer what was going on with Niarra and her injury because it appeared so many different ways, right?
It, it looked so many different ways.
It was only after the game did we start to hear the circulation of what was said.
And I had to Google, Natalie, what that even meant.
Right.
'Cause I, I did not understand.
I did not understand, and this is just the truth of the matter, right?
Like, I didn't under- I didn't understand.
And apparently, from what I've learned in Australian culture, that there are two different types of definitions for the term protected species, that it's commonly used in Australia, to describe a player in sports that is, that is someone that is, protected from the referees, that's coddled, that's, that's shown favoritism.
But there's also the context that, this term has been used against indigenous people in Australia who have been persecuted, who have been treated unfairly, who have had a common experience to the Black American.
And for someone to call them a protected species knowing that they are far from being treated, fairly or with favoritism, is a bit of prejudice to the indigenous people of Australia.
It is something that they hi- hold highly offensive.
And so now we're getting into the territory of is Sandy Brondello the type of person to say this meaning the negative connotation?
Or in the moment where her player was injured on a foul but was still called for the foul, was she using it in the sports connotation to say that Angel is being favored because she's Angel Reese?
And I think that's kind of where if you're sitting on this, you have to say, "Okay, I don't think that An- that Sandy Brondello has ever shown me through her actions that I have seen, been involved in, or the people that have been around her that would say or suggest that she is one to use racial connotations or to use negative connotations that pertain to race in any way."
Not what I've seen, not what I've heard.
But I also understand that, again, intent doesn't always dictate impact.
And while it may have been used in her mind for the sports part of it, it doesn't change the fact that that negative connotation associated with that is going to hurt some people, and it's going to be taken some type of way.
And given the history of animalistic descriptions with Black people and Black women in the country of the United States, neither case comes across as acceptable.
And so there's that little grace that you wanna offer, Nat, because you understand in the heat of the moment people do and say things that they don't necessarily mean to do and say when they're angry, but there's also an accountability that has to come from the fact that regardless of how this may have been meant, this was the impact.
And we have seen the WNBA make these types of decisions previously when it comes to the way coaches speak about players.
For example, I distinctly remember back in 2001 excuse me, 2021, I believe it was, or maybe 2019, Kurt Miller had made some, who at the time was the head coach of the Connecticut Sun, had made some disparaging comments around the size of Liz Cambage, and the, and the WNBA suspended him for those comments.
Those comments pertained to her weight and her size, and the WNBA suspended him for those comments.
And again, whether the, the intent of that was what it was, there was something that needed to be done because you have to say that these things just can't be acceptable.
So I don't, disagree with the decision that the WNBA made, but I just personally didn't think that Sandy Brondello meant it in a negative way, however the im- the impact is still the impact, it needed to be handled accordingly.
