From UCLA walk-on and video intern to WNBA champion: Natalie Nakase's road to a title

SAN FRANCISCO - Natalie Nakase was a video intern with the Los Angeles Clippers, at "the end of the staff," when a veteran coach asked her what her goal was, she said in a video the Valkyries posted before the WNBA Finals.  "I'd love to be a head coach one day," she told him.

The coach, her mentor Armond Hill, did not laugh, Nakase recalled.  "He goes, 'Okay.'  He goes, 'Let's get to it.'"

On Oct. 31, Nakase won the WNBA championship in her second season as head coach of the Golden State Valkyries, beating Atlanta 68-63 in Game 7, the team said.  It was her third title and her first as a head coach.  She is the first Asian American head coach in WNBA history, according to the team.

Walk-on to captain

Nakase turned down a full scholarship to the University of California, Irvine, to walk on at her dream school, UCLA, the team said.  A walk-on is a player who joins without a scholarship.  She became a three-year starter and team captain.  "I fell in love with this sport when I was six," she said when she was hired.

After a knee injury ended her playing days in Germany in 2008, she coached the Wolfenbüttel Wildcats there for two seasons, the team said.  In 2011-12 she led the Saitama Broncos, becoming the first woman to be head coach in Japan's men's pro league.

She then spent a decade with the Clippers, rising from video intern to assistant coach, and three seasons as the top assistant for the Las Vegas Aces.  The Aces went 87-29 in that span and won titles in 2022 and 2023, the team said.

At her introduction in October 2024, Nakase recalled watching the Warriors end a 40-year championship drought while she worked for the Clippers.  "I remember telling myself — I want to work for Golden State," she said.

"Grasshopper"

Hill still coaches her, Nakase said.  He calls her "grasshopper" because she is "always anxious," she said.  "I'm a perfectionist.  I'm an extremist."  His advice, by her account:  take a breath, keep the game plan clear and take care of her health.

Nakase was named 2025 Coach of the Year after leading the first-year team to the playoffs, and USA Basketball picked her as an assistant to coach Kara Lawson for the 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup, the team said.

Her father's lessons

Nakase has spoken openly about losing her father.  "I'm always going to be a fighter.  That's how my dad raised me," she said in the pre-Finals video.  Surviving his death, she said, made basketball feel like a gift and an opportunity.  "All this just becomes put a ball in a hole."

After Game 7, a reporter asked what her father would say.  "I think he would give me that head nod of approval," Nakase said.  "He's the reason why I'm built the way I am."

Her players spoke of the trust she built.  Finals MVP Gabby Williams said Nakase told her at halftime of Game 7 to stay patient, when Williams had two points.  "I trusted her," Williams said.  She scored 28 in the second half, a Finals record, the team said.

Center Kiah Stokes said she left Las Vegas, where she had won titles, partly because she knew Nakase.  "I took a leap leaving Vegas to come here," Stokes said.  "I was comfortable there."

Source:  Valkyries pre-Finals video with Nakase, Oct. 17, 2026; Valkyries: Nakase named head coach, Oct. 10, 2024; Valkyries on Nakase's pedigree; Valkyries on Nakase and USA Basketball; Valkyries championship release; Valkyries Game 7 recap; Valkyries Game 7 news conference video.