{"id":353780,"date":"2025-11-04T00:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T00:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/353780\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T00:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T00:23:11","slug":"valkyries-hc-natalie-nakase-feels-no-pressure-over-joe-lacobs-championship-in-first-5-years-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/353780\/","title":{"rendered":"Valkyries\u2019 HC Natalie Nakase Feels No Pressure Over Joe Lacob\u2019s \u2018Championship in First 5 Years\u2019 Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

In October 2023, when San Francisco was announced as the location for a new WNBA expansion team, no one was more excited than owner Joe Lacob. Even though the team did not have a name yet, Lacob knew one thing: the goal was to win championships. At the press conference with WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert, Lacob made a bold declaration, \u201cI\u2019m telling you right now, we will win a WNBA championship in the first five years of this franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast forward two years in the future, the Golden State Valkyries finished what was the best inaugural season by an expansion franchise in WNBA History. With Head Coach Natalie Nakase and her coaching staff leading the charge, the Valkyries finished the season with a 23-21 record and made their way to the playoffs.<\/p>\n

They fell short in the first round against the eventual champs, the Las Vegas Aces, but not before giving them a fright in a win-or-go-home Game 3 at Ballhalla. Even though it was an elimination in the first round, it was a big victory for the Valkyries, who announced to the world that they have arrived.\u00a0Nakase was awarded the Coach of the Year honors, Kayla Thornton was named an All-Star, Veronica Burton won Most Improved Player, and was named to the All-Defensive 2nd Team.<\/p>\n

Nakase was on A Touch More podcast recently, where she spoke with Sue Bird<\/strong><\/a> and Megan Rapinoe. Megan brought up how Joe Lacob<\/strong><\/a>, the owner, expects a championship within the first five years. She asked Nakase if she feels the pressure about the same, or does she put extra pressure on herself, and then followed it up by asking whether Lacob has changed the timeline since they made the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has mentioned, he\u2019s like, we could do it earlier,\u201d Nakase replied<\/strong><\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s like, if you want to do it early, we could do it earlier. I\u2019m okay with that.\u201d\u00a0Nakase then went on to respond to Rapinoe\u2019s first question. \u201cNo pressure. In all honesty, like pressure to me, it\u2019s a made-up word.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nakase went on to explain what pressure means to her, \u201cIt\u2019s just something that, you know, you can\u2019t see. It\u2019s not physical, like it\u2019s all in your head. And so that\u2019s why I talked about the mental part and how important it is to know where your players are at mentally to care for them when they need it. Shoot, it could be every day for some players. And so, now, not big on pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though she doesn\u2019t feel any pressure, that doesn\u2019t mean Nakase doesn\u2019t have a plan in mind for the upcoming season. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m a big coach in terms of control what you can control. And so what is that? I mean, you know, we lost 21 games last year. So how can I go back?\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only Nakase, but her coaching staff are also using this offseason to get better, learn new tactics, and keep improving themselves to further better the team. \u201cI\u2019m trying to jump in and learn from my mentors and my staff as well, like they\u2019re doing a deep dive and trying to get, you know, as much, you know, tactics and studying right now at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the WNBA CBA hanging in the balance and the flurry of free agency, there are a ton of roster moves that are going to happen. Nakase knows that, but at this point, can\u2019t control the future. Instead, she\u2019s focusing on the controllables and hoping her preparation can help the Valkyries in the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

At the same time, she\u2019s being backed by an owner who knows how to win. When Lacob took over the Warriors in 2010, they were a 26-win team. Within five years, Lacob propelled them to their first championship in 40 years. He knows how to hire the right people, and backs them to get the right pieces to attain the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n

The Valkyries will win a WNBA Championship. The only question that remains: Can they do it within Lacob\u2019s five year timeline?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In October 2023, when San Francisco was announced as the location for a new WNBA expansion team, no…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":353781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[2473,172914,17271,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-353780","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-joe-lacob","10":"tag-natalie-nakase","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115488581488580695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353780","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=353780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}