SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Valkyries are WNBA champions.
Gabby Williams scored 30 points — 28 in the second half — to lead the Valkyries to a 68-63 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Oct. 31 at the Chase Center. Golden State came back from a six-point halftime deficit to win.
"I wasn't gonna lose on Halloween," Williams joked after winning Finals MVP. "Honestly, it's everyone here, not just the players, but the staff, the community, the city ... y'all have been pouring into me all season.
"Tonight, if we were down, I had a shot, I felt like we were up 20. I mean, (addresses crowd) this is the most quiet y'all have ever been. But it's easy when the energy is just good and positive. It was so easy to come to work every single day, and that's
what I came for."
The Valkyries are the first team in the 30-year history of the league to win a title without an All-WNBA player on the roster.
Tiffany Hayes added 11 points for the Valkyries. Veronica Burton had 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Kiah Stokes added eight points, 13 rebounds and two blocks.
Jordin Canada had 18 points and Allisha Gray 16 points for the Dream. Angel Reese had eight points, 12 rebounds, four turnovers and two blocks.
"It's tough, especially with a good group, a great group that I've honestly been had an honor to battle with all year," Reese said. "They changed my life, and I'm just so grateful for them, and I'm so thankful for them."And it is tough in the moment, but we'll be back. And I always say, delayed, not denied."
Here are the winners and losers from Game 7 of the WNBA Finals.
BUY: Valkyries championship print
Winners
Valkyries owner Joe Lacob
Golden State Valkyries owner Joe Lacob made a bold prediction in 2023, before the Valkyries even tipped off their inaugural season in 2025.
“I’m telling you right now, we will win a WNBA championship in the first five years of this franchise," he said on Oct. 5, 2023.
The statement seemed bold at the time. Expansion teams haven’t had much success early on. The Atlanta Dream went 4-30 in their inaugural season in 2008. The Chicago Sky went 5-29 in 2006. The Indiana Fever went 9-23 in their first season in 2000. The Seattle Storm went 6-26 in 2000. The Valkyries, however, flipped the script.
Coach Natalie Nakase led the Valkyries to the playoffs in their inaugural season, becoming the first expansion team to do so. The Valkyries took it a step further in their second season of existence, becoming the fastest expansion team to win a WNBA title in league history.
Looks like Lacob was right.
“I just have to say we have an incredible team. You guys are incredible. What you did was unbelievable, unbelievable determination,” Lacob said on Saturday. “Secondly, I have to say Natalie Nakase, Ohemaa Nyanin, and Jess Smith, those three women made this happen. They deserve all the credit in the world. But finally, but finally, who needs to be thanked the most is all of you, Ballhalla.”
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase’s communication
After every loss in this Finals series, Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase blamed her own ability to communicate the mission with her players. In this game, clarity wasn’t an issue. Nakse told reporters pregame that the Valkyries would punch first and they did, starting on a 8-0 run. She told Gabby Williams to stay patient and she did, scoring 28 points in the second half after being limited to two points in the first. “It's easy when you trust the people around you. It's harder when you don't,” Williams told reporters after the win when asked about following Nakase’s guidance. “I don't doubt her cause I know she has no ulterior motive. I know she just wants to win. I know she wants the best for every single person, players, staff, everyone around her, fans. So that's easy.” On the other hand, a lack of clarity plagued the Dream when it mattered most. In response to a question about why Atlanta didn’t adjust its defense on Gabby Williams when she began to heat up in the second half and proceeded to take over, Dream coach Karl Smesko said the Dream knew how it wanted to execute but couldn’t due to communication issues. “Sometimes in the heat of the moment, you have breakdowns. And unfortunately, today we had more miscommunications and kind of breakdowns – especially in that second half – than we have all season.”
Valkyries free agents
In the market for big stars, the Valkyries struck out in free agency during their first year as an organization with Tiffany Hayes – the Aces 2024 Sixth Player of the Year – as their biggest get. Ahead of the 2025 season, they made waves beating out other suitors for Gabby Williams after already having signed Kiah Stokes. Now, all three of those free agent signees are winners. Despite what some might speculate about superstars who might be hesitant to sign with a recently crowned champion for fears of ring chasing, there’s no denying how much more attractive the Valkyries just became to top talent hitting free agency – a list headlined Napheesa Collier, Kelsey Mitchell and Kelsey Plum.
Bay Area
This Golden State Valkyries championship is an ode to the entire Bay Area. The region rallied behind the Valkyries and cultivated one of the best atmospheres in the WNBA. Ballhalla became a staple in the league and was recognized by many of the top players as one of their favorite places to play.
They sent a message to the league and sports overall.
"This is just what happens when you invest in women's sports," Valkyries guard Tiffany Hayes said. "We here and we ain’t goin’ nowhere. Invest in women’s sports, baby! Let’s go."
They routinely sold out their games as shades of purple or lavender popped up all over the Bay Area. It was a vibe as Chase Center was always rocking with energy, bringing out the best of the Bay. It was a visual of what sports is all about.
Losers
Rhyne Howard poor shooting series
Rhyne Howard was a go-to option throughout the postseason for the Atlanta Dream. Howard was consistently a player that the Dream could look to for timely buckets.
She was a shell of herself during the 2026 WNBA Finals. Howard averaged 14.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.4 steals per game across seven games in the 2026 WNBA Finals for the Atlanta Dream.
Those numbers were down from her regular-season performance where she put up 17.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game over 43 games.
In Game 7, Howard's game was virtually obsolete. Howard had a rough outing with six points on 3-of-14 shooting and 0-of-7 on 3-point shots. The Valkyries forced Howard into three turnovers in the elimination contest. Defensively, she had three steals, but was an overall -5 in the plus/minus category.
Dream 3-point shooting
The Dream couldn’t get the 3-ball going when it mattered most. After shooting 13-of-30 (43%) from deep in Game 6 to force a winner-take-all game in San Francisco, Atlanta shot 6-of-30 (20%) from the 3-point line on Saturday. Rhyne Howard shot 0-of-7 from the 3-point line and Allisha Gray 2-of-6 from deep.
"At the end of the day, we battled, we fought, we did everything that we could," said Jordin Canada, who had a team-high 18 points (2-of-7 3PT). "Going into next year, you know, just have that mindset that we can't we can't take plays off, we can't take games off. We got to come out and bring it every single night."
WNBA oddsmakers
Entering the 2026 season, the Golden State Valkyries had +3500 or 45-1 odds (the eighth or ninth choice on the odds board, depending on the sportsbook) to win the WNBA championship, along with oddsmakers giving them a roughly 4% preseason chance to win the title.Atlanta began the campaign with more solid chances (+650 odds) to win the Finals, fourth on the odds board. The New York Liberty entered the 2026 season atop the championship odds board (around +230 in the preseason), while other top contenders heading into the start of the year included the Las Vegas Aces and the Minnesota Lynx. Sportsbooks couldn’t have been more wrong, as all of those teams were swept. The Lynx went out in the first round, and the Aces and Liberty were unable to win a single game in the semifinals.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert
It’s not exactly uncommon for the commissioner of a sports league to get booed. But the crowd at Ballhalla let the jeers rain heavy on Cathy Engelbert during the trophy ceremony with the Valkyries.
This is Engelbert’s last season as the head of the WNBA and the boos at the Chase Center on a night that was a celebration of how to invest in women’s sports felt like a “good riddance.”
Engelbert has been the WNBA commissioner since 2019 and, in her seven years, has brought tremendous expansion to the league while also seeming ill-equipped to handle the growing pains.
Having Game 6 of the WNBA Finals at 12:30 p.m. ET, 9:30 a.m. for Golden State fans on the West Coast, felt like the final straw. As more and more information came out about the lack of planning and initiative to give the Dream and Valkyries the primetime stage they deserved, it appeared there was no one else but the league to blame. And who is the head of the league? Engelbert.
Her sparkly pinstripe suit was nice, though.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Valkyries clairvoyant owner, Cathy Engelbert among WNBA Finals winners and losers
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