This post was updated Nov. 3 at 1:50 a.m.
Natalie Nakase stood on the Chase Center court in San Francisco.
It was the same wooden floor where Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum posted 37 points last May and Golden State Warrior guard Stephen Curry dropped 62 in 2021.
The thousands of roaring “Ballhalla” fans clad in violet and gold were not cheering on a player, though. They were losing their voices for Nakase, who hoisted the glass 2025 WNBA Coach of the Year trophy.
But before she earned her place on basketball’s biggest stage, Nakase was a freshman walk-on at UCLA who, at just 5-foot-2, had her eyes on the starting point guard spot.
“(Former UCLA head coach) Kathy Olivier didn’t promise me a full ride. She didn’t promise me a starting spot,” Nakase said. “And I love that challenge. It molded me into always striving to be the best – proving to a lot of the people who didn’t think I was going to be able to play there, who thought there’s no way I was gonna even lay foot on the floor.”
The Anaheim local embodies the mentality of proving nay-sayers wrong. It was instilled by her father, Gary Nakase, who passed along his love of basketball and raised her to have a strong work ethic.
A daughter named Natalie was not the prodigal basketball child Nakase’s dad originally had in mind. He had been hoping for a son named Nathan, but he embraced teaching basketball to Nakase and her two sisters, setting up a strong training regime for them from an early age.
They had personal basketball and agility coaches by the time they were 10, and Nakase continued developing on the court through middle and high school.
“I loved every day,” Nakase said. “Spending it with my dad, pushing myself to the limits, working really hard. Through the brutal training camps of being a kid, I also loved (them) at the same time.”
Getting injured and having to undergo surgery before donning the blue and gold is not the best way to prove your worth as a walk-on. But Nakase’s dad taught her to overcome adversity her whole life.
So when she tore her ACL the August before her first collegiate year, Nakase embraced the challenge.
Nakase redshirted her freshman campaign, soaking up knowledge on the sideline. When her sophomore year rolled around, the starting point guard had graduated, while the next two candidates were unavailable – one on academic probation, the other taking time off. Olivier picked Nakase to play at the one spot.
“When some people get hurt, they’re kind of out of the loop. Where when she (Nakase) was hurt, she was just right there,” Olivier said. “She was always by my side, watching, listening, learning. She’s just like a sponge, and she was always trying to improve her game.”
What Nakase did best was help her teammates flourish – she still ranks tenth on UCLA’s all-time career assists per game list with 3.7. She grew up loving Magic Johnson, picking up on how he could read his teammates’ routes and hit them with the ball at just the right time.
The joy and creativity Johnson flashed on the court was something that Nakase wanted to emulate – even if she could not perfect the behind-the-back pass.
“She just wanted to score – if it was her or her teammates – and she knew who was hot,” Olivier said. “She was really good about, ‘Okay, so-and-so is putting the ball in the hole, I am going to make sure I get her the ball.’ She’s just smart … Very, very high basketball IQ.”
Nakase was a three-year starter and captain on an athletic scholarship by her senior year. Olivier gave her the freedom to take the lead both on and off the court, letting her call plays and adjust defensive schemes.
She had proved the naysayers wrong.
“Even though she’s (5-foot-2), she doesn’t play like (5-foot-2),” said UCLA teammate Michelle Greco in 2000. “She plays like size doesn’t matter.”
Nakase still commands the court at 5-foot-2, though in a different capacity. She led the Golden State Valkyries to the playoffs in her first year as the head coach, making the franchise the first expansion team to breach the postseason.
The Valkyries’ title hopes ended in a 75-74 loss to the Minnesota Lynx. But nonetheless, the team made its mark on the league, and Nakase – the first Asian-American head coach in WNBA history – earned her spot in the record books alongside it.
Just as Olivier once did for her, Nakase gives her players the space to make decisions on the court, and success has followed.
The Valkyries boast 2025 WNBA Most Improved Player Veronica Burton, who became the first player in league history to increase her average points, assists and rebounds per game by margins of five, two and two, respectively, in just one season.
“She’s (Nakase is) going to allow us to do what we need to do,” Thornton said to SLAM Magazine. “That plays a big part – part of my success and how we’re doing now comes from her giving us that leeway.”
Before helping the Valkyries to a 23-win season, Nakase was an assistant coach with the Las Vegas Aces, aiding their back-to-back title runs in 2022 and 2023.
Winning, it seems, is what Nakase does best.
“I don’t know if he did it intentionally, but he trained me to do really hard things,” Nakase said. “I credit my dad a lot on how he raised me to be where I am right now as a head coach.”
Although Nakase has earned her place on courts like the Chase Center, there is a new legion of Bruins who are striving for a spot on the WNBA’s acrylic-painted floors.
Seven of the 12 members on UCLA’s 2025-26 roster are in their final years of eligibility, and three of them are projected by ESPN to be first-round selections in the 2026 WNBA Draft.
[Related: Women’s basketball enters season with senior standouts, championship potential]
The team faces the challenge of following up a season of program firsts, including the Bruins’ first Final Four appearance in the NCAA era. Nakase has a similar task at hand.
But the former Bruin revels in any opportunity to prove people wrong.
“If you fail, good, get … your ass back up and then try again,” Nakase said. “I do set myself up for high standards, but I just love it. I love challenges. I love naysayers and, sickly, it gives me joy.”
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