After leading the Golden State Valkyries' historic inaugural season, Natalie Nakase has earned the 2025 WNBA Coach of the Year award, the league announced today.
In just her first season as a head coach, Nakase led the Valkyries to a 23-21 record, the most in WNBA history by an expansion team, as well as the eighth seed in the playoffs to become the first-ever expansion franchise to reach the postseason in their inaugural season.
With a team built entirely on talent scrounged together from an expansion draft, in which teams could protect six players, Nakase's squad became one of the best defenses in the league, ranking 3rd in defensive rating (99.8) and 1st in points allowed (76.3). At practice this week, the WNBA's most improved player of the year recipient, Veronica Burton, spoke honestly about the work Nakase's done this season.
“She's so passionate about everything she does,” Burton told reporters when asked about Nakase's intensity, which has become a trademark of her coaching style.
“She's really intentional about it and cares so much. When you have someone who is super invested and it's helping us, it's for us, how could you not want that? We love it. We love her passion, we ask for more of it, and whether it's yelling at us or getting us rowdy, you learn to appreciate that. Especially as a pro because it's not always like that. She's been a great coach for all of us.”
Nakase becomes the second Asian-American coach across the four major American sports and the WNBA to win the COTY award, nine years after the Los Angeles Dodgers' Dave Roberts did so in 2016.
Natalie Nakase's humbleness in winning COTY
But even throughout the Valkyries' successes this season, Nakase rarely gave herself credit for the team's success, preferring to highlight the people around her instead. Earlier this season, when a reporter asked Nakase a question about the possibility of winning COTY, she bristled at the potential achievement.
“Nobody cares about that, honestly,” Nakase said. “I'm just being deada**, our goal is to make the playoffs. That's our goal. But when I really start to think about it, it should be coaching staff of the year.”
I floated the question of Coach of the Year to Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase.
“Nobody cares about that. Honestly. I’m just being deadass our goal is to make the playoffs.”
She did suggest the award should be changed to a different title:
“It should be coaching staff of the year.” pic.twitter.com/4kVSiHy0A6
— Kenzo Fukuda (@kenzofuku) August 27, 2025
“I'm not doing the scouting on my own, I'm not doing the player development on my own, I'm not doing the film work; they have to do it individually with their players. I'm not doing this on my own. So it shouldn't be Coach of the Year. It should be ‘Coaching Staff of the Year,' and if that ends up, again, it doesn't matter. But it's a credit to my staff.”
And along with empowering her coaching staff came empowering her players. In the wake of the expansion draft, Nakase declared she wanted ultra-competitive, high-character “killers” who would do anything it takes to win. She sought a team that could play fast, shoot a lot of threes, and play lockdown, elite defense. She had a vision for her team and was deadset on attaining it.
And it's clear, after a historic season and a playoff birth, that Nakase's vision came true. She put her trust and belief in her players to execute her vision, and they responded in spades. Nakase has often expressed her gratitude for the fact that her players allow her to be herself. The culture the Valkyries built in just their first season together is a testament to the job Nakase's done this season.
A journey in the making
In some ways, winning COTY is a full-circle moment for Nakase.
After a decade working on the Los Angeles Clippers' coaching staff and two years with Becky Hammon on the Las Vegas Aces during their championship run, Nakase was hand-picked by owner Joe Lacob and general manager Ohemaa Nyanin to lead the Valkyries into the new era, becoming the first-ever Asian-American head coach in WNBA history.
And for all intents and purposes, she's lived up to the lofty expectations placed upon her to turn Golden State into a competitor right away.
But in other ways, the job's not finished for Nakase; she would be the first person to tell you that. She's been clear that her goal is to win a championship. Lacob told her she would have a five-year window to win a title in Golden State, an expectation she willingly accepted right then and there.
And while the Valkyries are a long way off from winning a championship this season, as they face heavy odds against the juggernaut Minnesota Lynx, they've built a good foundation to reach that goal soon.
Regardless, Nakase is living her dream as head coach of the Golden State Valkyries. It's a dream she shared with her father, Gary Nakase, who passed away in 2021, but one she carries on nonetheless.
“I know I wish my dad [were] here,” Nakase said earlier this season when reflecting on the success of the Valkyries this season. “Especially with my first job being a head coach, and this was part of my dream, with him. And a goal. I'm starting to learn, I'm getting more resilient, and a tougher skin. But I'm very lucky to have a great environment that's supporting me throughout this healing process.”
