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Shortly after arriving on the West Coast following a cross-country flight, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert walked into the SAP Center in San Jose with a schedule to follow and a script in hand.
The Golden State Valkyries, the league’s newest team, reached unprecedented heights for an expansion franchise by winning 23 regular-season games and earning a playoff berth in their inaugural campaign. Engelbert made the trip to present Natalie Nakase with a hard-earned award for Coach of the Year.
When Engelbert announced the honor Wednesday, she butchered the pronunciation of the coach’s last name.
Instead of saying “Natalie Nuh-KAH-say,” the commissioner read her name aloud as “Natalie Nuh-KAY-zee.”
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With Nakase, Valkyries GM Ohemaa Nyanin, and team president Jess Smith sitting in the front row of the media room, Engelbert’s gaffe was embarrassing. Worse, it went uncorrected.
Nakase isn’t an unknown figure. She’s one of the league’s best stories and the coach whom Engelbert’s office had fined just two days earlier for sharp criticism of officials following a Game 1 loss in Minnesota.
The commissioner can’t exactly plead ignorance here.
The slight highlights how the league runs a public relations and marketing operation that pales in comparison to how its highest-profile franchises conduct business. The Valkyries, for example, had 10,000-plus season-ticket holders in their inaugural season, sold out all 22 home games, and were valued at $500 million less than two years after owner Joe Lacob paid a $50 million expansion fee to establish the team.
For a region that’s long craved a WNBA team, the Valkyries probably would have activated a hungry fan base regardless of who coached them this year. But the fact that it was Nakase, who immediately established herself as a top-tier motivator and tactician, means they should be a force for years to come.
“In Natalie’s case, at some point, she’ll process everything that’s just happened in her first season,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said pregame. “For her, it’s unfortunate, because the bar is really high.”
Nakase’s own expectations have never aligned with what the rest of the league anticipated from the Valkyries.
“I wanted to win this year, so to me, I’m disappointed in myself,” she said following a season-ending loss. “So I can’t wait for next year. I don’t see this as setting the bar high, hell no.”
Today, the Valkyries’ trajectory looks far different than it did just five months ago.
“Can you meet [expectations] year in and year out?” Reeve rhetorically asked. “But that’s the joy of it. Natalie will be a multi-time Coach of the Year.”
Nakase, the former Las Vegas Aces assistant, took a roster of mid-tier free-agents, young European transplants, and players left unprotected in the WNBA’s expansion draft and turned it into a contender. Nearly every player on the roster enjoyed the best season of their respective pro careers, and many of Golden State’s top talents — especially Veronica Burton and Janelle Salaün — have the potential to keep improving.
Perhaps most important, Nakase established a culture that looks capable of surviving change. Due to an expiring CBA, an upcoming expansion draft, and typical offseason transactions, the Valkyries’ next roster will look different. Lacob will undoubtedly encourage Nyanin to pursue stars in free agency, and Golden State should be viewed as a premier landing spot.
The rest of the league knows what to expect moving forward.
“I think we surpassed a lot of expectations,” Salaün said. “But I don't think it was necessarily surprising for any of us.”
Next season, the Valkyries should have a target on their back. Next season, Engelbert should remember Nakase’s name.