Nakola Bad Bear, Crow, was raised in Pryor, Montana and her parents are Curtis and Nadia Bad Bear.

Nakola attended Montana State University-Bozeman (MSU-Bozeman) and was on the basketball team for four seasons. She graduated with a degree in Community Health.

At MSU-Bozeman her team won two Big Sky tournament championships, three Big Sky conference titles, and appeared in the national tournament. She was named a two-time all conference and an all-tournament honoree.

Nakola was the co-president for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) Student Association for two years and they held annual MMIP awareness basketball games.

She grad-transferred to MSU-Billings to play her final year of eligibility and they won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship and made it to the NCAA DII Final Eight.

She was named the Newcomer of the Year, Second Team All Big Sky Conference as a senior and Third Team as a junior, two-time All Big Sky Academic Team, GNAC Player of the Year, D2 CA All Region First Team, WBCA All American First Team and CSC Academic All American.

Nakola plans to start graduate school in Occupational Therapy in the fall of 2025. She hopes to continue to inspire the next generation, continuing to lay a foundation for the future kids to grow and thrive on. She hopes to open a therapy clinic on her reservation to help eliminate generational trauma, and break the cycle of poverty.