Golden State Valkyries | |
---|---|
Position | General Manager |
League | WNBA |
Personal information | |
Born | Maryland, U.S. |
Ohemaa Nyanin is a Ghanaian-American basketball executive, and the first ever General Manager of the WNBA's 2024 Expansion team the Golden State Valkyries. She oversees all aspects of basketball operations including hiring the coach, building the team, and player development. [1]
Prior to being tapped to lead the WNBA's first new team since 2008, Nyanin spent five years with the New York Liberty as Director of Basketball Operations and then Assistant General Manager. [2] [3] She is widely cited as having been instrumental to recruiting Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot, and Jonquel Jones for the NY Liberty's 2023 season. [4]
Nyanin worked for five years as assistant director of the Women's Basketball program at USA basketball, including at the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup. [5] [6]
She played college basketball as a walk on at American University in Washington DC, where she studied international relations. [7]
The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Houston. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. They are one of two teams in the WNBA that are undefeated in the WNBA Finals; the Seattle Storm are the other. The Comets were the first dynasty of the WNBA and are tied with the Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm for the most championships of any WNBA franchise, and despite all of their success, the team was folded and disbanded by the league in 2008 during the height of the Great Recession because new ownership could not be found.
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