_(cropped).jpg) Nakase with theLos Angeles Clippers in 2018 | |
| Golden State Valkyries | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head coach |
| League | WNBA |
| Personal information | |
| Born | (1980-04-18)April 18, 1980 (age 45) Anaheim, California, U.S. |
| Listed height | 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Marina(Huntington Beach, California) |
| College | UCLA (1998–2003) |
| Playing career | 2005–2008 |
| Position | Point guard |
| Coaching career | 2008–present |
| Career history | |
Playing | |
| 2005 | San Jose Spiders |
| 2006 | San Diego Siege |
| 2007–2008 | Herner TC |
Coaching | |
| 2008–2010 | Wolfenbüttel Wildcats |
| 2010–2011 | Tokyo Apache (assistant) |
| 2011–2012 | Saitama Broncos |
| 2017–2018 | Agua Caliente Clippers (assistant) |
| 2018–2020 | Los Angeles Clippers (assistant) |
| 2021–2022 | Agua Caliente Clippers (assistant) |
| 2022–2024 | Las Vegas Aces (assistant) |
| 2025–present | Golden State Valkyries |
| Career highlights | |
| |
Natalie Mitsue Nakase (/nɑːˈkɑːseɪ/;born April 18, 1980)[1] is an American professionalbasketball coach and former player who is the head coach of theGolden State Valkyries of theWomen's National Basketball Association (WNBA). After retiring as a player, she was a head coach for both men's and women's professional teams. Nakase was later an assistant coach for theLos Angeles Clippers in theNational Basketball Association (NBA). She then won twoWNBA championships as an assistant coach for theLas Vegas Aces in 2022 and 2023. In 2025, she was named theWNBA Coach of the Year in her first season with the Valkyries.
Nakase grew up inOrange County, California, where she was honored as the county's high school player of the year. She playedcollege basketball for theUCLA Bruins, receiving honorable mention as anall-conference player in thePacific-10 in 2002. A third-generationJapanese-American, she became the firstAsian American to play in theNational Women's Basketball League (NWBL). She also played in Germany before suffering a knee injury and retiring as a player. Nakase went into coaching, and served as a head coach of a women's team in Germany before becoming the first female head coach in Japan's top pro men's league. Nakase returned to the United States, joining the Clippers of the NBA as a video intern in 2012. She became an assistant coach to theirNBA G League development team,Agua Caliente, in 2017. She became an NBA assistant for the Clippers in 2018 and joined the WNBA's Aces in 2022, when she became the first Asian American coach to win a WNBA title.[2]
Nakase was hired as the first head coach for the WNBA expansion franchiseGolden State Valkyries in October 2024, making her the first Asian American head coach in league history.[3]
Nakase was born inAnaheim, California, the youngest of three daughters to Gary and Debra Nakase.[1][4] Her parents are both second-generation Japanese-Americans.[4]
Nakase grew up inHuntington Beach, California, where she attendedMarina High School and was a four-yearletterman playing basketball.[1][4] She led the school to two Sunset League titles. In 1998, the team won their firstCalifornia Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section title.[1][5] Nakase averaged 13.9points and 8.6assists that season, when she was named the 1998Orange County Player of the Year by both theLos Angeles Times and theOrange County Register.[1][5] She finished her career as the Sunset League leader in career assists, and set school records for career assists,steals andthree-point field goals made.[1]
Standing at 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m), Nakase was not heavily recruited bycollege basketball programs. She turned down a full scholarship from theUniversity of California, Irvine to attend her dream school, theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),[6] where she was awalk-on for theUCLA Bruins basketball team.[4] Nakaseredshirted as a freshman after injuring her left knee in an August summer league game, which required reconstructive surgery to repair heranterior cruciate ligament (ACL).[1][7] She recovered to become a three-year starter atpoint guard for UCLA, averaging 4.9 points and 3.7 assists per game in her career.[7][8] In 2002, she earned honorable mention for theAll-Pac-10 team after averaging a career-high 7.9 points and 5.1 assists per game.[8]
Nakase played in the NWBL for two seasons, playing with theSan Jose Spiders in 2005 and theSan Diego Siege in 2006.[8][9] She was the league's first Asian-American player.[6] In 2007, she tried out with thePhoenix Mercury of theWNBA, but was waived.[10] She coached anAmateur Athletic Union (AAU) team,[4] and went to Germany to play one season with Herner TC in 2007–08, when she again tore knee ligaments.[4][9][11][12]
Opting to retire as a player rather than undergoing surgery again,[9][13] Nakase coached for theWolfenbüttel Wildcats in theDamen-Basketball-Bundesliga for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons.[9] She next went to Japan in hopes of playing, but learned that the Japanese women's league doesn't allow foreign players.[4]
A friend of Nakase's, Darin Maki, was playing with theTokyo Apache, and arranged with his coach, former NBA coachBob Hill, to allow Nakase to observe practice before the 2010–11 season began.[4][9][11] She then prepared a scouting report for the team's next opponent, which led to a volunteer assistant coaching position under Hill.[4][11]
After the Apache folded at the end of the season,Saitama Broncos head coachDean Murray hired Nakase as an assistant at the urging of Hill.[6][11] She took over the struggling team midseason after Murray stepped down, and became the first female head coach in thebj league, Japan's top professional men's league.[10][4][9][14] However, her father persuaded her to not return to Japan in order to pursue her dream of becoming a coach in the NBA.[11][4]
In September 2012, Nakase began a yearlong internship in the NBA with theLos Angeles Clippers, working under the team's video coordinator.[4] She became the team's assistant video coordinator.[11] She was one of 15 women of Asian orPacific Islander heritage honored at theWhite House in 2013 as their Champions of Change.[15][16] During the two-week2014 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Nakase was an assistant coach for the Clippers, becoming the first woman to sit on the bench as an NBA assistant.[a][7][11][19]
In 2017–18, Nakase was an assistant coach for the Clippers'NBA G League affiliate,Agua Caliente Clippers, under head coachCasey Hill—the son of her mentor, Bob Hill.[20][21] In2018–19, she was promoted to be a player development assistant coach for the L.A. Clippers,[22][23] becoming one of the few female coaches in the NBA.[24] In 2020–21,Tyronn Lue replaced the departedDoc Rivers as the Los Angeles coach,[25] and Nakase became an assistant again for Agua Caliente under their new coach,Paul Hewitt.[26][27] In 2022, she was a finalist for the head coach position of the WNBA'sPhoenix Mercury.[28]
On February 25, 2022, Nakase joined the WNBA as an assistant to theLas Vegas Aces's new head coach,Becky Hammon.[29] She and Hammon, who was a long-timeSan Antonio Spurs assistant coach, had been the NBA's two longest-tenured women coaches.[30] On September 20, 2022, Nakase became the first Asian American coach to win a WNBA title.[2]
On October 10, 2024, the expansion teamGolden State Valkyries announced that they had hired Nakase as their first head coach,[31][32] making her the first Asian American head coach in league history.[3] On September 17, 2025, she was named the 2025WNBA Coach of the Year, the first head coach of an expansion team to win the award in their first year.[33][34]
| Regular season | G | Games coached | W | Games won | L | Games lost | W–L % | Win–loss % |
| Playoffs | PG | Playoff games | PW | Playoff wins | PL | Playoff losses | PW–L % | Playoff win–loss % |
| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Finish | PG | PW | PL | PW–L% | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saitama Broncos | 2011–12 | 41 | 12 | 29 | .293 | 10th in Eastern | - | - | - | – | - |
| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Finish | PG | PW | PL | PW–L% | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GSV | 2025 | 44 | 23 | 21 | .523 | 5th in West | 2 | 0 | 2 | .000 | Lost in1st Round |
| Career | 44 | 23 | 21 | .523 | 2 | 0 | 2 | .000 |
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game | RPG | Rebounds per game |
| APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game | BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game |
| TO | Turnovers per game | FG% | Field-goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field-goal percentage | FT% | Free-throw percentage |
| Bold | Career best | ° | League leader |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TO | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999–00 | UCLA | 11 | - | - | 66.7 | 0.0 | 71.4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.0 | - | 0.8 |
| 2000–01 | UCLA | 29 | - | - | 36.8 | 24.0 | 50.0 | 1.9 | 4.4 | 2.2 | 0.0 | - | 4.4 |
| 2001–02 | UCLA | 29 | - | - | 36.2 | 33.9 | 78.3 | 3.1 | 5.1 | 1.7 | 0.0 | - | 7.9 |
| 2002–03 | UCLA | 29 | - | 22.7 | 33.0 | 39.0 | 82.1 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 1.1 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 4.2 |
| Career | 98 | - | 22.7 | 35.8 | 33.6 | 69.8 | 2.0 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 5.0 | |
| Statistics retrieved fromSports-Reference.[35] | |||||||||||||