dating to the Americans\u2019 dominance at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics<\/a> and was a founding owner in the former ABL.<\/p>\nPlayers also are thrilled to be building something from the ground up, being part of all the special firsts for this franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way that the bay grows is by being there for each other, is uplifting each other, is lending that helping hand when people need it,\u201d guard Tiffany Hayes said. \u201cOr even just working together, just connecting people that need to be connected. A little connection can bring you a long way. That\u2019s just what the Valkyries have been showing everybody. You see Ballhalla\u2019s packed every night, that people feel the love from what they\u2019re getting when they come here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Valkyries have captivated their target audience, and then some. Every age and color, every walk of life, that\u2019s what you see inside Chase Center \u2014 where grown men are rocking their pale purple.<\/p>\n
\u201cValkyries violet!\u201d emphasized Lacob, who initially wasn\u2019t sure of the color scheme and now wears his violet pullover with pride.<\/p>\n
The Bay Area already had an established fan base for women\u2019s basketball with strong support of the college programs such as California and Stanford.<\/p>\n
Now, all eyes are on the Valkyries and their success \u2014 and not just in Northern California but well beyond. Toronto Tempo expansion team president Teresa Resch recently attended a game and was shown on the big screen.<\/p>\n
Golden State\u2019s new Raven \u201cbestie\u201d as they call her \u2014 she\u2019s not a mascot \u2014 named Violet is a huge hit. She made her debut Aug. 11 for a matchup with Connecticut. The sporty Violet dances around the arena sharing friendship bracelets after hatching from a large purple egg following a four-day incubation outside Chase Center this summer.<\/p>\n
Fans are loving the attention to such details. All 22 regular-season home games were sellouts. But the eighth-seeded Valkyries will relocate to SAP Center in San Jose for their home playoff game Wednesday against Minnesota because of the Laver Cup tennis event, which had been scheduled before San Francisco was granted a WNBA team.<\/p>\n
Making the playoffs in Year 1 was always the goal<\/p>\n
On the floor, coach Natalie Nakase has produced a consistent winner with players who mix and match and thrive on their depth \u2014 especially important with a rash of late-season injuries \u2014 stingy defense and 3-point shooting.<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old Nakase kept Golden State focused on the task at hand night after night, with making playoffs the goal from Day 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about being organized, it\u2019s about being thoughtful, it\u2019s about being prepared,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think when you have that type of mindset among the coaching staff then I think that\u2019s when you can develop. I tell our coaches how can we improve every single day and not just let days off go by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last summer while grabbing another meal, Smith went to pay when she learned her bill had been taken care of by an appreciative fan and now-season ticket-holder. The woman wrote a thank-you for all of Smith\u2019s tireless work and said, \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith shared that at a staff meeting and made it clear the woman didn\u2019t have it quite right: Every part of running a successful organization is a collaboration, and the Valkyries wouldn\u2019t be where they are without fans like her.<\/p>\n
Oh, and supporters like Curry and fellow Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski showing up to shine light on the women\u2019s game. Podziemski has been a regular sitting courtside next to Lacob wearing different players\u2019 jerseys every night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is just remarkable, I mean it\u2019s just fantastic,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cFirst of all, selling out every game but secondly winning, does it get any better as an expansion team? It\u2019s pretty great. The fans are having so much fun. It\u2019s just unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 Exhausted and finally able to catch her breath, Jess Smith sat down for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[19039,2356,130774,144292,60205,99,2244,218804,7631,434,13017,13016],"class_list":{"0":"post-471419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-brandin-podziemski","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-jess-smith","11":"tag-joe-lacob","12":"tag-natalie-nakase","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-stephen-curry","15":"tag-teresa-resch","16":"tag-tiffany-hayes","17":"tag-wnba","18":"tag-wnba-basketball","19":"tag-womens-national-basketball-association"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}