SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase has made a career of proving doubters wrong.
When recruiters said she was too short to play major college basketball, Nakase worked her way from walk-on to starting point guard at UCLA. When her dream of being part of an NBA coaching staff looked like a long shot, Nakase pressed on and became an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Now, she is making history once again.
Nakase, the first Asian-American WNBA head coach in the league’s 29-year history, will coach her first game on Friday night when the expansion Valkyries open the season against the Los Angeles Sparks at Chase Center (7 p.m., ION).
Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase, center, runs a practice at Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Nakase is the first Asian American head coach in the WNBA. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase, center, huddles with her players and staff during a practice at Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Nakase is the first Asian American head coach in the WNBA. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase, center, runs a practice at Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Nakase is the first Asian American head coach in the WNBA. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase speaks to the media after a team practice at Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Nakase is the first Asian American head coach in the WNBA. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)Show Caption1 of 4Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase, center, runs a practice at Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Nakase is the first Asian American head coach in the WNBA. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)ExpandWhile Nakase cherishes her place in history, she hopes she can inspire the next generation of coaches who look like her, giving them an example of someone who made it.
“It means everything, but it’s not just that I’m the first,” Nakase, 45, told the Bay Area News Group. “I have to make sure that I’m not the last.”
Nakase’s competitive fire was developed long before she picked up a basketball. As the youngest of three sisters, everything was a competition in her household.
“My dad was always pushing us. His motto was ‘Always be the best,’” Nakase said. “Say we were going to the car. Me and my sisters would race to the front seat, pushing and shoving each other because we wanted to be first. Every moment, every second, we pushed each other.”
It was that type of manic competitiveness that prepared Nakase to be a star, even as a freshman at Marina High in Huntington Beach.
Nakase was a four-year high school starter, leading Marina to a CIF Southern Section Division I-A championship as a senior in 1998. That season, she averaged 13.6 points and 8.6 assists and was named Orange County player of the year by the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register.
As a 5-foot-2 guard, Nakase didn’t receive much Division I college interest. Her lone Division I offer was from UC Irvine, but she had bigger dreams.
Nakase turned down the UC Irvine offer to walk on at UCLA – a decision that her high school coach, Pete Bonny, initially doubted.
“I thought, ‘Wow that’s pretty risky,’” Bonny told the Bay Area News Group. “For her to give up a free education and give it a shot at UCLA is pretty remarkable. I would have taken the scholarship at UC Irvine, which was probably her level anyway, but she proved us all wrong.”
Nakase redshirted her freshman year after suffering an ACL injury months before the start of the school year, but took the starting point guard spot after returning as a sophomore.
She would not give up the position for the next three seasons.
Nakase went on to become a solid starter at UCLA. She averaged 4.9 points and 3.7 assists, and earned all-Pac 10 honorable mention honors as a senior.
UCLA’s Natalie Nakase down the ball on her way to the basket as USC’s (44) Kin Gipson guards the hoops in the second half on Jan. 14, 2002. USC won 67-57 at UCLA. (Photo by Matt A. Brown/For the Orange County Register)She went on to the National Women’s Basketball League, where she played for the San Jose Spiders and San Diego Siege over two seasons. In 2007, she tried out for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury but was released. Knee injuries eventually forced her to retire after she tried to continue playing in Germany.
Nakase went right into coaching, spending two seasons as an assistant in Germany with the Wolfenbüttel Wildcats, a women’s team.
But the foundation for the coach she is now was built while on a men’s staff in the Japan Basketball League.
In 2010, Nakase was an assistant for the Tokyo Apache under former Indiana Pacers coach Bob Hill. A year later after switching teams, she unexpectedly got her shot at the head job.
When the Saitama Broncos’ head coach resigned midway through the season, Nakase was elevated from assistant to the lead role, becoming the first woman head coach in the JBL.
“I was not prepared to be a head coach at that time,” Nakase said. “I was in shock. But I called Bob Hill and he said, ‘(Expletive) yeah, you can do this.’ Then I called my dad and he said, ‘(Expletive) yeah, you can do this.’ I was very lucky to have mentors support me.”
While Nakase found herself in a tough spot, there was no doubt from her team that she would succeed.
“We kind of listened to her more than we listened to the head coach at the time,” said John Flowers, a Saitama rookie when Nakase took over. “A lot of the players pushed for her to get the head coaching job instead of bringing in someone else. I think everybody just embraced it.”
Clippers assistant coach Natalie Nakase with center Boban Marjanovic before their game against the Atlanta Hawks at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Monday, Jan 28, 2019. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)Her dream, though, was to coach on an NBA staff, but she had to start at the very bottom, which Nakase and others acknowledge is common for Asian coaches. Urged by her father, Gary, and Hill, she left Japan to take an internship as a video coordinator with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Fordham men’s basketball coach Mike Magpayo, who has coached at USF, knows the challenges Asian coaches face all too well. Magpayo is the first Division I coach of full Asian heritage and is the founder of the Asian Coaches Association.
“A lot of Asian coaches get stuck in administrative roles, as video coordinators or roles like director of operations,” Magpayo told the Bay Area News Group.
While entry-level positions aren’t ideal starting points for experienced coaches, Nakase and Magpayo agree that excelling in those roles is sometimes the only way to move up. The Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, the first Asian-American head coach in any of the four major North American sports leagues, got his start as a video coordinator for the Heat in 1995.
“I didn’t play in the NBA, so I didn’t have any connections or relationships I built throughout playing,” Nakase said. “So just like Erik Spoelstra, I knew I had to do video. I knew that was my path.”
In 10 years with the Clippers, Nakase worked her way up from video coordinator to roles as an assistant coach with the NBA team and its G-League affiliate in Mexico.
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Now, Nakase is tasked with leading the league’s first expansion franchise since 2008.
Golden State doesn’t have high expectations as projections list the Valkyries near the bottom of the league. A successful season is contingent on building a culture that will be a springboard for the future.
“We might have to suffer some short-term pain for long-term results,” Nakase said. “But I want to push the players to always believe that they could win. That’s a big deal for me.”
For Nakase to come this far is already an accomplishment. Even after defying the odds as a player, her journey to the Valkyries is a testament to her perseverance.
“There was a point 12 to 15 years ago where I was like, ‘Maybe she should give up the NBA dream.’ Hardly anybody’s ever done it. She’d be the first,” Bonny said. “But to her credit, she grinded and she kept the dream. She kept the carrot out in front and she kept plugging away. And now, she’s in the WNBA.”
Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase gestures in the second quarter of their WNBA pre-season game against the Los Angeles Sparks at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) Read More Details
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