{"id":881734,"date":"2026-10-14T07:14:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/881734\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T07:14:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:14:25","slug":"how-the-valkyries-talked-a-would-be-starter-into-a-historic-sacrifice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/881734\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Valkyries talked a would-be starter into a historic sacrifice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janelle Sala\u00fcn won one of the WNBA\u2019s most prominent individual honors. Unanimously.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the feelings that come with it are mixed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-2 French forward last week was named the WNBA\u2019s 2026 Sixth Player of the Year, the first unanimous winner since the award debuted in 2007. The 25-year-old received all 74 votes after setting single-season records for points and 3-pointers by a reserve.<\/p>\n

Valkyries assistant coach Sugar Rodgers, who won the same award while anchoring the New York Liberty\u2019s bench in 2017, knows it\u2019s a piece of hardware honoring sacrifice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of us are just like, \u2018Throw that award in the trash,\u2019 because that\u2019s the kind of season it feels like,\u201d said Rodgers, recalling the frustration of excelling in a role that meant putting personal ambition on hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sixth Player of the Year trophy is a testament to mental fortitude just as much as on-court achievement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the pregame award presentation at Chase Center, Sala\u00fcn was moved to tears. At center court, as videos with congratulatory messages from her family in France played on the jumbotron, she had a rare emotional moment. It was not as much about the actual accomplishment as a reminder of the distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not seeing my parents every two days, obviously,\u201d Sala\u00fcn said after a practice last week in Las Vegas. \u201cThey also know all the sacrifices \u2014 everything that I\u2019m going through this year and that I\u2019ve been through before, so it\u2019s not about the award itself. It\u2019s more like, wow, getting a little reward for all of these things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The moment touched Rodgers and stirred memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just know what she\u2019s been through, you know all the sacrifice, you know all the calls home that she\u2019s probably had, you know the teammates, the late nights, the blood, sweat, and tears that go into being able to receive that award,\u201d Rodgers said.<\/p>\n

Sala\u00fcn, who regularly closes games in coach Natalie Nakase\u2019s fourth-quarter lineups, didn\u2019t start once this year. In Golden State\u2019s inaugural 2025 season \u2014 Sala\u00fcn\u2019s rookie year \u2014 she started 33 of 36 games she played.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the hardest awards to win, just because you sacrifice a lot for the betterment of the team,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cYou also know, deep down inside, that you\u2019re good enough to start, but because the team needs you to do something, you have to sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Valkyries have taken leaps forward in their second year to finish with the WNBA\u2019s second-best record, post the league\u2019s best defensive numbers, and earn home-court advantage in the Finals tipping off Saturday, Salaun\u2019s role has shrunk slightly. Her average playing time is down roughly five minutes from last season. Her production, however, as a centerpiece in the Valkyries\u2019 record-setting bench<\/a>, was more efficient as she averaged 12.9 points per game and shot 39.2% from beyond the arc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sala\u00fcn has excelled but doesn\u2019t pretend the adjustment was easy. Personal cost and patience come with the territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, this is the story of my life,\u201d Sala\u00fcn said. \u201cI\u2019ve always [made] sacrifices, done the job that people don\u2019t see. So it\u2019s not new to me. Yes, it\u2019s not the easiest, I\u2019m not going to lie. But I just took the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ASala\u00fcn started 33 of the 36 games she played as a rookie in 2025. | Source: Ali Gradischer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Born in Paris, Sala\u00fcn has played professionally since 2019. She spent five seasons in the top French league and has competed in Italy and the Czech Republic during the WNBA offseason. When Valkyries GM Ohemaa Nyanin scouted and recruited Sala\u00fcn for Golden State\u2019s inaugural roster, she saw a player with a no-nonsense approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is business-oriented,\u201d Nyanin told The Standard in August. \u201cHow are you going to help me better, and how can I help you get to your goals? There was no fluff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

5 days ago<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday, Oct. 6<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

For Sala\u00fcn, embracing her new role has come with the benefit of having people around her who have a firsthand understanding of the tension.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rodgers is one of those people. Her message to Sala\u00fcn is simple: \u201cIt\u2019s hard. I know it\u2019s hard. Understand. I\u2019m here for you. Whatever you need help with. Knowing the process is not going to be easy. It\u2019s going to be hard, but when you look back on it, it\u2019s going to teach you a lot of valuable lessons to help you continue to have value in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran guard Tiffany Hayes is too. The 37-year-old \u2014 who probably would have been the league\u2019s Seventh Player of the Year, if that existed \u2014 was named Sixth Player of the Year during her lone season with Las Vegas in 2024. Hayes and Salaun have developed an on-court connection that plays to their strengths and an even closer friendship off it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just about knowing that you\u2019re part of something bigger than yourself,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cIf you want to win and you want to be a part of something big, sometimes you gotta take another role. That\u2019s just about showing your character and showing the type of person and player you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoTiffany Hayes and Kaitlyn Chen have been two of the Valkyries\u2019 leading scorers off the bench this season. | Source: Heather Diehl for The Standard<\/p>\n

That message resonates with the Valkyries from the top down for an organization that intentionally compiled selfless players. A deep rotation that leans on the \u201cstrength in numbers\u201d mantra Nakase adopted from the Warriors allows the Valkyries to count on game-changing contributions well beyond their starting five. It\u2019s not just Sala\u00fcn; it\u2019s Hayes<\/a>, Kaitlyn Chen<\/a>, Kaila Charles<\/a>, and now Aminata Gueye<\/a> too.<\/p>\n

No WNBA team has won a title leaning this heavily on its bench. This year, that approach has the Valkyries four wins from a championship.<\/p>\n

Sala\u00fcn said someday she\u2019ll look back with gratitude at leading a historic bench, but right now, she has tunnel vision on the title series against the Atlanta Dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just focused on winning,\u201d she said, \u201ctrying to win a championship for this team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Janelle Sala\u00fcn won one of the WNBA\u2019s most prominent individual honors. Unanimously.\u00a0 But the feelings that come with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[4804,60205,99,434,1765],"class_list":["post-881734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-natalie-nakase","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}