Ballhalla! How We Future: Golden State Valkyries Style
A bonus conversation with Ohemaa Nyanin, GM of the Golden State Valkyries, and Kayla Thornton, All-Star Forward
All season, How We Future has been lifting up stories of people and organizations who are building better tomorrows.
From Chip Conley’s invitation to reperceive a “midlife crisis” as a “midlife chrysalis,” to Aditi Juneja’s Democracy 2076 project taking the long view on rebuilding a robust democracy, to Ruth Wylie and Ed Finn’s work on applied imagination at the Center for Science and the Imagination, each conversation opened up an expansive new “what if?” grounded in real action and lived example.
How We Future focuses on elevating conversations where hope is a deliberate strategy, where gratitude is generative, and where enthusiasm and joy come from working with colleagues, teammates, and co-creators in bringing new ideas to life.
Last week I had the privilege of sitting down for a very special conversation with two very special leaders who embody the ethos of How We Future. General Manager Ohemaa Nyanin and All-Star forward Kayla Thornton of the Golden State Valkyries, the new WNBA expansion team for the bay area. Ohemaa and Kayla are creating a new model of excellence for the players, the community, and for what it means to build something larger than yourself.
I was asked to host a conversation with them as part of a fundraiser for Playworks, an extraordinary national nonprofit focused on helping every kid in America get access to meaningful play every day. Earlier this season, I spoke with Playworks founder Jill Vialet about why play matters and how play becomes the foundation of stronger civic societies. It’s one of my favorite How We Future episodes (worth checking out!).
The Golden State Valkyries are more than just a basketball team. It’s a movement, embodied by the spirit of their stadium, nicknamed “Ballhalla” (a play on the Norse origins of their name). To the Valkyries fandom, Ballhalla is not just where they go to watch their beloved team, it’s a warrior cry, a welcome, and a promise all at once: step in, belong, and play your heart out.
We didn’t record the conversation, but I wanted to share a few ideas that reflect Kayla and Ohemaa’s hard-won wisdom about what it actually takes to build something that has never existed before. (And, yes, I was actually wearing platform shoes to the talk!)
1. Humans First Is a Strategy
Building a new WNBA franchise under any conditions is difficult - you have to find a head coach and coaching staff, recruit your team from scratch, develop a brand, attract a following, etc. And building a new WNBA franchise in the bay area as a partner to the successful Golden State Warriors, with 4 championships in 10 years, comes with even higher expectations.
And yet, amid the outsized pressure and expectations to win, when Ohemaa was selected as General Manager, she had a very clear set of principles that started with a “humans-first focus.”
“People are a product of their experiences,” she told us. “I wanted to create a safe space for people who are qualified to do their jobs and have different experiences within the ecosystem of sport, or having never worked in sport, to come in and transform the idea of what a sports team could look like….We want great humans.”
Ohemaa’s openness to new ideas led her to ask personal interview questions, like How do you deal with stress? What do you do when you’re not in the gym? How do you fill your cup?
As an established player recruited from New York’s Liberty WNBA team, Kayla felt the effects of Ohemaa’s outlook immediately. “The environment she made for us made us feel ourselves,” she said. “We came in every morning with a smile. Even on the hard days, we found a way to move on with an open heart.”
The “humans first” strategy paid off both in building a strong culture and delivering an outsized performance for their inaugural year, including twenty-two sold-out home games, making the WNBA playoffs, naming Kayla Thornton to the All-Star team, and Head Coach Natalie Nakase named Coach of the Year, the first time that a new franchise coach won that distinction.
That’s what happens when you design for belonging first.
2. No Season Should Go to Waste
In asking Ohemaa to share her leadership philosophy of excellence, she emphasized the importance of learning. As she says, “no season should go to waste.”
“We have four seasons to bring a championship to the Bay,” she shared candidly, “so every interaction, every setback, and every win is useful information. Every person who comes to watch a game should know, and experience, that the energy they give will not be wasted.”
What makes Ohemaa’s approach to learning so distinctive is how she does it. She grew up in a Ghanaian family where oral tradition (the passing of wisdom through story and lived experience) was foundational. But she also came of age in a data-driven American culture. Her philosophy is a deliberate weaving of both: the wisdom of human experience alongside the rigor of careful reflection. It’s a richer kind of knowing, and you can feel it in how she leads.
This is what I think of as “optimistic offense” in practice: not just hoping things work out, but building the habits and systems that make learning inevitable so that nothing, not even a hard loss, goes to waste.
For those of us who are building things like organizations, communities, creative practices, or futures, this is an incredibly useful reframe: What would it mean to treat every season of your work as something worth learning from, not just getting through?
3. Play Builds the Resilience to Keep Going
The thread running through the whole evening — and really, the reason we were all gathered — was celebrating the importance of play.
Kayla’s journey to the Valkyries actually began on a track. She was a multi-event athlete before a pivotal moment at nationals where she felt she’d reached her limit. Her mom asked: What else do you want to try? Basketball followed — but it wasn’t a straight line. It was a journey of determination, hard work, grit, and resilience.
“Play requires improvisation,” I said to her. “Play fosters resilience.”
She agreed. “It’s not always perfect. It’s dynamic.”
Kayla’s experience echoed the opening remarks of Playworks CEO Elizabeth Cushing and Board Chair Pooja Shah: play isn’t a break from learning — it is the learning.
It teaches kids and adults how to navigate uncertainty, resolve conflict, lead with empathy, and show up even when things don’t go the way you planned. And as Ohemaa’s own winding path through social entrepreneurship, USA Basketball, and the New York Liberty makes clear: your story doesn’t have to be straight to be powerful.
How We Future: Your Turn
The Valkyries gave the Bay Area great basketball and a reminder that when you build with intention, with people first, with a commitment to learning, and with genuine roots in community, something irreplaceable emerges.
This week, I’m inviting you to reflect on one thing you are building right now, however large or small. Ask yourself:
Am I designing for belonging first?
What would it mean to treat this season as something not to be wasted?
Where does play live in my practice?
The Valkyries remind us that futures worth having are built one intentional choice at a time.
The Valkyries’ Season 2 home opener is May 10th. And we are so lucky to get to join the fandom and cheer along.
Huge thank you to Elizabeth Cushing and Jill Vialet for this extraordinary opportunity.
Ballhalla!
Love this! You really capture how the Valkyries are pursuing - and building - something so much bigger than a team! Thanks again for leading the conversation - it was delightful (and Heaven knows we can use all the delight we can get!)