The Golden State Valkyries have announced the staff that will work under coach Natalie Nakase in the team’s expansion season.

Kasib Powell, Ta’Shauna “Sugar” Rodgers and Landon Tatum join the organization as assistant coaches less than two months from their season opener.

Powell arrives from the Miami Heat, where he was named a player development coach in 2024 after three seasons as the head coach of the G League’s Sioux Falls Skyforce. He spent most of his 10-year playing career overseas after graduating from Texas Tech.

Rodgers, a former WNBA All-Star, has coaching experience at the pro and college levels, having been on the Las Vegas Aces’ staff in 2021 and the Georgetown and William & Mary benches since. She was an All-Star and Sixth Woman of the Year in 2017 for the New York Liberty as part of an eight-year pro career that included a championship in Minnesota as a rookie.

Tatum most recently was an assistant coach for the Maine Celtics of the G League and was previously the Washington Wizards’ director of player development.

The Valkyries also filled that role in their front office, naming Sidney Parsons as their player development director, a job she held for the German national team after being an assistant coach on the national team’s staff for five years.

The next big date for the Valkyries is April 14, when they have the fifth pick in the WNBA Draft. They open the regular season May 16 against the LA Sparks.

— Michael Nowels

NBA

NBA ditching All-Star mini-tournament >> The NBA will not bring back its All-Star Game mini-tournament next season.

Commissioner Adam Silver said that the format used last month at Chase Center in San Francisco — a four-team tournament made up of 24 NBA All-Stars and another team of rookies and sophomores, all playing to a target score of 40 points — “was a miss.”

The game is shifting to NBC next season as part of the league’s new broadcast deal, and Silver said the league and the network are talking about what may work. The league tried something new this season with hopes of sparking some competitiveness, which the game has lacked for years.

NHL

Crosby breaks one of Gretzky’s NHL records >> Sidney Crosby broke an NHL record he shared with Wayne Gretzky for point-per-game consistency.

By scoring 8:49 into the first period for Pittsburgh against Buffalo, Crosby registered his 80th point to assure he’ll finish his 20th NHL season averaging at least a point per outing.

The Penguins captain surpassed the mark first set by Gretzky, who finished all but his 20th and final NHL season in 1998-99 averaging a point a game.

Golf

Hull takes lead in LPGA’s Arizona tourney >> Charley Hull ended her long and active day without any blood seeping through her sock, only a bogey-free card of 9-under 63 that gave her a one-shot lead over Nanna Koertz Madsen in the opening round at the Ford Championship in Chandler, Ariz.

Women’s soccer

Curvelo named new San Jose State coach >> Sonia Curvelo, who helped turn around Sam Houston’s struggling program, was announced as the new head coach for San Jose State, a month after Tina Estrada stepped down as Spartans coach.

Curvelo’s 2023 Sam Houston team doubled its win total while qualifying for the Conference USA tournament, which it beat Florida International before losing to Middle Tennessee in a shootout. Before Sam Houston, Curvelo coached Prairie View A&M’s program to 38 total wins during her four-year tenure there.