Lacob's WNBA championship goal excites Valkyries as they build roster

Seven months before Ohemaa Nyanin took a cross-country leap of faith, Joe Lacob already applied plenty of pressure. Well before the WNBA’s expansion Golden State Valkyries even had a name, Lacob, the owner of both the Warriors and now Valkyries, made a light-years-level proclamation.

“I’m telling you right now, we will win a WNBA championship in the first five years of this franchise,” Lacob announced at Chase Center during the team’s unveiling event.

When Lacob bought the Warriors in July 2010 he made the same exact prediction. The Warriors then won their first championship in 40 years on June 16, 2015 – four years, 11 months and one day after declaring he’d bring a championship to Golden State. And on Oct. 5, 2023, that same demand was placed on his newest team.

Nyanin was named as the franchise’s first general manager on May 6, 2024, almost exactly five months later.

What Lacob laid on the line from the start can make someone’s heart race. Especially someone who’s responsible for all basketball operations. Nyanin will build the roster, hire a coaching staff, oversee player development and report to Lacob.

The on-court product is her creation.

Golden State’s GM left the New York Liberty the season after they lost in the WNBA Finals in her second season as assistant GM. She knows what it takes to reach the top of the league, and Lacob’s words weren’t pressure to her. They were Nyanin’s newest challenge. She earned her pre-hire dare and is ready to get to work with the four-time NBA champion.

“I'm really excited about it, because he is someone I can partner with who understands how to do it the right way and who knows how to do it in a sustainable way,” Nyanin said to NBC Sports Bay Area on the latest Dubs Talk episode. “So my heart doesn't jump in kind of like fear of not being able to [win a championship within five years], it's more so a thought of 'OK, so how do I do this in the most authentic and sustainable way within that timeline?'

“So that's what makes my heart jump.”

She also isn’t downplaying Lacob letting the league know the Valkyries will be the champs by the end of the decade. Or how serious he is about that.

Three-plus weeks into the job at the time of our conversation (or time since hiring when the story is published), rarely has a day gone by without a reminder.

“There has been a clear and concise directive,” Nyanin said. “So I can't say that I didn't know. And it's been said to me pretty much in every meeting since I've started, so I can't say that I didn't remember. OK, great. Now it's … let's do it. Let's go do it. I'm excited for the opportunity, for sure.”

Nyanin, American University’s former starting center for the 2009-10 season, first ventured to the other side of the sport one season later when she was named the school’s director of women’s basketball operations as a graduate student at 23 years old. She also has held roles with USA Basketball and FIBA, was even once a youth director of a Methodist church and most recently spent the last five seasons with the Liberty.

Most notably, the Liberty improved from 16-20 her first year as assistant GM to 32-8 her second season. The Liberty in Nyanin’s first three years working for the franchise won 10, 2 and 12 games before her promotion in the front office.

It of course helps that last season was 2023 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart’s first on the Liberty after six with the Seattle Storm where she won two titles. Sabrina Ionescu had her second straight All-Star season, too. But along with adding Stewart, the Liberty also signed veteran All-Star guard Courtney Vandersloot in the offseason and traded for Jonquel Jones and Kayla Thornton as part of a five-team deal.

A name is only one part of the equation to Nyanin. Perhaps the smallest. Stewie has her own story, as does Sabrina, Courtney, Jonquel, Kayla and everybody else. Every player has a story, and in building the Valkyries’ roster from the ground floor, Nyanin wants to make sure everybody feels seen and heard.

“For me, it's being able to bring together athletes that are a product of their experiences,” Nyanin said. “Some that people know, some that people don't know and being able to create a product where people can take for themselves, if that makes sense. Storytelling is really important to me.

“There are really amazing athletes that are so good at their craft and also are great people in the community and want to embrace the culture that we are going to build. That's the big thing for me – who they are as individuals in addition to being able to put a ball in a basket or block a shot, because we got to do both. We can't just be shooting, we also have to defend.”

How the Valkyries’ roster can be constructed remains a bit of a mystery. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said at the time of the announcement Lacob and Golden State were being awarded the league’s newest team that an expansion draft would likely happen in late 2024, after the 2025 draft lottery is set.

The Atlanta Dream in 2008 were given the No. 4 overall pick, and in 2006 the Chicago Sky selected No. 6 overall – behind the five teams that missed the playoffs the previous season.

As that part of Nyanin’s job still needs answers, so does who will lead these women on the court as the Valkyries’ first head coach.

“I can't wait to hire a head coach to see what their vision is,” Nyanin said. “And then, you know, my job is to make sure that I set them up for success by being able to bring in the best talent.”

Lacob doesn’t know the answer right now. Neither does team president Jess Smith or anybody else.

Like Nyanin said at her introductory press conference on May 6, the process remains fluid. At the time of our talk, she still had a handful of personal boxes that had to be checked first. Some include finding an apartment in the Bay Area and purchasing a car. Before taking her brush to a blank canvas and painting her picture of the Valkyries authentically, Nyanin wants to make sure she’s grounded in her surroundings.

“What I will say is I'm looking for a person who is able to do both – really focus on their craft, and also be able to connect with the athletes where the athletes feel like this is a place that they can be for a really long time and I think that that takes a little bit of time to be able to understand who that person is and how they can integrate in what's already being built and what has already been built before they're hired. So being able to just jump in, and then also create and be given the runway to create a product that we both are proud of.

"In due time, things will be out here. But just give me a little bit of time just to have all the conversations that I need to have in order to make the best fit for our team.”

The Warriors had under a month to spare in making Lacob’s five-year championship claim come true. The Liberty made the WNBA Finals in Nyanin’s fifth season as part of the franchise, and second in her assistant GM role. The Valkyries’ story has barely begun to be written, yet the deep intentions of Nyanin and welcoming the heat being turned up long before her hiring make it easy to envision a championship parade of black and Valkyrie Violet confetti coming down within Lacob’s lofty five-year window.

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