On a recent August afternoon, Golden State Valkyries guard Kaitlyn Chen looks up, bends her knees and releases the ball with a flick of the wrist, sinking another 3-pointer. Down the violet-tinted court, forward Cecilia Zandalasini runs drills, crouching low as she dribbles the ball between her legs.

Two hours before tip-off, the Valkyries are getting ready to take on the Phoenix Mercury. To hype up the players, DJ Shellheart is behind the decks, blending Soulja Boy’s nostalgic swag rap with the sad-boy crooning of Drake and the cocky, Memphis-inflected flow of GloRilla. By the time she hits a transition into E-40’s “Yay Area,” the players are clearly feeling themselves.

“What it dooo?” Kate Martin says as she jogs by and fist-bumps Shellheart, who has one eye on her DJ controller and

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