WNBA Golden State Valkyries

Valkyries Name Vanja Černivec Vice President, Basketball Operations

July 15, 2024 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Golden State Valkyries News Release


The Golden State Valkyries have named Vanja Černivec as Vice President, Basketball Operations, it was announced today. Černivec, who has over 11 years of professional basketball operations experience, will report to Valkyries General Manager Ohemaa Nyanin.

"To build the Valkyries with Vanja is an incredible opportunity and dream realized," said Nyanin. "Her basketball knowledge is vast, and more importantly, she is an incredible person. Our team is inherently stronger with her diverse experiences helping to lead our front office and team. As a native of Slovenia joining our team, I'd say: Dobrodošla doma (welcome home) Vanja!"

Černivec joins the Valkyries from the London Lions, where she served as General Manager and Head of Global Academy for the women's team for two seasons. There, she led all basketball operations, and served as the lead architect of a team that won the 2023 and 2024 Women's British Basketball League championship. The team competed in 2024 FIBA EuroCup Women, defeating Beşiktaş (Istanbul, Turkey) in the EuroCup Women's championship, the first such title for the franchise. In addition, Černivec built and managed the London Lions academy and youth development strategy.

"I am deeply grateful and honored for the opportunity to join such a renowned organization that is known for its winning culture and its commitment to people first," said Černivec. "To work alongside the best in the business to ensure those values are ingrained in the Valkyries, while building a strong community and driving positive change through basketball in the Bay Area, is something I am really looking forward to leading."

Prior to her time with the London Lions, Černivec served as an international scout with the Chicago Bulls for two seasons (2020-2022). Her focus included player evaluation across Europe, Africa and Australia. Before her time with the Bulls, Černivec spent six years (2015-2020) as senior manager, basketball operations with the NBA, with a dedicated focus on talent identification and recruitment through the NBA Academy Women's Program across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. There, she developed a talent strategy to drive overall growth of the game, and place high level talent in elite programs across the world. The NBA Academy Women's Program encompassed the NBA's Basketball Without Borders platform, where she served as a technical director for all regional and global Basketball Without Borders camps.

A native of Slovenia, Černivec holds her B.A. in international relations from the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and her M.S. in sports marketing and communications from Euroleague Basketball Institute and Ca' Foscari University of Venice. She is conversational in six different languages, developed from her time living in six different countries.

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