Because the WNBA’s first enlargement group in 17 years, the Golden State Valkyries made their very own mark within the historical past books of their very first sport on Might 16.
That is when Natalie Nakase formally turned the primary Asian-American to teach a sport within the WNBA.
At simply over 5-foot-1 Nakase will not be the prototypical basketball participant or coach. She started her profession as a walk-on guard at UCLA, ultimately incomes the beginning job her junior yr and turning into group captain.
She performed professionally within the Nationwide Girls’s Basketball League. However when the league shut down and Nakase did not make a roster within the WNBA, she went abroad to proceed her enjoying profession. She pivoted to teaching after a career-ending knee damage, and frolicked in Germany and Japan earlier than she returned to the US to change into a video intern for the LA Clippers. She spent a decade within the NBA and in the end was named an assistant coach for the Clippers.
In 2022, Nakase was employed as an assistant coach within the WNBA underneath Becky Hammon, they usually led the Las Vegas Aces to the primary back-to-back WNBA championships in 21 years.
Nakase, who was named the Valkyries’ coach in October, is off to a 2-2 begin, together with her group notching its first victory at residence on Might 21. Nakase not too long ago sat down with ESPN to speak about her journey to the top teaching job and the influence her father and different mentors have performed in her life.
(Observe: This interview is edited for readability.)
What are your expectations for this season?
Nakase: We’re a brand-new group, it is going to take time and so I am actually permitting our ladies house to course of the season day-to-day. I am attempting to get them to get the mindset of, let’s simply get 1% higher each single day, simply be in command of what we are able to management.
And I believe that takes a variety of — I hate the phrase stress — however just a few excessive expectations off their shoulders. I simply need them to play with pleasure.
We have seen some clips of the gamers dancing and leaping round pregame. Is that the enjoyment you are speaking about?
Nakase: We now have a variety of abroad gamers; after all they’ll be concerned and nervous. So on the primary day of camp I informed my employees, “We’ll have to bounce. We’ll have to only shake issues up, make a idiot of ourselves and get them to snort.”
At first the employees did not wish to, however I informed them we needed to shake issues up and get the gamers out of their consolation zone. So I despatched the assistant coaches a clip of this dance and I informed them to be able to go.
The subsequent morning I requested in the event that they have been prepared they usually’re like, “Coach, we have been practising all night time!”
And we simply gave the gamers somewhat dance.
I must know what dance it was.
Nakase: I can not inform you that. Come on! That is between us and the gamers. However they laughed. That is all I wished was to get them to snort and smile and to grasp that if you stroll into the Sephora Efficiency Heart, it is your protected zone. You may make as many errors as you need. You can fail as a lot as you need. We’re a brand-new group. So perceive, we wish errors and we are able to appropriate them on a day-to-day foundation.
You have stated your father, Gary Nakase, closely impacted your profession. You posted on Instagram about visiting his grave web site after successful your first WNBA championship. Did you go to him after you bought this job?
Nakase: Oh, that acquired me fast. [Pause] I did not have time, which is admittedly unlucky. His birthday was Oct. 20. [The Valkyries hired Nakase on Oct. 10.] I used to be attempting to get there, however I needed to make the transfer to San Francisco, make the transition and dive into this job.
The anniversary of his demise is coming quickly. However I am constructed for this and he would’ve stated that, too. My dad cusses, so he would’ve stated, “Nat, you needn’t f—ing go to me. I do not want no f—ing flowers.” He hates flowers. He’d say, “Simply go do your work. Go focus in your aim.”
He simply at all times wished to only be behind the scenes, however pushed me in methods the place he knew I might stand by myself.
What have a few of your mentors suggested you in regards to the job?
Nakase: [Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball coach and former Clippers assistant] Armond Hill has been an enormous mentor for me. He was with me the primary week of coaching camp and I had a nasty follow. I might inform. Nicely, I might inform as a result of he informed me proper after. He let me know every part that I did improper and he was proper on level.
In order that night time I stayed up until 3 o’clock within the morning and labored on what I wanted to do. It is robust love. It is type of like the identical mentality from my dad. [Hill] is aware of the place I am weak and he will push me and name me out for these weaknesses.
I truly hit up [Boston Celtics coach] Joe Mazzula as effectively, and his line is: “Do not be afraid to die.”
It is somewhat bit extra darkish, nevertheless it’s the identical thought: Take large dangers. That is your first yr. Go forward, go all out however perceive if you take large dangers, you simply have gotten to be able to take the autumn and study from it. You can have success and you might have failure on the identical time, and that is the fantastic thing about what we get to do every single day.
The First of a Lifetime. Congrats, Coach Natalie in your first @WNBA head teaching win ✨🪽@Sephora | The Firsts pic.twitter.com/tSedJwliHA
— Golden State Valkyries (@valkyries) Might 22, 2025
You received two championships with the Aces underneath coach Becky Hammon. What did you study that successful mentality that you could carry right here?
Nakase: That successful is hard. Successful takes rather a lot. I do know individuals wish to say successful takes a variety of luck, however I believe you put together your luck. So I’d say these two years that we received, I’ve by no means labored as exhausting in my life. Becky actually pushed me to try this, however she additionally challenged me and consistently requested me, “Nat, problem me. Here is the sport plan, choose it aside.” No coach has ever stated that. Most head coaches are like, that is my sport plan, take care of it. However she wished me to select it aside.
On the finish of the day, she does not sleep, both. She stays up till 2 or 3 o’clock within the morning. We’re consistently fascinated with basketball, consistently considering how we are able to get higher. We wish to be No. 1. What does that appear to be?
I will be perpetually grateful for her as a result of these two years have been the hardest. However actually, it was the very best basketball expertise of my life.
You labored with Chris Paul and A’ja Wilson. What does working with gamers of that caliber do for you as a coach?
Nakase: Excessive-caliber gamers, they make me higher. Once I met Chris Paul, he informed me he watches each single NBA sport. So I informed myself, “I’ve to observe each single sport too.”
What I discovered from that’s it gave me a pathway to speak to him. I’d textual content him, “Hey, this sport proper now, it is a two-point sport. What are you doing on this state of affairs?”
I knew he was watching so he would give me suggestions like, “That is what I search for. That is what I do.” I acquired to study from among the finest level guards on the earth at the moment.
A’ja Wilson might be probably the most humble star I’ve ever been round. She at all times wished to influence the subsequent era. I requested why that’s so necessary to her and he or she stated it is as a result of there’s not that many highly effective black feminine athletes. And after I noticed her and the best way she spoke about it, she does not care if she’s the No. 1 participant on the earth, she does not care that she will get all these accolades and a spotlight. She cares about how she’s going to go away her footprint into this world. That is what I really like about A’ja.
Rising up, there was nobody that seemed such as you or me enjoying this sport. What does it imply to you that little children now have you ever to have a look at?
Nakase: It means the world to me. I truly by no means actually voiced that, nevertheless it does imply the world. And I felt that through the first preseason sport. You consider it, however when it truly involves fruition and also you’re trying round and also you see 17,000 followers that you just get to influence in two hours, that is fairly iconic in a approach. However I’ve discovered that is actually not why I am the primary. I acquired to verify I am not the final.
