Natalie Nakase, WNBA’s first Asian American head coach, reflects on a historic season

Natalie Nakase, the WNBA’s first Asian American head coach, is channeling the spirit of a Valkyrie woman warrior as the season gets underway Friday.

With Nakase, 45, on their team, the Golden State Valkyries are making waves as the WNBA’s first new team in the league in more than 15 years. 

Nakase told NBC News she’s had to fight her whole life to get where she is now.

“I’ve always been the only girl walking into the NBA gym and all guys — it’s the same,” Nakase said. “No big deal.”

The addition of the Valkyries marks the first new WNBA team since the Atlanta Dream in 2008.

Fans outside of the stadium — young and old, all clad in purple and black Valkyries gear — said Asian American representation in the WNBA is inspiring.

Nakase is a third-generation Japanese American. After playing as a walk-on for the University of California, Los Angeles Bruins and as a professional for one year in Germany, she worked her way up the ranks with the Los Angeles Clippers. Beginning as an intern, she eventually worked as assistant coach for the team. From there, she led the Las Vegas Aces WNBA team to back-to-back titles.

As a basketball professional who’s 5 feet, 1 inch — and three-quarters, she adds — tall, Nakase hasn’t exactly had it easy in the sport, but she jokes, “It doesn’t matter how tall you are.”

She also said she’s been motivated by her dad.

“The reason I’m here is because of my dad,” Nakase said. “I was really lucky to have a parent that not only loved me unconditionally, but he pushed me beyond my limits.”

Nakase said that she feels a heightened sense of responsibility now that she’s head coach of the Valkyries, adding, “You’re impacting lives.”

Amid the expansion draft, Kaitlyn Chen, the first Taiwanese American WNBA draft pick, was cut from the Valkyries in a controversial move Wednesday.

Chen had just won the NCAA championship with the University of Connecticut when she was drafted. Nakase didn’t respond to a request for follow-up comment on the cut.