{"id":869657,"date":"2026-10-03T18:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869657\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T18:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:38:09","slug":"golden-state-valkyries-coach-collapses-midgame-during-wnba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869657\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden State Valkyries coach collapses midgame during WNBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase briefly collapsed on the court during Friday\u2019s playoff win over the Dallas Wings.<\/p>\n

Nakase, 46, fell to her hands and knees while speaking with a referee during a fourth-quarter timeout at the Chase Center in San Francisco. Moments later, she was helped to her feet by others and appeared to put her hand to her head.<\/p>\n

She coached the rest of the game, Game 3 of the opening round of the WNBA playoffs, and the Valkyries won 77-73. She didn\u2019t speak to reporters afterward, as head coaches are normally expected to.<\/p>\n

Assistant coach Kasib Powell, who addressed the media<\/a> in her place, said Nakase was \u201cfine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNatalie\u2019s fine,\u201d Powell said. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s a quick turnaround. We play again on Sunday. She wouldn\u2019t miss it for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll figure out more as we go, but I think she\u2019s totally fine.\u201d he added. \u201cShe\u2019s talking, she\u2019s laughing in the back. We look forward to preparing and getting ready for Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell said Nakase will coach Sunday\u2019s game against the Las Vegas Aces, the defending champions. The series opens in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do know that she will be ready for Sunday,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n

The series winner will advance to the WNBA Finals to face either the eighth-seeded Liberty or the fourth-seeded Dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase briefly collapsed on the court during Friday\u2019s playoff win over the Dallas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-869657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869657","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=869657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}