{"id":954632,"date":"2026-11-01T18:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T18:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954632\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T18:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T18:36:21","slug":"valkyries-unleashed-gabby-williams-and-she-won-the-wnba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954632\/","title":{"rendered":"Valkyries unleashed Gabby Williams, and she won the WNBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Gabby Williams<\/a> was done being a decoy.<\/p>\n

The All-Star had, by design, floated through the most important first half of the most important game of her life<\/a>. Williams was asked to distract the Atlanta Dream: Create space for others by virtue of her presence.<\/p>\n

The Dream were locking down a stagnant Valkyries offense to begin Game 7 of the WNBA Finals, and Williams had taken only four shots in the first half.<\/p>\n

She walked into the locker room at Chase Center and had a question for her team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen is it my time, when is it my time?\u201d Williams asked assistant coach Kassib Powell.<\/p>\n

With the title on the line, the answer to her question became \u201cright now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams, unbound from the restraints placed upon her in the first 20 minutes, put on an all-time great performance to lead the Valkyries to their first title as they beat Atlanta 68-63 on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe crowd cheers after Golden State Valkyries’ Gabby Williams (1) makes a shot against Atlanta Dream in the third quarter during the WNBA Finals at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

After scoring just one basket in the first half, she poured in 28 points on 9-of-19 shooting, four steals, six clutch free throws and one jump ball won with eight seconds left that sealed the Valkyries\u2019 first championship.<\/p>\n

Williams took 19 of the team\u2019s 34 shots after halftime, firing from midrange, hitting a tough layup over Dream star Angel Reese with three minutes remaining and banging in four 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

With 1:40 left in the game, \u201cM-V-P\u201d chants morphed into calls of \u201cGAB-BY, GAB-BY.\u201d They meant the same thing.<\/p>\n

Her teammates were in awe but not surprised by Williams scoring the most points in a half in WNBA playoff history. After all, Williams had scored at least 20 points in half of the Valkyries\u2019 12 playoff games.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does what she does,\u201d forward Kayla Thornton said with a shrug.<\/p>\n

Point guard Veronica Burton, who geared the Valkyries\u2019 offense to spotlight Williams, said her teammate entered a \u201cdifferent mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNatalie told me to stay patient, and I trusted her with my life,\u201d Williams said. \u201cShe said the game\u2019s going to open up for you, and it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there was anyone in the building who might have expected Williams\u2019 historic second-half salvo, it was Joe Lacob, who made her offseason priority No. 1.<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries’ Gabby Williams (1) holds the MVP trophy after the Golden State Valkyries win against the Atlanta Dream during game 7 of the WNBA Finals at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

After watching his scrappy team overachieve in Year 1 before bowing out in the first round of the 2025 playoffs, Lacob and the Valkyries knew they needed a player who could elevate in high-pressure situations.<\/p>\n

The team honed in on Williams, a stellar defender who had never been a team\u2019s offensive focal point in the WNBA. The Valkyries saw her as capable of doing more.<\/p>\n

They were proven correct after making her their first major free agent signing. Basking in the afterglow of lifting Golden State\u2019s first WNBA trophy, Lacob held court a few yards outside the team\u2019s locker room after the game and took a victory lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the best player in the world. I said it and I meant it,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cShe\u2019s a two-way player extraordinaire, and that\u2019s why I think she\u2019s the best player in the world. There are some other great players, don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m not trying to belittle them, but she just proved it on the highest stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the night, she raised the Finals MVP trophy to her hometown crowd. Having spent much of her childhood visiting the East Bay, she decided to live in The Town rather than San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Those drives over the Bay Bridge only cemented in her mind that she had made the correct choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live farther than the other girls,\u201d Williams said. \u201cMy drive is longer so I pass a lot of Valkyries (expletive). And every time, I\u2019m just thinking like \u2018This is the community I want to play for,\u2019 and I just want to thank Mr. Joe again for that investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before walking into a lounge deep within Chase Center to celebrate with \u201cMr. Joe,\u201d a musician whose favorite word Williams referenced in her trophy interview stopped in the hallway to sing her praises.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Golden State Valkyries\u2019 owner Joe Lacob celebrates with the team after they won against the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA Finals at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wearing a Valkyries bomber jacket and a purple beanie, Earl \u201cE-40\u201d Stevens nodded his head as he described the Bay Area\u2019s newest superstar.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, it was destiny; she was destined to do this,\u201d he told the Bay Area News Group. \u201cYou can tell her heart is pure, and you can tell how humble she is.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath of the trophy presentation, Williams wandered the confetti-ridden court. She posed for pictures with awestruck Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, hugged teammates and greeted friends.<\/p>\n

What began as a difficult night concluded with Williams taking a backseat, then taking over and ultimately taking her place as one of the game\u2019s biggest stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to focus on the people who believed in me,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThere were a lot of people who believed in me and us \u2026 that\u2019s so special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries’ Gabby Williams (1) reacts after defeating the Atlanta Dream in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. The Golden State Valkyries defeated the Atlanta Dream to win the WNBA Championship 68-63. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Gabby Williams was done being a decoy. The All-Star had, by design, floated through the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[461,62657,49,3335,48,1612,62656,4245,62658,5886,62659,82,630],"class_list":["post-954632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-bay-area","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-canada","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}