{"id":904459,"date":"2026-11-03T14:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T14:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/904459\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T14:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T14:04:20","slug":"valkyries-gabby-williams-threats-over-trans-support-mj-texts-congrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/904459\/","title":{"rendered":"Valkyries’ Gabby Williams: Threats over trans support; MJ texts congrats"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2013 Gabby Williams<\/a> felt more serene than she expected. Just around 36 hours after winning WNBA Finals MVP<\/a>, she said she knew there would be joy.<\/p>\n

What she didn\u2019t expect was the sense of calm in the wake of the Valkyries\u2019 Game 7 win over Atlanta<\/a> to clinch the WNBA title. After a chaotic first season as Golden State\u2019s star, Williams finally had a chance to catch her breath.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in bed by midnight after the game,\u201d she said. Next to her, teammate Kiah Stokes joked, \u201cLame!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very calm,\u201d Williams continued. \u201cI\u2019ve just had a moment to kind of soak it in. I guess I didn\u2019t have any expectations, but if I did, I thought it would just be partying and then rolling and energy. But I found a very, I don\u2019t know, just like a serenity in everything that I\u2019ve just loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams, the Valkyries\u2019 lone All-Star, faced more scrutiny than at any point in her career this season. Not only was she Golden State\u2019s leader, but she said on Monday for the first time that she faced death threats for her public support of transgender athletes in a May interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary,\u201d she said of using her platform. \u201cObviously, I was getting plenty of death threats. There were some security issues and stuff. And there were moments where I was like, \u201cHow am I gonna play through all this?\u201d And then I would walk into Ballhalla and be like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s how. That\u2019s how.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The matter of trans participation in women\u2019s sports was a major talking point this WNBA season, and Williams\u2019 comments were reposted on social media by an unrelated account<\/a> in August, going viral.<\/p>\n

Williams also was seen icing both of her knees at various points during the Finals, but she said that was mostly due to arthritis and not a specific injury that she sustained.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy knees always hurt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old will go into 2027 on the second season of a three-year deal as the centerpiece for the Valkyries attempting to make another championship run. She sealed this season\u2019s title with 28 second-half points in the clincher.<\/p>\n

Like many athletes, she likely went through more mentally and physically this season than she would admit publicly. But Monday was a bit of a window into just how difficult the season was, making the championship at the end all the more meaningful.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe obviously deserves this moment,\u201d teammate Tiffany Hayes said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking about it all season; we have Gabby Williams and you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another player who knows what it\u2019s like to take over a playoff game reached out to Williams: NBA all-timer Michael Jordan. He reminded her to stay hungry even after winning the title, as he did six times. She responded, \u201cI\u2019ve never been hungrier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries’ Gabby Williams (1), Golden State Valkyries’ Veronica Burton (22), and Golden State Valkyries’ Kaila Charles (6) celebrate near Atlanta Dream’s Angel Reese (5) and Atlanta Dream’s Naz Hillmon (00) as the Golden State Valkyries win against Atlanta Dream in the fourth 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

Free agent statuses<\/p>\n

The Valkyries have two unrestricted free agents in Kayla Thornton and Hayes, while Laeticia Amihere and Cecilia Zandalasini are restricted free agents.<\/p>\n

Hayes said she would love to come back. Thornton said she hadn\u2019t thought much about her future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just soaking in each day and soaking in with my girls and just taking it day by day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Zandalasini, who signed a one-year deal as a restricted free agent after last season, implied she would like to come back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see what happens in the offseason,\u201d Zandalasini said. \u201cFor me especially, I love this place. I love this team. I find myself being comfortable here, and that\u2019s a very big thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Valkyries have plenty of salary cap space to do whatever they want, even if they bring everyone back.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Golden State Valkyries celebrate after defeating the Atlanta Dream during 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

What\u2019s next for Jocyte<\/p>\n

Rookie Juste Jocyte averaged 8.1 points in 16 games in the regular season and played in just two playoff games. Earlier in the Finals, she said that this season has been difficult for her to learn patience after arriving from Europe to start her WNBA career this spring.<\/p>\n

On Monday, she talked about her process of coming to peace with her first season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the playoffs started, it kind of just clicked,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just made sense suddenly. I feel like putting everything aside and wanting the best for your team. You want to fight for yourself and get playing time, but especially with Finals, I don\u2019t think the team can have that kind of attitude of being sad or mad or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jocyte, 20, will play in the startup league Project B in the offseason before coming back to the Bay for training camp. She said she wants to spend the offseason improving her physicality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in the weight room a lot this season,\u201d Jocyte said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that hopefully translates to my game overall.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2013 Gabby Williams felt more serene than she expected. Just around 36 hours after winning WNBA Finals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[402,3805,2356,3802,4804,376415,10831,3803,2558,10836,3804,5284,10838,99,434],"class_list":["post-904459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-editors-picks","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-in-case-you-missed-it","tag-inside-sports","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-peninsula","tag-pm-report","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904459","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=904459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}