Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase spent offseason with unexpected mentor: Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla

BOSTON — Natalie Nakase knew she had the chance of a lifetime. After years of serving as an assistant coach — within the G League, NBA, and finally the WNBA — she had lastly achieved a longtime dream of main her personal crew. Finally, the 44-year-old former UCLA level guard can be a head coach, chosen to guide the WNBA’s incoming enlargement crew, the Golden State Valkyries.

Nakase, who was beforehand an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers (2018-2020) and Las Vegas Aces (2022-24), has no scarcity of expertise on the bench. Underneath Clippers coach Ty Lue, she earned the respect of dozens of NBA gamers.

Underneath the management of Becky Hammon, she gained two WNBA championships alongside a number of the finest gamers within the sport. To this present day, she credit Hammon for serving to form the WNBA into the league it’s as we speak — and for giving her a career-altering alternative.

Nonetheless, within the wake of her hiring in Golden State, there was another person within the teaching world Nakase was desperate to get to know: Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who only a few months earlier had grow to be the youngest head coach within the NBA to win a championship since Invoice Russell did so in 1968 at age 34.

“My greatest factor was: how can I choose the brains of head coaches that win rapidly?” Nakase instructed SB Nation in an unique interview.

Nakase and Mazzulla had by no means met. However, the 2 shared a standard background; each have been undersized, tenacious guards on elite school basketball groups, Mazzulla at West Virginia (2006-2011) and Nakase at UCLA (1998-2003). Each later rose by means of the ranks within the G League.

An in depth mutual good friend additionally certain the 2 coaches: Celtics assistant coach Sam Cassell, who beforehand labored alongside Nakase on the Clippers.

Cassell was completely happy to facilitate.

On its face, the mentorship is an unlikely pairing. Mazzulla is predicated in Boston, throughout the nation from Nakase’s dwelling base. The 2 have by no means labored collectively, and solely share one frequent connection in Cassell.

However Nakase was certain she wished to study from Mazzulla as a result of she noticed a little bit of herself in him, at the very least from afar.

The remaining was historical past.

Joe Mazzulla was completely happy to take Natalie Nakase beneath his wing

From the second Nakase met the Celtics’ head coach, his generosity struck her.

“He was like, ‘What do you wish to know? What questions do you could have for me?’” Nakase recalled. “I’m like, ‘Are you for actual? Like, aren’t you in-season?’ And he was like, ‘I obtained time.’”

She was additionally struck by what she described as his “radical honesty” — no matter questions she had for him in these first few hours, he answered candidly, regardless of how his solutions would possibly come off.

“[He was] like, ‘that is me, that is who I’m, and take it nonetheless you need,’” Nakase stated. “And I feel it’s sort of his mentality, proper? Like, win-or-die.”

Mazzulla offered blunt, trustworthy solutions to all of Nakase’s inquiries. As such, when she requested him about his enjoying profession, he answered plainly: “I sucked.”

For Mazzulla, the choice to welcome the Valkyries coach to Boston was a no brainer.

“One of many issues that I like to provide again to teaching is basically being there for younger coaches who’re getting an amazing alternative, who haven’t achieved it earlier than,” Mazzulla instructed SB Nation. “[I’m] simply attempting to provide the attitude of what comes with that, the nice and the dangerous.”

That may shock those that have learn the headlines relating to the intentional distance Mazzulla retains from his teaching friends.

“It’s crucial to not give away psychological tells,” he stated again in November, elaborating on his reluctance to spend time with different NBA coaches.

However Nakase isn’t an NBA coach, and Mazzulla is aware of first-hand simply how impactful cross-league mentorship could be. He’s famously credited Manchester Metropolis coach Pep Guardiola for taking him beneath his wing a number of years again, when he assumed the Celtics head coach function.

“The most important factor I wished to take from him was: What’s it like earlier than you win? What are the challenges that include profitable the primary one? And what are you want now that you just’ve gained?” Mazzulla stated on the “Males In Blazers” podcast earlier this month.

Nakase had already seen that up shut with the Aces, and it’s arduous for her to place into phrases simply how a lot she realized from Hammon.

“After I met her and began to work along with her, I [was] like, ‘God, you’re simply, like, the nicest individual.’ She has a giant coronary heart,” Nakase stated. “Her X’s and O’s are elite, however she simply opens her coronary heart immediately. And whenever you try this, you get the actual, genuine really feel of gamers, and so they poured proper again into her. It was on the spot buy-in.

Nonetheless, whereas Nakase had no scarcity of mentors — and because of Hammon, she was already intimately aware of what a fast ascent to championship head teaching seemed like — she nonetheless wished to get one other perspective relating to the method of main a crew to victory, from another person who has achieved so resoundingly and rapidly.

The Celtics’ head coach was completely happy to supply one.

“Whatever the degree or the league, I all the time have a coronary heart for first-time head coaches,” Mazzula stated. “As a result of I’ve been there.”

What Nakase realized from observing Mazzulla and the Celtics

She first traveled from San Francisco to Boston within the fall for a few days of shadowing the Celtics. Immediately, she was blown away by Mazzulla’s consideration to element within the movie room, and the way in-sync his teaching employees was.

“His preparation was immaculate — how a lot time he put in, and simply the way in which he has a really cohesive employees,” Nakase stated. “It was actually spectacular. Everybody [on the coaching staff] was very environment friendly and thorough with what they delivered to the desk. And, on the finish of the day, they all the time go away with a unified entrance.”

After the go to to Boston, she returned to the Bay to organize for the Valkyries’ upcoming enlargement draft, the mechanism by means of which she and the entrance workplace have been capable of construct the Valkyries’ inaugural roster. The draft allowed Nakase to pick as much as one unprotected participant from every of the WNBA’s 12 groups (every crew was capable of defend six gamers).

Determining who to pick from the pool required numerous hours of watching movie and countless discussions with the Valkyries’ entrance workplace. However, as soon as the draft occurred and Nakase’s accompanying media obligations have been lastly within the rearview, she mulled over how one can spend her subsequent few weeks.

The reply rapidly grew to become obvious.

She known as Joe Mazzulla.

“As an alternative of occurring trip, I used to be like, ‘Hey, can I come again?’” Nakase stated.

This time, the go to was longer — it spanned almost per week of shadowing Mazzulla and the crew in Boston. She noticed movie periods, spoke with the Celtics’ gamers and assistants, and studied the top coach’s each transfer.

One sport day, after she spectated on a morning shootaround, Mazzulla invited her to spend the day with him. However, his gameday routine wasn’t what she anticipated; between the ten am shootaround and the night sport, the Celtics head coach doesn’t take a break.

As an alternative, he heads proper from the Auerbach Heart in Brighton to TD Backyard in downtown Boston, the place he spends his whole day.

“He was like, ‘Okay, we’re going straight to the world.’ And I’m like, ‘Wait, what? Like, I believed I used to be gonna get somewhat break, go get lunch, after which meet him,” Nakase recalled, laughing.

Cassell made clear she didn’t should go, however Nakase was keen to look at Mazzulla’s each transfer, from what he does when he first will get to the Auerbach Heart within the morning, till the second the sport suggestions off.

“He has it just about scripted each hour,” Nakase stated.

A part of Mazzulla’s pregame ritual is strolling round TD Backyard, a course of that helps give him readability. However what stood out most to Nakase from the time collectively was the human aspect — how he made certain to greet each individual at TD Backyard, and the way a lot he actually valued every relationship.

“He cares about each single individual in that enviornment,” she stated. “He talked to each single worker. And I used to be like, ‘Wow. My job as a head coach is not only to teach basketball. It’s to actually put an imprint on this neighborhood, on this enviornment, on everybody that works right here — and everybody that sacrifices to make the sport its finest.’”

The result’s a tradition that Celtics gamers, assistant coaches, and employees have been desperate to gush to Nakase about.

“They’re identical to, ‘That is the perfect group that [we’ve] ever been part of, whether or not it’s to play for him, or to work with him,’” she stated. “They simply stated his means to guide with a tricky mindset, but additionally be considerate, was key. That’s one thing I sort of keep it up my shoulders.”

Natalie Nakase sees a little bit of herself in Joe Mazzulla

When Nakase first accepted the Valkyries job, Ty Lue raved concerning the relentless spirit of his former assistant coach.

“She’s only a arduous employee — simply devoted to work, asks a whole lot of questions,” he instructed reporters. “You ask her a query she don’t know the reply to, she’s going to go get it. She’s sort of like my little protégé… I’m simply completely happy she lastly obtained a possibility.”

The chance was a very long time coming.

Nakase started her NBA teaching profession as an intern beneath the Clippers’ video coordinator in 2012. In 2014, she made historical past, changing into the primary lady to sit down on the bench as an NBA assistant whereas serving on the employees of the Clippers’ Summer time League crew. (Nakase narrowly beat out Hammon for this distinction — Hammon grew to become the primary full-time feminine assistant NBA coach only a few months later).

The 2 ended up linking up in Las Vegas, and Nakase beloved teaching beneath Hammon a lot that she was reluctant to go away the Aces for a special alternative.

“However Becky was like, ‘Go interview!’” Nakase recalled. Later conversations with Joe Lacob, the proprietor of the Valkyries and Warriors, cemented in her thoughts that taking the job was the best transfer.

Since accepting the function, it’s been go, go, go for Nakase.

However she nonetheless prioritized spending time in Boston and finding out Joe Mazzulla and the defending NBA champions.

“He has, after all, the loopy mindset, the ultra-competitive, win-or-die, play-like-your-life-depends-on-it mindset,” Nakase stated with a smile.

“That’s why I wished to come back again and study extra.”

Mazzulla acknowledges their similarities, too.

“The competitiveness is there, but additionally the way in which [she] thinks concerning the sport from an analytical standpoint, the way you construct a roster,” he stated of Nakase. “So, [we’re] taking from one another’s perspective.”

That’s to not say that the incoming Valkyries head coach goes to be the ladies’s basketball model of Mazzulla; for one, Nakase presents a way more jovial demeanor to the media. And, whereas she’s snug in her personal pores and skin, she’d be the primary to confess that the Celtics’ head coach takes it to a different degree.

“He’s actual, he’s trustworthy, he’s genuine, he’s not afraid to be himself,” Nakase stated. “And I feel I carry that, however he does it to an excessive. It’s actually displaying me to simply be your self — simply be your true self.”

However, at their core, although each are obsessive about the game itself, each speak overtly concerning the significance of prioritizing private relationships and elevating the individuals round them.

“On the finish of the day, I wish to guarantee that everybody in my circle — and each considered one of my employees and my household — they’re getting taken care of,” Nakase stated.

Nakase and the Valkyries are set to embark on their first journey, and Mazzulla is there to assist

The Valkyries season will tip off in only a few brief months, with their first sport slated for Could 16 towards the Los Angeles Sparks. Their roster contains Veronica Burton, Monique Billings, Julie Vanloo, Kate Martin, and Kayla Thornton, amongst others — all gamers who Nakase says have been chosen for his or her aggressive nature.

She feels fortunate to have been within the place to assist hand-pick who would make up the primary roster she ever leads within the WNBA.

“In case you research the 11 gamers that I already selected, they match all these traits that we actually need, which can be actually essential, to be able to have a championship tradition sooner or later,” she stated.

The Valkyries weren’t capable of land any main free-agency acquisitions. In truth, they’re slated to be the one crew within the WNBA that gained’t have a former All-Star on the roster subsequent season.

However Burton, who was a backup level guard for the Connecticut Solar final yr, instructed SB Nation she thinks the group assembled will shock individuals.

“All of us have a chip on our shoulder, and we’re all able to compete,” Burton stated. “Everybody sort of assumes, you recognize, ‘first yr, we’ll see what they will do. Simply take advantage of what you could have.’ However when you could have simply sort of the mindset that you just’re hungry and the underdog mindset — at the very least for me, I don’t know, I’ve actually excessive expectations for this yr. The grittiness will come out, and simply the eagerness and pleasure to play.”

Nakase’s expectations are sky-high, too.

“I wish to work actually, actually arduous — that’s simply sort of how I’m constructed,” she stated. “I’m very aggressive. I hate dropping.”

Mazzulla plans to proceed supporting the Valkyries’ head coach as she embarks on the journey.

“She’s obtained an amazing alternative. She’s a younger head coach,” Mazzulla says, including that he asks himself, “How can we be there [for her] as a employees?”

Nakase reiterated simply how uncommon it’s for a head coach to permit one other coach to shadow them this extensively in the course of the season.

And, as she will get nearer to tip-off, the gratitude is setting in.

“Joe and the Celtics — they didn’t have to try this, however they let me of their area,” Nakase stated. “And I’m going to be without end grateful.”