For Ohemaa Nyaninit gave the impression of the perfect ending and best case scenario.

As the New York Liberty celebrated its first WNBA championship in franchise history on Oct. 20 in Brooklyn, New York, across the country, a former Liberty executive stood screaming at the television and crying tears of joy in her recent Bay Area apartment.

Nyanin spent five years with the Liberty organization, first as director of basketball operations after which, starting in 2022, as assistant general manager.

In May, Nyanin was named general manager of the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s first expansion team since 2008.

Since being hired seven months ago, Nyanin has been charged with revitalizing the basketball team of the newly formed Golden State organization. Her next big step in that process will come Friday when she selects the first group of Valkyrie players in the WNBA expansion draft.

A couple of weeks before New York won the title, Nyanin was in Brooklyn for the second game of the finals after her former colleagues in the Liberty office begged her to return to the Barclays Center.

“I just wanted to see the evolution of what we built in 2019 in Westchester County Center to where we are today,” Nyanin said.

Nyanin thought she would complete this evolution in 2023, when the Liberty would compete for the WNBA championship against the Las Vegas Aces. Instead, she and her family watched as the Aces celebrated after defeating Liberty on their home court.

“I had to come back to sort of cleanse the experience,” Nyanin said.

Seeing the team she had played a major role in constructing achieve its ultimate goal marked a satisfying end to a momentous chapter for Nyanin. Now Nyanin can officially retire its Liberty green meerschaum.

“I’m rigorous Purple Valkyrie We are moving forward,” she said.

Nyanin has a vision for the growth and development of the Valkyries organization. Before a job candidate joins a franchise in any capability, Nyanin desires to know one thing: Do they need to construct?

The answer to this query was not at all times what Nyanin expected.

“I think at first I didn’t give much credence to the fact that not everyone wants to build,” Nyanin said.

Nyanin said her vision didn’t come together as quickly as she expected. While this job has required her to have an additional dose of patience in the meantime, she’s reminded of where she got here from in New York in 2019 and what she ultimately achieved in 2024. It’s all a process.

“I knew it would be complicated.” Nyanin said. “Knowing that it’s complex and being in that complexity are two different things in my opinion.”

While navigating the starting of her tenure has had its challenges, Nyanin says she’s near the goals she set for herself when she began the job.

“I’ll let all the little victories kind of motivate me to keep going and get to all the things that we need to get to,” Nyanin said.

Two of those victories earned her her first office job. She was hired in July Vanja Černivec to grow to be vp of basketball operations at Golden State. In October, she hired a standout Las Vegas Aces assistant Natalie Nakase as the first trainer of Valkyries.

With the expansion project, Nyanin and her team are trekking into uncharted territory. While the Atlanta Dream has previously been involved in an expansion project, this is true 16 years ago. It is unlikely that any current front office staff can have experience with this process.

“I would say I read the rules every day to make sure I haven’t missed anything,” Nyanin said. “It was a journey. I don’t need to make use of pejoratives or anything like that, which is super fluffy and exciting. It was just a journey. I feel people can appreciate how hard this journey has been, but it surely’s something our league can have to undergo.

While the front office hasn’t participated in an expansion project in recent history, it won’t be long before many individuals start making the most of it in the coming seasons, whether or not it involves the newly announced Toronto AND Portland franchises scheduled to start in 2026, or expansion franchises the league is expected to announce in the future.

“It’s always interesting to be the first in a really long time because I think this group of general managers and coaches will probably be there as we go through the next stages of expansion,” Nyanin said.

When it involves the personnel and players who could also be the first Valkyries to play, Nyanin and Nakase share an emphasis on constructing a team with a defensive identity.

“If you look at the teams that have had success over the last three seasons, or more specifically, if not four, they have been top five in defensive rating,” Nyanin said.

Liberty was ranked last season third in the defensive rating.

“I think this needs to be emphasized because I think people, average people, really look at the offense,” she said. “It’s a skill of select athletes and, oh my God, if you have that athlete, you’re definitely going to win basketball games because they know how to do X, right? I don’t think it really talks about how defense can lead to offense, right? Are we always in transition offense because we get all these steals or blocks or deflections?”

For much of the preparation for the expansion project, Nyanin and Nakase needed to work in a cloud of hypotheses. By November 18, Nyanin had not received the list of designated players from which the Valkyries were to decide on. In late September, the WNBA announced the deadline for teams to submit roster lists to the league “about 10 days” before the expansion project.

“If they don’t protect this player, should we go for him? And why or why not?” Nyanin talked about her conversations with Nakase. “We each agreed that we were type of geniuses from our previous locations. So, you recognize, type of what I say about New York and whatever she says about Vegas, tremendous.

As general manager, Nyanin believes that one in every of her standout strengths is her ability to tap into the human aspect of WNBA players. That’s a big a part of what she delivered to Liberty’s office, and it’s something she feels is missing in the CEO dynamic today.

“At the end of the day, these athletes are people first,” Nyanin said. “If you possibly can’t understand what motivates an athlete to open the door each day, go to practice, play that sport, need to win or simply be blissful to be there, you must understand the athlete’s motivations.

“I think this is just an area where we collectively need to do better to ensure that these athletes have a safe environment to develop.”

For Nyanin, it’s about greater than just what a player can do for the franchise on the pitch. It’s about whether the player wants to construct and share a vision for the franchise: is this a market he thinks he could be in, not only for the season, but for the future?

While Nyanin expects a certain level of investment from anyone who joins the Valkyries, it is not a one-way street. When deciding whether to just accept the Golden State job, Nyanin stated that she would only feel comfortable leaving Liberty if she knew in her heart that the team had what it took to win.

“The most important thing for me was to make sure the athletes felt I wasn’t abandoning them,” Nyanin said. “that my development was not to come at the expense of their dreams.”

Nyanin believes that with Černivec and Nakase’s experience in producing championship-level winning teams, they’re equipped to construct a competitive squad.

“I feel this is exactly what I wanted to construct. Yes, I make the decisions. I even have very capable decision-makers who all share one common goal. And that is how we will type of attack whatever happens next.”

Nyanin is one in every of the few two Black WNBA general managers. WITH Exit Natalie Williams was named general manager of the Aces on October 24, and is also the only Black woman to function general manager in the 13-team league. (Three teams currently have vacant CEO positions.)

“I decided not to think about it,” Nyanin said when asked about the importance of getting this job and being a representative of Black CEOs. “It’s so intimidating to think that I’m the only black female GM right now.”

Nyanin added that her storyline and standpoint differ significantly from the experiences of Black Americans. Nyanin was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, but grew up as a third culture child who had lived in five countries.

While her perspective could also be different, she still understands the importance of her presence in the league and hopes that her influence can create opportunities for other Black women.

“If you look at the big picture, we’re still working on it as a league,” Nyanin said. “I’m excited to hopefully make a positive impact in this field, so I hope my success continues to open doors for others.”

Natalie Nakase has never shied away from a challenge.

For the recent coach of the Golden State Valkyries, the challenge is just a provocation, a possibility to prove herself, which makes her very blissful. You could even say that the challenge hates the sight of Nakase.

When Nakase turned down a full scholarship to play basketball at the University of California, Irvine and as a substitute joined the women’s basketball team at the University of California, Los Angeles, her former coach called her tell her she’s crazy. Nakase would grow to be a three-year starter and team captain.

When was she asked to play skilled basketball? She would do it in two different countries and grow to be the first Asian-American player in the National Women’s Basketball League.

When Nakase’s playing profession was cut short due to injury, she became a coach in Germany. Within two years, she became the first female coach in Japan’s top skilled men’s league. She talked about wanting to train in the NBA because her aspirations often lacked external support.

She turned an internship with the LA Clippers right into a position as an assistant coach for player development with the franchise.

“I think ever since I was young, I loved challenges,” Nakase said. “I like impossible things.”

Her latest challenge? Finding an Affordable Home in San Francisco. But evidently even the San Francisco real estate market cannot compare.

“I think I found it,” she said.

Nakase, who most recently won two championships as an assistant coach with the Las Vegas Aces, was hired in October as the head coach of the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s first expansion team since 2008. The Valkyries will select their first players through the WNBA expansion draft on Friday, and Nakase will fill out his coaching staff in the coming weeks.

The task facing Nakase – putting a competitive team on the field and achieving success as a young franchise – is a difficult one. When Chicago Sky was unveiled in 2006, the team went 5-29. The “Atlanta Dream” is gone 4-30 during the opening season in 2008.

But as Nakase’s journey has shown, betting against her was all the time a mistake.

“People say that expansion teams normally don’t do thoroughly in the first yr. It’s an enormous challenge for me to be told this again,” Nakase said.

When Nakase was first hired, Golden State general manager Ohemaa Nyanin didn’t understand how much Nakase would want to be involved from day one, especially in planning the upcoming expansion draft.

“On the day of the press conference, he comes into the office in Oakland and says, ‘OK, so tell me what you’ve done,’” Nyanin said. “She is just fully committed, 100% focused on every element of the process.”

Preparation has all the time been a part of Nakase’s process. When she was a video coordinator intern for the Los Angeles Clippers, she used the time to start developing her script – after timeouts, off-court moves and favorite sets.

“I think preparation obviously trumps everything when it comes to opportunity. I was getting ready,” Nakase said.

Last week, the Valkyries’ front office received a listing from the remaining 12 WNBA teams containing a listing of players who could potentially be chosen in Friday’s expansion draft.

There are some non-negotiables Nakase shall be in search of from the players on his team. They will need to have an “absurd work ethic” and an “ultra-competitive mindset” that absolutely hates the feeling of failure, she said.

“We want players to always strive to want more,” Nakase said. “I think it will probably go a little deeper as we get into the expansion draft, like which players really want to get better and which ones they never want to figure out.”

They will need to be unselfish, and Nakase sees that trait as crucial to the Aces winning their second league title.

“We were a selfless team in my opinion,” Nakase said. “You always want to help your teammate. This is crucial. We will be in touch all the time.”

The qualities Nakase looks for in her players are consistent together with her individual goals. Just as passionately as her father, Gary Nakase, encouraged Nakase to earn straight A’s in school, he also encouraged her to all the time be competitive on the field and be the best at what she did. As a setter who idolized Magic Johnson, she adopted a selfless mentality and all the time wanted to make the game easier for others. At every stage of her basketball profession, she has shied away from being the hardest employee in the constructing.

“My journey as a coach is kind of the foundation of my career,” she said.

When Nakase began coaching, she, like many others, was driven by the desire to win. On the Aces, as an assistant to coach Becky Hammon, Nakase got to experience that. Although Nakase still has the urge to hang banners, her motivation and her “why” are focused on making her father proud. Her impulse to attack the unimaginable and pursue goals without limits was instilled early on by her dad, who was Nakase’s best friend and mentor.

“That right now has made my ‘why’ even better, even more different, and once again, now as a head coach, win as many championships as possible,” she said.

When Nakase was 10, she remembers walking up to her father with tears in her eyes. Nakase had just returned from a basketball game where she didn’t play well and was disenchanted by the words of an opposing player. Without the context of what was frustrating his daughter, Gary Nakase looked down and used the moment to share a very important lesson.

“Natalie, never let yourself be… what people think or think about you,” said Gary Nakase, who died in 2021. “You tried your best. You all the time have to consider in yourself – that is more essential.”

It’s a message that stuck with Nakase, now 44.

“From a young age, I used to be able to block out lots of the distractions and noise that lots of people discuss and just keep going and give attention to that – whether it was my game or now that I’m coaching – I just focused. on what I can control,” she said.

When the Aces won the first championship in franchise history in 2022Nakase said she has options to leave the Aces bench and move to one other coaching position. Nakase, nevertheless, selected to stay, selecting to remain “loyal” to Hammon due to the opportunity Hammon gave her.

“I told Becky, ‘Listen, no, I’m your assistant,’” Nakase said. “She took me in – she didn’t really know who I used to be as an individual. After the first yr of probably the best coaching experience I’ve ever had in my life, thanks to her and the players we had and the way quickly we were getting on, I wanted to stay.

After the Aces won their second straight title in 2023– Nakase said, her desire to leave the Aesir diminishing much more. She focused on rewriting the record books in Las Vegas.

“I wanted to win five (championships),” Nakase said. (*1*)

Despite Nakase’s intention to stick with the franchise, Hammon encouraged her to attend one in all the interviews offered to her – but Nakase wasn’t sure.

“She knew I was ready and I think her support was what pushed me,” Nakase said.

Nakase eventually spoke to Nyanin. In Valkyries, Nakase believed she had found her perfect match.

During one in all their last conversations before Nakase left Vegas, which she said was full of tears and countless hugs, Hammon left Nakase with a parting message:

“You’re ready, now go and kill it.”

Not way back, Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein found solace in a psychology book that helped him address the stress and reality of being an NBA journeyman. The reality now is the big man’s stability and the ability to breathe a sigh of relief after signing an $87 million contract after six difficult seasons in the NBA.

But knowing the struggle well, all that cash won’t let him loosen the survival mentality that is gotten him this far.

“The moment I signed the contract, it was something special,” Hartenstein recently told Andscape. “I’m just making my way through the NBA. Coming out of the G League with the (Houston) Rockets and being sent back to the lineup consistently proved that I used to be ready for it. It was never easy. It wasn’t relief, but excitement.

“I didn’t feel like I could let off the gas. The labor finally paid off, regardless that it took slightly longer than I assumed. I used to be excited and at the same time motivated because I had proven myself.

Hartenstein played for the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Clippers and New York Knicks from 2018 to 2024. The 7-foot-2, 250-pound player also spent a while early in his NBA profession playing in the G League for the Rio Grande Vipers. In the June 23, 2020 Rockets press release announcing the signing of David Nwaba, the team simply stated at the end: “As a result, the Rockets have waived center Isaiah Hartenstein. He was chosen forty third overall by Houston in the 2017 NBA Draft and played in a complete of 51 games as a Rocket. No other statistics were included.

On November 30, 2020, the Nuggets signed Hartenstein to a two-year, $3.3 million contract, who will probably be the backup to All-Star center Nikola Jokic. Hartenstein’s father, former Oregon center Florian, frolicked in Denver with his son to offer support, drive him to basketball practices and even cook meals. The stress was further intensified by the proven fact that there is a coronavirus pandemic.

“Overall, it was difficult to play under Jokic for about eight minutes a game,” Hartenstein said. “Things weren’t going well. Denver was probably the hardest time. It was after Covid and for the first time I felt like maybe it wasn’t going to work out. But I just kept talking.”

Hartenstein has at all times been a voracious reader. Hoping to assist himself mentally on and off the court, he began searching the Internet for sports psychology books that would give him guidance. George Mumford found them. NBA legend Michael Jordan once admitted that Mumford helped him turn into a greater leader. Mumford also helped former Los Angeles Lakers stars corresponding to Shaquille O’Neal, Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant.

Mumford, who worked with Julius Erving at UMass, is a widely respected public speaker and coach who shares his story, strategies and proven techniques for improving athletic performance in the popular book. Hartenstein is credited with helping turn his NBA profession around in Denver by deepening his “mental space and mental preparation.”

“It became clear to me. I used to be in a state where I needed to work more (on my mentality) and it worked from there,” Hartenstein said of . “The most significant thing it taught me was to remain present and be more process-oriented.

“There will be ups and downs, but don’t go too high or too low. You’re going to have some bad games. Don’t let this continue. Move on to the next thing. Control what you can control.”

Hartenstein played sparingly for the Nuggets before being traded to the Cavaliers on March 25, 2021. He showed signs of being a proven NBA player with the Cavaliers, averaging 8.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 16 games during the 2020-21 season. He then signed with the Clippers on September 13, 2021, regardless that it was a one-year minimum contract. Hartenstein joined the Clippers and averaged 8.3 points and 4.9 rebounds off the bench in 17.9 minutes in 68 contests in 2021-22.

Hartenstein believes his time with the Clippers proved he was an NBA center.

“That was the first season I was consistently in the rotation,” Hartenstein said. “I had good months with the Rockets, but the Clippers were the most consistent (of the season).”

The NBA nomad was rewarded with his first contract with an annual salary exceeding $2 million, signing a two-year, $16 million contract with the Knicks on July 1, 2022. He averaged 6.3 points and seven.4 rebounds per game in 157 games with the Knicks from 2022-24. Most importantly, Hartenstein was New York’s successful starting center during the regular season and playoffs after Mitchell Robinson was injured.

Hartenstein felt respected and loved in the Knicks uniform and loved playing at Madison Square Garden.

“Playing in the Mecca (Madison Square Garden) and having big games, especially in the playoffs, was huge,” Hartenstein said. “Me and Jalen (Brunson) went in there and kind of changed it. It was big. Playing in the garden has always been special. It was a unique experience to be there.”

Hartenstein’s father is black German and his mother is white German. In 2017, he told Andscape that he was pleased with his black roots and that his father taught him African American history. Hartenstein, who has a lighter complexion, said that in his youth in Germany he handled racism and dated individuals who didn’t know he was a black man and who made racist comments about black people in front of him.

He also discussed being black on the podcast , hosted by Brunson and Josh Hart, who were his Knicks teammates at the time.

“It was fun,” Hartenstein said of the podcast. “I knew they were doing it. They had been talking about it all week (before).”

He added: “(Andscape) was the first to release it to the world. It’s at all times funny when people discover about it.

The Knicks desired to keep Hartenstein and offered him a four-year contract price $72.5 million. Hartenstein, nonetheless, opted to sign a more lucrative three-year, $87 million contract to affix NBA All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the rising Thunder on July 6. Hartenstein previously earned a complete of $22.6 million in his NBA profession. He will earn $30 million this season.

Looking back, Hartenstein is very pleased with what he was in a position to accomplish after a slow begin to his profession.

“It was hard to leave. It wasn’t easy. I loved being there and I loved my teammates,” Hartenstein said of New York. “If I could not go to a spot like OKC, I do not think I might have left. But you furthermore mght need to think that ultimately it would be a business. It wasn’t like I had an entire bunch of $100 million contracts before. I needed to be certain that my family was heterosexual.

“It was a crazy experience, starting with the minimum contract and the training camp take care of the Clippers. It’s quite a journey from here to there. Often you do not understand what you are going through. But now, looking back, I would not change a thing on or off the court.

Hartenstein’s difficult days in the NBA returned when on October 15 in a preseason game against Denver, the Thunder announced that he had suffered a minor, non-displaced fracture of his left hand. The excellent news was that the injury didn’t require surgery, but Hartenstein’s Thunder debut was delayed.

After learning of Hartenstein’s love of reading, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault gave him a book by Ryan Holiday. The #1 bestseller is inspired by stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of tolerating pain and overcoming adversity through perseverance and resilience.

“He talks about his time in Denver where he really worked on his mental game,” Daigneault told Andscape. “I really useful this book because he was hurt. But that is sort of right in his wheelhouse. He’s a really intelligent guy.”

“Mark gave me a book that really helped me through the (injury) process. Just read it and overcome every obstacle without wasting any time,” Hartenstein said.

Hartenstein received a hero’s welcome from Thunder fans when he debuted on November 20 with 13 points and 14 rebounds in a 109–99 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. His profession averages are points (13.3) and rebounds (12.3). , assists (4.2) and blocks (1.5) in six contests for the Thunder, who at 16-5 have the best record in the Western Conference entering Wednesday.

“He’s obviously big, and last season we had a smaller, better rebounding team,” Daigneault said. “It’s like explaining to AB (about signing him). But that does not do justice to how good a player he is. It’s not only a giant body that may bounce back. He’s a fantastic basketball player.

“He’s great at the most important things on the basketball floor. It is a complete bonding specialist that highlights both sides of the floor due to its dynamics.”

Hartenstein believes NBA players who’re struggling early in their careers can find inspiration in his story.

“Just follow the processes,” Hartenstein said. “Sometimes it takes time. We all enter the NBA and wish to play instantly. Mentally you have got to be strong and never have a negative attitude. Quite a lot of guys don’t play at first and they don’t seem to be good guys in the locker room. They don’t support their teammates when you aren’t getting your likelihood.

“You need to stay until you get your likelihood. Do small things. Be teammate. And just be ready when your time comes.