Valkyries' Nakase wins COY for successful debut

Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase has won the WNBA's Coach of the Year award, the league announced Wednesday.

The first-year coach led the Valkyries to a 23-21 record -- more than five times the number of games the last WNBA expansion team won in 2008 (Dream went 4-30). Golden State also became the first expansion team to make the playoffs in its inaugural season.

Nakase received 53 of the 72 votes. Dream coach Karl Smesko got 15 votes, while the Las Vegas Aces' Becky Hammon and Minnesota Lynx's Cheryl Reeve each got two.

After spending the past three seasons as an assistant coach under Hammon with the Aces, Nakase was hired by team owner Joe Lacob and the Valkyries in October 2024. She went through a rigorous interview process, but when she and Lacob finally met face-to-face in a Las Vegas hotel during the NBA Summer League, it became clear this job was hers.

"At first, I was obviously nervous," Nakase said. "The winning culture ... everything that he does, he sets a goal for himself, he accomplishes it. ... I was so inspired by having an interview with him."

Lacob made his goal for his WNBA clear, as he has done before with the Warriors his NBA team.

"Whoever gets this job, you have to win in five years. That's the requirement," Nakase recalled Lacob saying. "When you doubt me or put a good challenge in front of me, I'm going to go after it 100%. ... That's when I knew I really want to work for this guy because he has high standards."

But even Lacob's expectations for the Valkyries' first season were surpassed.

Nearly all of Nakase's players finished the season averaging career highs, including Most Improved Player winner Veronica Burton. Before a season-ending injury in July, Kayla Thornton was also making a case for that award.

But Nakase is the last one to take credit for her team's accomplishments. Any time she is asked about what she has been able to do this season, she first shines the spotlight on her staff and everyone else around her. One of the reasons Nakase credits everyone else for her success is that they have let her stay true to who she is to the fullest degree.

"As soon as I met her, I realized [how intense she is]," Burton said. "I love it. She is so passionate about everything that she does. She's really intentional about it, and she clearly cares so much. When you have someone who is super invested and it's helping us, it's for us, how can you not want that?"

Nakase knew she was a bit of a basketball sicko -- texting her staff until 3 a.m., watching film for countless hours and being a self-proclaimed "MFer" with a bad mouth.

She didn't realize how it was perceived externally. It's odd for some people. But she always feels fully accepted at Golden State.

"I thought I was a little more joyous, I thought I had a smile on my face, but I'm starting to learn that I'm more intense," Nakase said. "The reason why I'm doing that is because the players allow me to be myself. I'm proud they are accepting me for who I am. They allow me to coach them hard, to tell them the truth, to cuss at them directly in moments they need it."

She continued: "The more I feel I am loved and cared about in an environment, the more I can be myself."