Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase added to her successful debut campaign Wednesday with the WNBA Coach of the Year award
Nakase received 53 of 72 votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters after guiding the first-year club to a 23-21 record.
Karl Smesko of the Atlanta Dream finished second with 15 votes, with Becky Hammon of the Las Vegas Aces and Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx each receiving two votes.
Golden State became the first WNBA expansion team ever to make the playoffs. The eighth-seeded Valkyries lost Game 1 of their first-round series with the Lynx and face elimination in Game 2 on Wednesday night in San Jose, Calif.
Nakase, 45, was hired by the Valkyries in October 2024 after three seasons as an assistant coach with Las Vegas. Prior to that, the former UCLA point guard spent 10 seasons in the Los Angeles Clippers organization, finishing her tenure there as an assistant coach.
The Valkyries finished No. 1 in the WNBA in both scoring defense (76.3 points per game) and opponents’ field-goal percentage (.405). They also made a league-leading 9.7 3-pointers per game
