Becky Hammon sent Sandy Brondello a text before the WNBA season started with a simple few words: "This is about to be fun." It has been for Hammon's defending champion Las Vegas Aces and Brondello and the New York Liberty.
Now when the two preseason favourites to win it all meet in the WNBA Finals they will be the first former players to meet as head coaches for the championship.
With New York building a formidable team in the offseason through free agency and trades with the additions of Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot, Hammon knew A'ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and the rest of the Aces were going to have a new threat to their title defence led by her former coach in San Antonio.
She wasn't wrong. The first-place Aces and the second-seeded Liberty will tip off the highly anticipated showdown in the best-of-five WNBA Finals on Sunday. "We have a lot of mutual respect.