Natalie Nakase pings around the practice courts at Sephora Performance Center in Oakland the day before the WNBA Finals begin, setting screens, throwing up a hand to contest shots and cheering encouragement on missed shots.
Everything she does is quick. Talk quickly. Do quickly. Live quickly. She’s the type of person who is always on to the next, blinders to the ultimate task to the point she doesn’t eat and lacks sleep. But she never looks at or shares her Oura ring’s readiness score. She doesn’t have to, she insists, because she’s always ready.
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Some have taken to calling her a “basketball sicko.” She calls herself an “obsession extremist.”
“I can keep doing the same thing over and over again until I get amazing at it, until I perfect it,” Nakase said. “And so that’s maybe why I felt like I could perfect the perfect game plan, that I could win it right away.”
Ahead of Game 1, she carried the mentality that winning could come quickly. It wasn’t a characterization of her opponent, the Atlanta Dream, whom she praised for an incredible season. It was one of herself.
But in her first Finals as head coach, it was all too much. Not the stage or the pressure or the task ahead. Her. She was too much. Her quick approach wasn’t working. The Valkyries eked out a Game 1 Finals victory in comeback fashion, but lost back-to-back games with uncharacteristic performances she graded as F-. They needed to win Game 4, and Nakase needed to find a new way.
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She took a breath. Her mentors are always on her about that. She reflected. In film sessions she described as vulnerable and honest, the two-time WNBA champion as an assistant with the Las Vegas Aces listened closer to players about what they saw and needed. She adjusted, speaking slower and more clearly about the game plan.
The Valkyries responded with a fresh starting lineup, holding the Dream to season-low offensive games in each of Game 4 and Game 5. After dropping Game 6, she tapped back into the process and drilled down the sense of urgency it takes to win in what was officially their last attempt.
It completely changed the series, more than any tweak or in-game adjustment either head coach could make. And she couldn’t have done it if there wasn’t a foundation already built around it that extended beyond her hiring. Golden State is the rare WNBA champion to have summited immediately, both as a franchise in its second season and a core of players that had yet to make a deep playoff run together. The Valkyries proved defense wins championships, showed that offense could be optional if it was good enough and most importantly that making the right hires and signings underlines it all.
Natalie Nakase and Gabby Williams talk to the media after winning Game 7 of the WNBA Finals on Oct. 31, 2026, at Chase Center in San Francisco.
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“Y’all think I know what I’m doing?” Nakase asked for the second time in three days, this time in celebratory Champagne goggles and a soaked championship T-shirt. “I just switch things just to switch it up. You think it’s some science behind it. It really isn’t. It’s just literally just to mix it up.”
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Whether there’s a science that other teams can successfully repeat — and they will now try — remains to be seen. But clearly, Nakase and Valkyries brass know exactly what they’re doing.
Building the foundation
Valkyries principal owner Joe Lacob, when on the stage accepting the trophy and surrounded by reporters near a courtside VIP room celebration, took every opportunity to credit the trio of women who executed what many thought a far-fetched mission.
But he can’t fully pull himself out of it. He did hire them, after all.
Months after the WNBA awarded Golden State Warriors co-owners Lacob and Peter Graub the league’s first expansion franchise since 2008, Lacob brought on Jess Smith in January 2024 as the team’s first president. Her prior experience covered sports start-ups, coming over from a position as head of revenue for the NWSL’s Angel City Football Club since its inception in 2020.
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While Smith dove into designing and marketing a team that has sold out every game in existence and became the first women’s sports team to generate $100 million in revenue, Lacob poached Ohemaa Nyanin from the New York Liberty as the Valkyries general manager. As an assistant GM, Nyanin helped build the Liberty’s superteam in 2023 that reached the Finals and won the championship in 2024.
This would be a different type of task. The Liberty, at the time, were the only original franchise to have not won a title. They used a No. 1 overall pick on Sabrina Ionescu and added All-Stars around her, leveling up to Nakase’s former Aces and their three consecutive No. 1 selections.
The Valkyries weren’t in a position to do that. And that drought wasn’t going to cut it for Lacob. Not even close. He told anyone who would listen, and probably those who didn’t, he intended for the Valkyries to win it all within five years.
When he told Nakase in her head coaching interview, she one-upped him.
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“I was like, yes, that’s going to happen,” Nakase said. “But even faster.”
Nakase and Nyanin bonded early and worked closely to build their inaugural roster through an expansion draft, selecting a group of 11 that leaned heavily into defense and international talent and fit the culture they prioritized. Four of the Valkyries selected in their expansion draft are still rostered; Veronica Burton (Sun), Kayla Thornton (Liberty) and Cecilia Zandalasini (Lynx) all started in the Finals. Iliana Rupert (Dream), the intended starting center, missed the season on maternity leave.
They left their first free agency without a bang, a partial result of players waiting to assess the expansion squad and awaiting collective bargaining negotiations. The most notable acquisition was reigning Sixth Player Tiffany Hayes, whom Nakase asked to “take a leap of faith” with her from the Aces so she’d have a familiar face.
With the No. 5 pick in their first collegiate draft in 2025, the Valkyries selected Lithuanian guard Justė Jocytė and in the third round, UConn point guard Kaitlyn Chen. Chen, who played four years at Princeton, wasn’t dressed for the draft; she was there to support UConn teammates, including No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers.
The Valkyries reached the playoffs in their inaugural season, becoming the first WNBA team to accomplish that feat. As the No. 8 seed, they lost to No. 1 Minnesota in a first-round sweep. Nakase won Coach of the Year and Veronica Burton, a Northwestern grad and Wings first-round draft pick who was waived ahead of season tipoff, earned Most Improved Player.
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It was clear from the beginning the team was designed in the likeness of Nakase, a former UCLA walk-on who dreamed of playing in the WNBA. The inaugural defense led the league (76.3 ppg allowed) with the offense lagging behind nearly everyone (77.7 ppg ranked 10th). She balanced her team’s minutes and rotations, remembering from her NBA career how health could interrupt a championship run.
As much as she asks questions of her players, she does the same with her mentors as well. Tyronn Lue, for whom she coached with the Clippers, won early in his head coaching career. Joe Mazzulla won his second year in Boston, and like Nakase didn’t play in the respective league. They instilled in her two key pieces of advice that she leaned on more than any stat.
“First, just build a culture of competitors, but love, as silly as that sounds,” Nakase said. “But having a culture that really wants to fight every single day, players that really want to fight every day, but also feel psychologically that safety, and that’s that love and care that you have to provide.”
To hack away at this premise that love leads to winning is akin to questioning that the Earth is round. Yes, Nakase genuinely believes her players love each other. They’ve all endured previous roster cuts or bad situations, and most were left unprotected by their prior teams to be selected by the Valkyries. There is a level of trauma bonding, she said, that has led to quick chemistry. They wouldn’t undercut each other like that.
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“When you allow them to come in and be who they are, I think it’s something magical,” Kayla Thornton, a top reserve on New York’s 2024 title team, told Yahoo Sports before the series. “This is what our team is built off of: a lot of women that never had the opportunity, never were put in the right position, and now that we are, it’s something great.”
Nakase asks to be enlightened as to what’s beyond love.
“What more do you want?”
A closer helps.
The No. 1 option
The WNBA career of Gabby Williams, a two-time NCAA champion at powerhouse UConn, is one defined by a lack of trust and connection. To see the good side of it up close is what drew her into Nakase’s and Golden State’s fold.
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Williams initially met with Valkyries brass in 2025 free agency, opting to stay in Seattle on a one-year deal. When she met with Nakase and general manager Ohemaa Nyanin again in March as a 2026 unrestricted free agent, she noted how many players returned. And she felt a difference in the meeting.
“I could see how much closer they had gotten in just that year, and their back and forth,” Williams said. “That tells me something about their culture, too, and how personable they are with each other. That was a green flag for me.”
Williams signed a three-year, $3.7 million deal as Golden State’s splashy offseason addition that would fit seamlessly on the defensive end. Offense was more of a question mark; she never averaged more than 12 points per game, though she earned her first All-Star honor in 2025.
The Valkyries also signed three-time Aces champion Kiah Stokes with the intention she would back up Rupert. Life had other plans, and Stokes stepped up while Rupert had her first child. The veteran UConn champion stonewalled four-time MVP and former teammate A’ja Wilson in the semifinals sweep and Dream forward Angel Reese the majority of the Finals. The $761,000 salary is proving to be a steal, and Stokes joined seven players all time with four championship rings. Rebekkah Brunson has a record five.
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In the Bay, they both feel appreciated after being overlooked or left aside. It was pivotal for Williams, who learned firsthand what Nakase was trying to establish.
“The team already had a culture and relationships established,” Williams said. “But I walked into a group full of love and that just changed the entire trajectory of my career.”
Williams was drafted by the Chicago Sky with a 2018 lottery pick and four years in, communicated her intent to play in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. It was her first opportunity for the senior national team, a special moment as her mother is French and she holds dual citizenship. Nothing lights up Williams in a media environment more than a question in French.
She missed training camp for the Olympics, and the Sky suspended her for the season. She requested a trade that was granted, but never played for the Los Angeles Sparks while with the French national team. In February 2022, the Sparks traded her to the Storm, where she won three All-Defensive honors and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year in 2025 while becoming the face of the league’s prioritization clause under the previous CBA.
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She’s now the face of the Finals and by extension the league. Her 30 points in Game 7 tied the league record, and 28 of them were scored in a second-half takeover that put the Dream on their heels. Lacob described it as legendary. Nakase called their closer “f***ing incredible,” even though she hadn’t realized the point total by the time they sat down as champions.
“To me the MVP is the Finals MVP,” Nakase said. “You have to play through the playoffs, you have to grind, you have to go through a seven-game series. She’s the Most Valuable Player in the world, hands down.”
There was institutional support to reach that level Williams had never experienced. When she needs someone to watch her cat, Halle Berry, Nyanin helps find someone. It doesn’t matter if it’s a road trip or Williams needing time to prioritize rest and recovery. Nakase is always focused on player health, and the season-long care of her roster — even during a FIBA World Cup year — was a pivotal, overlooked aspect of Golden State’s title run.
It’s not merely the team’s No. 1 on the scouting report who receives such star treatment. Nyanin is part general manager, part assistant, because that’s what it takes to build rapport and success. If there’s an everyday life pain point she can solve, she’ll do it. Everyone matters to the Valkyries, and everyone receives what they or their loved ones need to best perform.
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“She’s not just taking care of 14 people,” Nakase said. “She’s taking care of a whole community, and I think that’s really special.”
There’s an intentionality that everyone within the organization appreciates. It goes all the way to Smith and her team’s selection of the specific shade of violet that drapes Chase Center, Stoke said. The merchandise stands in and out of the arena are branded “Golden State.” Even the ropes in the back of the house are Valkyries violet. A sewer cover on the north side of the arena is painted the same color, easily hidden in a planter’s box.
None of that matters if Nyanin and Nakase couldn’t select the right group of “egoless” players who took on regular-season games like hockey lines. The bench set a scoring record, averaging 35.9 points per game on a team that collectively averaged 82.2, better than only the Connecticut Sun.
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“If I was just gonna start a new franchise, I think I would try to go that route where any given night it could be someone’s day,” Stokes said. “I think that’s harder to scout because you’re not focusing on taking away like one or two people.”
The defense reached another level, becoming one of the best units in league history. Janelle Salaün won Sixth Player of the Year unanimously, but factored out of Finals rotations. Nakase faced the difficult decision to play seven in the latter stages of the series, but all were ready to go. Three different players led the team in scoring during the Finals. Five different ones led a game in rebounds. Another four in assists.
It allowed Williams, the newbie, and Stokes, who is running out of ring room, to stand slightly above the rest and bring an early championship home to Ballhalla.
Reaching the mountaintop
Williams looks at the box score, the full room of reporters, the WNBA championship trophy. And then she realizes she might have this wrong.
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The fresh championship flat brim goes on backward. Or at least, four-time champion Stokes and three-time champion Nakase are wearing theirs backward.
“I’ve never done this before,” Williams said, flipping the hat and re-donning the Champagne goggles. “Is this how I’m supposed to do it?”
The hat is less important than the alcohol, of which Williams has none. Nakase — always aware of her players — is on top of it, lightly encouraging Stokes to later pass the bottle.
This is a vastly different version of Nakase than the one 17 days ago, flurrying between practice courts. She clinks an aluminum beer bottle to Stokes’ bottle of wine as a French reporter asks a question of Williams. Nakase drops f-bombs with aplomb, despite earlier in the series appearing horrified she accidentally let one slip on the podium. There is no talk of failed messaging or film. She is a rare sight of patience with no immediate plans of leaving.
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“Girl, I just need to get drunk tonight, so let me get there,” Nakase said, brushing off talk of repeating. “Let’s enjoy the moment.”
Lacob, watching from the side, earlier in the night ducked questions of whom he would be calling during free agency. Former MVP runner-up forward Napheesa Collier, second-highest scorer Kelsey Mitchell, two-time Aces champion guard Kelsey Plum and three-time Aces champion Jackie Young are all unrestricted free agents. The postseason matchups in a wonky season that included a late World Cup break allowed the Valkyries to get away with a highly limited offense. That won’t always be the case.
Maybe if they had lost, that would be top of mind. But right now, all he’s thinking about is enjoying an “insane” championship two years into existence in front of a Ballhalla fanbase already topping the league.
“I’m not really good at enjoying things for too long, but winning’s fun,” said Lacob, whose Warriors won four championships in eight years. “I don’t know if you noticed.”
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By sunrise, Valkyries championship banners featuring each player’s likeness lined the Embarcadero. They will celebrate a championship parade there Wednesday following a private ceremony in Oakland.
Nakase will begin obsessing again soon, intent on doing it all again quickly.
