-
Michael Voepel
-
Alexa Philippou
Close
Alexa Philippou
ESPN
- Covers women’s college basketball and the WNBA
- Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
- Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer
Natalie Nakase, the Golden State Valkyries’ new head coach, has a wide range of coaching experience and spent the past three seasons on Becky Hammon’s Las Vegas Aces staff.
Nakase, who played at UCLA, is a Southern California native who began her coaching career in Germany in 2008. She also coached in Japan — her parents are second-generation Japanese Americans — before moving to the NBA, where she worked with the Los Angeles Clippers and their G League affiliate for a decade.
Nakase and Hammon both were considered to potentially become the first female NBA head coach. Both moved to the WNBA in 2022 and have had a lot of success with back-to-back championships.
Now, Nakase will guide the WNBA’s first expansion team since the
