The Valkyries Won the WNBA Title in Their Second Season. No Expansion Team in League History Got There Faster.
The Golden State Valkyries began play as a WNBA expansion team in 2025. On Saturday night they won the championship.
Golden State beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 at Chase Center to take the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history, in the league’s 30th season, in the franchise’s second year of existence.
The previous fastest expansion team to a WNBA title was the Seattle Storm, who started play in 2000 and won in 2004. That took five seasons. The Valkyries needed two.
Gabby Williams Scored 28 Points in One Half
Williams had two points at halftime on 1-of-4 shooting, and Atlanta led by six. She then scored 28 after the break, the most points in a half in WNBA Finals history, and finished with 30 on 10-of-23 with four blocks and two steals.
She is the only player in Finals history to put up 30 points, four blocks and two steals in a game. Her 30 ties the most ever scored in a winner-take-all Finals game. Her 137 points across the seven games are the most in any WNBA Finals series, and her 18 steals are too.
She was named Finals MVP, which was not up for discussion.
“Nat told me to stay patient,” Williams said of head coach Natalie Nakase. “I trust her with my life. I stayed patient. Just trusted her.”
Nakase’s version: “Gabby is our closer, she stayed patient, she stayed with it.”
The Supporting Cast Is Why It Held
Veronica Burton posted 10 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, and made the two free throws that ended it with 5.1 seconds left. Kiah Stokes pulled down 13 rebounds and finished the series with 19 blocks, a Finals record. Tiffany Hayes scored 11 and won her first championship in her 14th WNBA season.
Atlanta missed its first 10 shots and went more than five minutes without a basket to open the game, falling behind 8-0 before Angel Reese scored the Dream’s first points. In each of the first six games of this series, the team that led at halftime won. Game 7 broke the pattern.
Atlanta Is Now 0-4 in Finals
Reese finished with eight points and 12 rebounds. Her 90 rebounds in the series set a WNBA Finals record, and she was named Defensive Player of the Year this season. In Atlanta’s three wins she averaged 22 points and 14 rebounds. In the four losses she shot 12-of-38.
“It is tough in the moment, but we’ll be back,” Reese said. “I always say, ‘Delayed, not denied.'”
The Dream have reached the Finals in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2026, and lost every one. Jordin Canada led them Saturday with 18 points, five assists and two steals, and Allisha Gray added 16. DeWanna Bonner became the first player in league history to reach 600 career postseason defensive rebounds.
Joe Lacob Said Five Years
When the franchise was introduced in 2023, owner Joe Lacob said the Valkyries would win a championship within five years. They went 23-21 and made the playoffs as a first-year expansion club, the first team in league history to manage that. This season they went 32-12, took the No. 2 seed, swept the defending champion Las Vegas Aces in the semifinals, and then survived seven games.
Nakase has been the only head coach in franchise history. She won Coach of the Year in 2025 and a title in 2026. That is the whole résumé.
“Ballhalla,” Lacob said at the trophy ceremony. Co-owner Peter Guber was more practical about it: “We gotta build a bigger trophy case.”
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
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