Write for The Stein lineJake Fischer reported Thursday that the New York Liberty’s coaching search has narrowed down to three candidates, including former Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets assistant Will Weaver as well as Toronto Raptors assistant Jama Mahlalela and Phoenix Mercury assistant coach and former WNBA All-Star Kristi Tolliver.
Lucas Kaplan of NetsDaily confirmed the information. The Liberty are expected to make their final decision soon, perhaps as early as next week.
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There is no indication that any of the three – only one of whom has W NBA experience – are on the front line, although Fischer reported that Mahlalela met with Clara Wu Tsai two days ago when the Raptors visited the Barclays Center.
Sources say that while Toronto was recently in Brooklyn to play the Nets, Mahlalela had the opportunity to meet Liberty co-owner Clara Wu Tsai.
It would be an irregular time for an NBA assistant coach to leave a franchise so early in the season, but the Raptors obviously know Mahlalela’s position in Liberty’s process.
Wu Tsai is leading the research with Managing Director Jonathan Kolb. The Libs declined to renew head coach Sandy Brondello’s contract in September, a year after she led New York to its first WNBA championship.
Of Weaver, Fischer wrote:
Weaver was there Jacques VaughnBrooklyn’s coaching staff and therefore knows Liberty’s ownership well. He currently serves as a coaching consultant with Charles Lee in Charlotte, similar to positions held by former NBA head coaches Steve Clifford and Mike D’Antoni in Brooklyn when Hornets general manager Jeff Peterson was in the Nets front office.
Weaver has a long resume in the NBA and overseas, but no experience in the WNBA.
The Texas native started as a special assistant to Kenny Atkinson in 2016, eventually becoming an assistant coach and then head coach of the Long Island Nets in 2018-19. Weaver took Long Island to the G League Finals and was named G League Coach of the Year.
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Weaver, currently 41, spent three seasons on the staff of the Philadelphia 76ers, first as video coordinator and basketball operations assistant, then as special assistant to the head coach (2014-16). He also served as an assistant coach for two seasons with the Houston Rockets.
In his role as head coach, Weaver worked for one season as head coach of the Sydney Kings in the Australian NBL, where he led the Kings to first place in the regular season and a trip to the finals. Most recently, Weaver served as head coach of Paris Basketball in LNB Pro A, France’s top division.
Mahlalela, 45, is a Swazi-Canadian basketball coach, currently an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors. Previously, he served as head coach of the NBA G League’s Raptors 905 and as an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors. He also has no WNBA experience.
He was named director of basketball operations for NBA Asia in 2009 and oversaw the League’s clinics, youth programs and elite-level development from his base in Hong Kong. Mahlalela began his tenure as an assistant coach in the 2013-2014 NBA season, then spent two seasons with the Raptors 905 before returning to big club Toronto.
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Tolliver, 38, has the only WNBA experience of the three, both on the court and on the bench, but like the two male candidates, Tolliver also has experience as an NBA assistant, having served three years in Washington with the Wizards and two more with the Dallas Mavericks. The Phoenix Mercury named Toliver associate head coach in December 2023.
She has a long resume as a player at Maryland, where she won a national championship by hitting a game-tying jumper to force the title game into overtime. In the W category, Tolliver won two championships with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2016 and then again with the Washington Mystics in 2019. She also won four consecutive Russian national championships with the Moscow Dynamo and UMMC Ekaterinaburg.
As a WNBA player, Tolliver played 14 years, was a three-time All-Star, one-time All-WNBA and was named Most Improved Player in 2012.
