Introducing: 'Lavender Scare,' a New Column from Rough Notes
A home for bold + unapologetic coverage of the Valkyries + WNBA.
Lavender Scare is a weekly-ish column during the WNBA season from in and around the world of the Golden State Valkyries: expansive observations & provocative ideas about women’s basketball & its power to change everything, including you. Lavender Scare is available in full only for paid Rough Notes subscribers.
Welcome to the first edition of Lavender Scare! It’s a new style for my weekly-ish Valkyries + WNBA column, an attempt to lasso up a gazillion daily thoughts about women’s basketball and its power to change everything. Which means that yes, I’ve been terrified about actually publishing it (pssst: all writers are scared, most of the time.)
I’m also a bit nervous because I want to cover the WNBA using a range of styles, from investigative reporting to documentary-making to what you’re reading now, aka experimental ‘rough notes’ that break the rules of traditional journalism… but I’m never sure if this approach is institutionally accepted, or acceptable. What I know is that I really believe the bold & unapologetic original ethos of this website, and I think that many of you do, too.
So far, Lavender Scare includes three sections, open to feedback & editorially malleable. These are:
Elevated Vantages - That’s where purple ravens & their friends hang out (that’s you, get it) for the best views of the Bay + the Golden State Valkyries;
Sorry I Wasn’t Paying Attention I Was Thinking About the WNBA - a section devoted to provocative ideas I’m obsessing over & still kind of working out;
Room for Expansion - a round-up of juicy recommendations + content across the women’s basketball universe.
So yes, the Valks are looking pretty damn good.
If you’re a Valkyries fan, you probably had this thought sometime in the last two weeks, particularly after the Valks hammered the Phoenix Mercury on May 10, 95-79. And yes, that’s the word on the street: everyone thinks the Valkyries could have a “higher ceiling” this year - especially with the addition of Gabby Williams (who did sorta take Kate Martin’s job, hoo boy.)
Speaking of, I know that preseason has been a rollercoaster, sometimes emotional and spiky with change - but I think that’s also par for the course of this (sensitive!) emerging fan base, and a Largely-Excellent-At-Their-Jobs front office encountering a fresh CBA & surprising “learning moments” that they may never admit.
But the Valkyries’ ability to bring back the vast majority of last season’s team is, in many ways, a victory. Especially for Natalie Nakase, who seems beyond excited to be in a long term relationship with this group. Just read this pre-season quote she gave the press: “Have you been in a relationship for more than a year before?” *looks pointedly at reporters* “Because if you guys have, then you understand - you can go at your partner a lot more after year one… you get to have deeper conversations. You get to have brutal, dark conversations… And that’s what I’m excited about.”
For the Valkyries, season two may be exactly Natalie Nakase’s love language: intimate, grueling, kinda emo, and all about winning even more.
Of course, there’s also Mr. Joe’s decree: for the team to win a WNBA championship in 5 years or less. I personally have ~zero idea~ whether that’s possible (my dad Benjy thinks no), but given the returning lineup, the staff’s mind-meld with Gabby Williams, Veronica Burton’s continued ascendance, and the team’s tremendously effective style of “harassment” (what Natalie Nakase calls their defense pressure), I think it will be a pretty fun ride… at least this season.
Also, think of it this way: Janelle Salaün - voted by WNBA General Managers as the second-best international player in the whole ass league - took almost a full season to smile last year. In 2026, it took just one home game for Janelle to show us all of her teeth, once again:
