|
Natalie Nakase
Natalie Mitsue Nakase (/nɑːˈkɑːseɪ/;born April 18, 1980) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Golden State Valkyries of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). After retiring as a player, Nakase was a head coach for both men's and women's professional teams. She was later an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). She then won two WNBA championships as an assistant coach for the Las Vegas Aces in 2022 and 2023. Nakase grew up in Orange County, California, where she was honored as the county's high school player of the year. She played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, receiving honorable mention as an all-conference player in the Pacific-10 in 2002. A third-generation Japanese-American, she became the first Asian American to play in the National Women's Basketball League (NWBL). She also played in Germany before suffering a knee injury and retiri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, beginning with the 2024–25 NBA season. Previously, the Clippers played their home games at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles from 1999 to 2024, which they had shared with the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). They are frequently referred to by their fans as "the Clips" or "LAC". The franchise was founded as the Buffalo Braves in 1970 as an expansion team. Led by Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo, the Braves reached the NBA playoffs three times during their eight seasons in Buffalo. Conflicts with the Canisius Golden Griffins over Buffalo Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2023 WNBA Finals
The 2023 WNBA Finals, officially the WNBA Finals 2023 presented by YouTube TV for sponsorship reasons, was the best-of-five championship series for the 2023 season of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The finals featured the first-seeded Las Vegas Aces facing off against the second-seeded New York Liberty. The Aces defeated the Liberty in 4 games, winning their second WNBA Championship in a row. The Aces became the first team in twenty one years, and only the third in history to repeat as WNBA Champions. Road to the Finals Standings Playoffs In November 2021, the WNBA Board of Governors formalized a new playoff system that will structure the 2022 playoffs onward. The new playoff format scraps the single-elimination games of the first two rounds in favor of a best-of-3 quarterfinal round. As a result, all eight playoff teams, seeded according to overall regular season record regardless of conference (1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5), will begin postsea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Letterman (sports)
In sports or activities in the United States, a letterman is a high school or college student who has met a specified level of participation or performance on a varsity team. Overview The term comes from the practice of awarding each such participant a cloth "Varsity letter, letter", which is usually the school's initial or initials, for placement on a "letter sweater" or "letter jacket" intended for the display of such an award. In some instances, the sweater or jacket itself may also be awarded, especially for the initial award to a given individual. Today, in order to distinguish "lettermen" from other team participants, schools often establish a minimum level of participation in a team's events or a minimum level of performance in order for a letter to be awarded. A common threshold in American football and basketball is participation in a set level, often half, of all quarters in a season. In individual sports such as tennis and golf, the threshold for lettering is general ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NBA G League
The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of the 2024–25 NBA G League season, 2024–25 season, all are single-affiliated or owned by an NBA team except for the independent Mexico City Capitanes. The league was founded in 2001 as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL), renamed the NBA Development League (NBA D-League) in 2005. It received its present name in 2017 under a deal with Gatorade, becoming the first U.S. professional sports league named for an advertiser. Initially eight teams, the league expanded after 2005 under a plan by NBA commissioner David Stern to develop it into a true minor-league farm team, farm system, with each team affiliated with one or more NBA teams. By mid-2014, one-third of NBA players had spent time in the league, up from 23% in 2011. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Women's Basketball League
The National Women's Basketball League, often abbreviated to the NWBL, was an organization governing professional basketball leagues for women in the United States. The league was founded in 1997 and began play in the Fall of that year. The league held its season during the off-season of the Women's National Basketball Association, WNBA. During the WNBA off-season, some WNBA players would play in the NWBL. The league ceased operations in 2007. History In contrast to the American Basketball League (1996-1998), ABL, Women's Basketball Association, WBA, and the WNBA before it, the NWBL was founded to govern a competitive ''amateur'' league for women. The NWBL was founded in 1997, in the shadow of both the ABL and the WNBA. The league is considered to be the brainchild of Patrick Alexander and Kevin Szotkowski, who saw the rapid growth of women's athletics of the time and decided to go into the business of promoting women athletes. With the assistance of former college basketball pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peoples of the continent of Asia, the usage of the term "Asian" by the United States Census Bureau denotes a racial category that includes people with origins or ancestry from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. It excludes people with ethnic origins from West Asia, who were historically classified as 'white' and will be categorized as Middle Eastern Americans starting from the 2030 census. Central Asian ancestries (including Afghan, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek) were previously not included in any racial category but have been designated as "Asian" as of 2024. The "Asian" census category includes people who indicate their race(s) on the census as "Asian" or reported entries s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese-American
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in ranking to constitute the sixth largest Asian American group at around 1,469,637, including those of partial ancestry. According to the 2010 census, the largest Japanese American communities were found in California with 272,528, Hawaii with 185,502, New York with 37,780, Washington with 35,008, Illinois with 17,542 and Ohio with 16,995. Southern California has the largest Japanese American population in North America and the city of Gardena holds the densest Japanese American population in the 48 contiguous states. History Immigration People from Japan began migrating to the US in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the Meiji Restoration in 1868. These early Issei immigrants came primarily from small towns and rural areas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific-10
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level of NCAA football competition. The conference currently comprises two members, Oregon State University and Washington State University. The modern Pac-12 Conference formed after the disbanding of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), the principal members of which founded the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in 1959. The conference previously went by the names Big Five, Big Six, Pacific-8, and Pacific-10. The Pac-12 moniker was adopted in 2011 with the addition of Colorado and Utah. Nicknamed the "Conference of Champions", the Pac-12 has won more NCAA national championships in team sports than any other conference in history. Washington's national title in women's rowing in 2017 was th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of All-Pac-12 Conference Women's Basketball Teams
The All-Pac-12 Women's basketball team is a currently dormant annual Pac-12 Conference honor bestowed on the best players in the conference following every college basketball season. Pac-12 coaches select 15 players for one all-conference team. The first year 1986-87, the conference recognized players as two five-woman teams, followed by one 12-woman first team from 1987 through 2007. For two years in 2008 & 2009, there were three five-woman teams selected. On the last day of the conference regular season, Pac-12 coaches submit their votes and are allowed to vote for their own players. Each all-conference team member receives an award. Players who are not placed on the team, but received at least one vote, earn honorable mention. The award fell dormant after the 2023–24 season when the Pac-12 collapsed, with 10 of the 12 members (all but Oregon State and Washington State) leaving for other power conferences. With the two current members set to be joined by at least six new memb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
College Basketball
College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athletic bodies, including the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA), the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), and the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA). Each of these various organizations is subdivided into one to three divisions, based on the number and level of scholarships that may be provided to the athletes. Teams with more talent tend to win over teams with less talent. Each organization has different conferences to divide the teams into groups. Traditionally, the location of a school has been a significant factor in determining conference affiliation. The bulk of the g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orange County, California
Orange County (officially the County of Orange; often initialized O.C.) is a county (United States), county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third most populous county in California, the county statistics of the United States, sixth most populous in the United States, and more populous than 19 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. Although largely suburban, it is the second most densely populated county in the state behind San Francisco, San Francisco County. The county's three most populous cities are Anaheim, California, Anaheim, Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana, and Irvine, California, Irvine, each of which has a population exceeding 300,000. Santa Ana is also the county seat. Six cities in Orange County lie along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast: Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, and San Clemente. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WNBA Championship
The WNBA Finals is the championship series of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the conclusion of the league's postseason each fall. The series was named the WNBA Championship until 2002. The series is played between the winners of the playoff semifinals. At the conclusion of the championship round, the winner of the WNBA Finals is presented the championship trophy. The WNBA Finals has been played at the conclusion of every WNBA season in history, the first being held in 1997. Since 2005, the winner of the WNBA Finals has been determined through a 2–2–1 format. The first, second, and fifth games of the series are played at the arena of the team who earned home court advantage by having the better record during the regular season. Beginning in 2025, the Finals will switch to a best-of-seven series with a 2–2–1–1–1 format similar to that of the NBA Finals. History The WNBA's playoff format has changed several times in the league's history. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
