Surrounded by a group of reporters gathered for the 2018 WNBA Draft at the Nike headquarters in New York, Gabby Williams’ made a first impression fans could trust.
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be,” Williams said after being selected No. 4 overall by the Chicago Sky. “I don’t need the ball 20 times to make something happen.”
Eight years later, Williams and the same attitude are in the midst of history with the Golden State Valkyries.
After signing with the 2025 expansion team this offseason, Williams became the centerpiece of one of the most stunning WNBA stories in recent memory by leading the Valkyries to the Finals in their second season. The best-of-seven series against the Atlanta Dream tips off on Saturday at the Chase Center in San Francisco
(3:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock).
Guard Veronica Burton knew from the moment Williams entered the facility she was a winner because of her skill set, her energy and her basketball curiosity. Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase knew Williams could help bring the franchise a championship because of shared goals.
As a highly-sought after free agent who reached career highs in scoring (11.6 per game), assists (4.2) and steals (WNBA high 2.3) in 2025 as she helped the Seattle Storm to the playoffs, Williams didn’t use her free agency conversations with the Valkyries to ask about minutes or shots.
“She's just a humble star,” Nakase told reporters Wednesday. “...She is the best two-way player in the world, and she's not asking for anything. She just was asking for our culture — a culture that loved and cared about people, and brought out the best. And I was like, ‘That's it?’”
An emphasis on care and trust might not seem like much when it’s engrained into your team’s DNA. For Williams, though, it was everything. It wasn’t a given in her previous professional stops, but that culture — and the way Williams embodies it — might be the key to what makes the Valkyries a title threat.
“(Nakase) has taken an expansion team where a lot of us weren't protected, were cut — where we've had the kind of weird stories in the league," Williams said. "And she's believed in all of us, but she's believed in all of us just based off of our effort, as well.
“Being almost 10 years in this league, that's something I've never seen before.”
How the Valkyries landed Gabby Williams
After winning national championships at UConn to pair with silver medals in the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2026 FIBA World Cup with France, Williams entered free agency with a hunger for another titlep. She also wanted more responsibility in the pursuit of it.
You can see it in the way she’s playing.
Williams is averaging 22.7 points per game in the playoffs after leading a 16-point comeback in the deciding game against the Dallas Wings in the first round. She also scored eight of her 16 points in overtime of the 87-77 win against the Las Vegas Aces, completing Golden State’s sweep of the defending champions in the best-of-five semifinal.
She’s done it with confidence gleaned from a phenomenon she said is fueled by Nakase pushing every member of the team and trusting them because of it.
“I played for a team with four All-Stars that had a first round exit the same as the Valkyries did,” Williams said, referring to the Storm. “It made me interested to see, OK, what is this formula?”
The 5-foot-11 Williams spent three seasons with Chicago before being suspended — the Sky’s front office said her commitment to the French national team negatively impacted the WNBA club — and then traded to the Los Angeles Sparks in 2021. Williams has said she found out about the suspension "through social media," and was surprised because she told the Sky on draft night she planned to prioritize national duties and the upcoming Olympics.
She did not appear in any games for the Sparks and was traded to the Storm in 2022.
That path led Williams to her basketball utopia. But with her history in the WNBA, it was a feat for the Valkyries to land her with proven winners like the Las Vegas Aces also interested.
The Valkyries struggled in free agency before inaugural season in the league, striking out as they made plays for big names like Kelsey Plum. They went on to make history as the first expansion franchise to make the playoffs. Nakase was named Coach of the Year and Burton awarded Most Improved Player of the Year.
Williams watched it all from the Storm as an opponent. She was intrigued and wonder how it all worked so seamlessly.
Williams quickly learned the answer when free agency began, as Nakase, general manager Ohemaa Nyanin and owner Joe Lacob laid out the most authentic full court press Williams could have imagined.
Nakase and Nyanin asked Williams countless questions about herself and her motivation. Lacob, architect of the Golden State Warriors’ success in the NBA, asked her goals and outlined his plans for a dynasty.
“The conversations with Gabby felt effortless. We didn’t have to put on airs about what it is that we did or how we did it,” Ohemma told USA TODAY in August. “It’s based in trust and respect and the collective belief that if we put our minds together and if we have a group of athletes that believe in the journey, there’s nothing that we can’t accomplish.”
That’s all it took for Williams.
“They really try to just get the best out of every single player,” Williams said. “That's the formula.”
That effort never stops for the Valkyries. In the midst of the series against Aces led by the league’s newly crowned five-time MVP A’ja Wilson, Lacob publicly called Williams the “best player in the world.”
Gabby Williams brings authentic self to Golden State
When Nyanin was asked about what Williams brings to the Valkyries, she fixated on what’s real.
She described Williams’ “calm, veteran presence,” with silent confidence. Her identity as a person with genuine Bay Area ties helps fans feel connected.
Williams is from Reno, Nevada, four hours north of San Francisco. She grew up in Alameda, which is a short drive from the Valkyries' practice facilities, spending time there as she played AAU basketball for the local Bay Area Bulldawgs and Mission Rec Rebels. NorCal basketball is in the family. Her sister, Jayda Noble, played at Cal. Her brothers Dominic Williams and Matthew Williams played at City College of San Francisco and Cal State East Bay.
“She’s brought a multitude of experiences both positively and negatively that have shaped her into the bright human that she is,” Nyanin said. “We all are extremely fortunate that she chose us, and that she chose us in this way because she’s only brought her full authentic self.”
Williams now lives 10 minutes away from the cousins she used to visit in Oakland growing up. As she spoke to reporters Wednesday, she was fresh off an emotional Taco Tuesday at their house where they reflected about how far she’s come.
She went from hearing rapper Too Short in the car on the way to Aunt Mary’s house, to fellow California rap star E-40 flying to Las Vegas to watch her help send the defending champions home. When she looks into the crowd at “Ballhalla” and on the road, each fan in lavender means something much more personal.
“I really hope we can just bring something back to the Bay,” Williams said. “It’s not just about basketball.”
“You're just being yourself. And it's having such an impact on the community,” William’s cousin told her.
It’s a fitting path for a player who started out saying she’d fill whatever role was needed.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gabby Williams always did what teams needed. Valkyries needed her to be a star
