With 1:40 left in an elimination game, the head coach of the Golden State Valkyries went to the floor. Natalie Nakase was in the middle of a heated exchange with an official when she collapsed on the sideline, and the building went quiet.
Athletic trainer Katelin Knox reached her immediately, and staff helped her up. The Valkyries said Nakase was exhausted and lightheaded. That is the full extent of what has been reported about it.
Then she drew up the next play.
What the team said
“Didn’t miss a beat,” assistant coach Kasib Powell said. “We were locked in as that happened, when she went to the sidelines she drew the next play up, she was in the huddle getting on them about getting a stop.”
Powell said the staff was still trying to figure out the cause, and that Nakase was talking, laughing and in great spirits in the locker room afterward. Gabby Williams kept it short: “We’re glad she’s alright.”
No diagnosis has been reported and nothing beyond exhaustion and lightheadedness has come from the team. Anyone telling you more than that is filling in blanks.
The game she stayed up for
Golden State won 77-73 on Friday night and took the first-round series 2-1. That is the first playoff series win in franchise history, in the second season the franchise has existed.
It was not comfortable. The Valkyries trailed Dallas by 16 in the third quarter, two days after Arike Ogunbowale dropped a playoff-record 45 points to force a Game 3. Golden State had to grind the entire deficit back.
Williams finished with 19 points, 11 of them in the fourth quarter. Tiffany Hayes added 18 off the bench. Veronica Burton put up 16 points and 10 rebounds for the first playoff double-double in team history.
Nobody went nuclear. The Valkyries just refused to let Dallas score for long enough to steal it, and they did it in an elimination game on the second night of a series they had already blown a chance to end.
Dallas had the better single performance across the three games and still lost the series. Golden State had the better group.
Why this one matters
Expansion teams are supposed to be bad for a while. Golden State has reached the playoffs in both of its seasons and won a series in the second one, which is not the schedule anybody wrote for them.
Las Vegas is next in the semifinals, starting Sunday. The Aces just closed out the Fever and have A’ja Wilson playing at the level that ends other teams’ seasons. Golden State will be a heavy underdog.
None of that is the point today. Nakase coached the last 100 seconds of the biggest win in her franchise’s short history from a sideline she had just been picked up off of, and her players watched her do it.
Coaches talk constantly about standards and about refusing to give anything away. Most of them never get a chance to demonstrate it that literally. No in-game adjustment Nakase ever draws up will be worth more to that locker room than the 90 seconds after she got back on her feet.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.