Sandy Brondello says its herself -- this could be the best year ever.
Still buzzing after leading the Opals to an Olympic bronze medal in France, the Australian coach is now fiercely focused on delivering foundation WNBA franchise New York Liberty its first championship.
The Liberty secured top seeding with Wednesday's win over Washington and Brondello and her star players including Brianna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, who won gold with the USA, have let Parisian momentum spill into the resumption of their WNBA campaign.
"When we got back from Paris we had eight games in 16 days. The adrenalin and excitement of what we achieved at the Olympics was carrying me through and I was still a little bit on cloud nine because it was just an amazing, amazing tournament," Brondello told ESPN on the eve of the Liberty's final game of the regular season against Atlanta.
"Winning bronze, it's still such an amazing moment. I saw (Opal) Jade Melbourne yesterday and she said 'I'm still on cloud nine' and I was like 'I know!'
"The memories just come flooding back of how proud you are of the team.
"If you're playing for your country, the goal is winning an Olympic medal. When you're in the WNBA it's winning a title and that's what we want to do now. We've got one more month.
"A championship would mean everything, for our city -- we've got so much support here. This is an original franchise so it would be pretty special, for the ownership and of course the players.
"It could be the best year ever."
A four-time Olympian and three-time medallist as a star guard with an iconic jump shot, Brondello's first Olympic experience at the helm of the Opals was disastrous with Liz Cambage's 11th hour withdrawal from the team derailing the 2020 Tokyo campaign.
Hopes of a return to the podium, for the first time in 12 years, were high for 2024.
Preparation for the selected 12 was almost non existent with six players in the WNBA then forward Bec Allen sustaining a hamstring injury on the eve of the Games.
Then, the program suffered its worst-ever loss, an embarrassing first-up capitulation to Nigeria - Australia's first-ever loss to an African nation.
"We were terrible, I didn't sugar coat it, we were bad - it was like 'oh my god, we've forgotten how to play basketball' but we'd never played this physical style and we had a very young group. We worked it out on the fly, leant into the veterans and just to see the experience the younger players have gotten is going to make them better as we move forward.
"No other team would have faced the adversity we did, but it showed the class of these players, the culture that we've built and the way we stayed together. It was devastating when we lost Bec, such a key part of our team, Steph Talbot was on one foot, we've got some young players and those little things really add up but it was about not losing the belief.
"That France game will go down as one of the most epic games I've been a part of, under the circumstances, and then the Belgium (bronze medal) game was just amazing.
"It's not easy (finishing on the podium) people think it's easy and especially with the landscape for Australian women's basketball now, we have such little time together compared to other countries but we're not making excuses, we found a way.
"We had some amazing performances and it was someone different on any given day and that's what I liked, we relied on the team not just one person.
"I've had many moments to reflect on it. We'll remember the bronze medal of course but the journey is what we remember too."
Amid a hectic coaching schedule, Brondello enjoyed some more reflection last week when she returned to Phoenix for the 10-year reunion of the 2014 WNBA championship, which she won in her first year in charge.
Reliving the glory times and catching up with the likes of fellow Aussies Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips, the legendary Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner stirred something in Brondello.
"It was good to be back and we had a really special group that year and it was just amazing to reconnect with them, reminisce a little bit.
"It was my first and only championship and being there gave me a little bit more motivation because they're hard to win and I've been there a few times."
In earning top seed, the Liberty have already achieved a goal they made at the start of the year.
After assembling a super team, New York fell to an all-conquering Las Vegas Aces, 3-1, in 2023 and learned the hard way the importance of earning, and protecting, home court advantage.
"We lost on our home court last year but we didn't play well," Brondello explains.
"Vegas were just better on the night but when they had two players missing (Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes) you try not to be complacent but I think a little complacency crept in, as if we were just going to win, so we have that experience now but it still stings. We learned a lot from that and I think we've grown so much as a team from the experiences.
"We did a lot in year one, we have to remember what we actually did achieve. We lost the championship but we put a team together, it's hard to bring all these great players together and win a championship the first year, it's unheard of.
"So, I'm really proud of that and really proud of how we came in with the mentality this year. We overcame a lot of injuries, we brought in some really good pieces that complement our core group and we're excited for the play-offs, hopefully we get off to a nice, strong start."
Championships are hard to win and Brondello knows what makes a special group. She saw it in 2014 and she sees it in this Liberty team.
"They remind me of the Mercury team to be quite honest," she says.
"We already had chemistry so we've got a year under our belts, the Phoenix Mercury starting five had played together for years, it was everyone coming in and having to sacrifice a little bit, their roles are a little bit different - maybe you're not going to shoot as much or get as many touches but everyone was important to the overall success of the team.
"Just playing selfless basketball and I think that's when we're at our best so hopefully those similarities will help us in achieving our ultimate goal which is winning a title."