Valkyries Turn a Game 7 Grind Into a Championship Statement
Valkyries Turn a Game 7 Grind Into a Championship Statement
Two days before the finale, the Valkyries’ title bid was on the brink. Atlanta’s 80-69 Game 6 victory had tied the Finals at 3-3, sending the series back to San Francisco for a winner-take-all matchup in which both expansion-era contenders were chasing their first championship.
On Halloween night, in front of a packed Chase Center, Golden State survived the WNBA’s first-ever Game 7, beating the Dream 68-63. It was not a clean coronation: the Valkyries trailed by six at halftime in a physical, defense-heavy contest. But Gabby Williams exploded for 28 second-half points, earned Game 7 MVP honors and pushed the franchise over the line.
For coach Natalie Nakase, the result carried a wider message than a trophy. “For all the people that have been underrated, misunderstood, this is for y’all,” she said. “This is proof. If you put all your heart and soul in, you f—ing win championships.” Williams, who said she had not always felt fully valued at previous WNBA stops, described the Valkyries as a career-changing home: “I walked into a group full of love and that just changed the entire trajectory of my career.”
The scale of the achievement is striking. Golden State raised the trophy 17 months, two weeks and one day after playing its first game — the fastest title run by a North American professional sports team, according to the account of the celebration. Veteran Tiffany Hayes cast it as a rebuke to anyone who still treats the women’s game as an afterthought: “This is what happens when you invest in women’s sports.”
The party now looks set to spill into the city. An SFMTA webpage briefly listed a Wednesday noon parade from the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero to Second Street, though the page was removed and officials had not formally confirmed the plans. Mayor Daniel Lurie praised the two-year-old franchise for “taking the sports world by storm.”
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