{"id":239456,"date":"2025-09-19T17:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239456\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T17:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:39:09","slug":"natalie-nakase-joe-lacob-and-the-new-standard-for-valkyries-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239456\/","title":{"rendered":"Natalie Nakase, Joe Lacob, and the new standard for Valkyries basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

This piece originally appeared in our twice-weekly sports newsletter The Dime. Sign up here<\/a> to receive this and other email newsletters from The Standard.<\/p>\n

Shortly after arriving on the west coast following a cross-country flight, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert walked into the SAP Center in San Jos\u00e9 with a schedule to follow and a script in hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Golden State Valkyries, the league\u2019s newest team, reached unprecedented heights for an expansion franchise by winning 23 regular-season games and earning a playoff berth in their inaugural campaign. Engelbert made the trip to present Natalie Nakase with a hard-earned Coach of the Year award.<\/p>\n

When Engelbert announced the honor on Wednesday, she butchered the pronunciation of the coach\u2019s last name.<\/p>\n

Instead of saying \u201cNatalie Nuh-KAH-say,\u201d the commissioner read her name aloud as \u201cNatalie Nuh-KAY-zee.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Nakase, Valkyries GM Ohemaa Nyanin, and team president Jess Smith sitting in the front row of the media room, Engelbert\u2019s gaffe was embarrassing. Worse, it went uncorrected.<\/p>\n

Nakase isn\u2019t an unknown figure. She\u2019s one of the league\u2019s best stories and the coach who Engelbert\u2019s office had fined just two days earlier for sharp criticism of officials following a Game 1 loss in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The commissioner can\u2019t exactly plead ignorance here.<\/p>\n

The slight highlights how the league itself runs a public relations and marketing operation that pales in comparison to how its highest-profile franchises conduct business. The Valkyries, for example, had 10,000-plus season-ticket holders in their inaugural season, sold out all 22 home games, and were valued at $500 million less than two years after owner Joe Lacob paid a $50 million expansion fee to establish the team.<\/p>\n

For a region that\u2019s long craved a WNBA team, the Valkyries probably would have activated a hungry fan base regardless of who coached them this year. But the fact it was Nakase, who immediately established herself as a top-tier motivator and tactician, means they should be a force for years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Natalie\u2019s case, at some point, she\u2019ll process everything that\u2019s just happened in her first season,\u201d Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said pregame. \u201cFor her, it\u2019s unfortunate because the bar is really high\u201d<\/p>\n

Nakase\u2019s own expectations have never aligned with what the rest of the league anticipated from the Valkyries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to win this year, so to me, I\u2019m disappointed in myself,\u201d Nakase said following a season-ending loss<\/a>. \u201cSo I can\u2019t wait for next year. I don\u2019t see this as setting the bar high, hell no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the Valkyries\u2019 trajectory looks far different than it did just five months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you meet [expectations] year in and year out?\u201d Reeve rhetorically asked. \u201cBut that\u2019s the joy of it. Natalie will be a multi-time Coach of the Year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nakase, the former Las Vegas Aces assistant, took a roster of mid-tier free-agents, young European transplants, and players left unprotected in the WNBA\u2019s expansion draft and turned it into a contender. Nearly every player on the roster enjoyed the best season of their respective pro careers, and so many of Golden State\u2019s top talents \u2013 especially Veronica Burton and Janelle Sala\u00fcn \u2013 have the potential to keep improving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, Nakase established a culture that looks capable of surviving change. Due to an expiring CBA, an upcoming expansion draft, and typical offseason transactions, the Valkyries\u2019 next roster will look different. Lacob will undoubtedly encourage Nyanin to pursue stars in free agency, and Golden State should now be viewed as a premier landing spot.<\/p>\n

The rest of the league knows what to expect moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we surpassed a lot of expectations,\u201d Sala\u00fcn said. \u201cBut I don’t think it was necessarily surprising for any of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next season, the Valkyries should have a target on their back. Next season, Engelbert should remember Nakase\u2019s name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This piece originally appeared in our twice-weekly sports newsletter The Dime. Sign up here to receive this and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":239457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[2473,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-239456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-golden-state-valkyries","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115232189102532370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}