Two seasons into their existence, the Golden State Valkyries are in the WNBA Finals. Standing across from them is the Atlanta Dream, the team they swept in all three regular-season meetings.
Those wins said a lot about who this team was becoming. After the Valkyries finished off that sweep in Atlanta on July 4, Natalie Nakase, Gabby Williams and Veronica Burton took questions from KB Sports Media (KBSN) at the postgame press conference. What they described that night is what carried the Valkyries here: a roster with no ego, a defense that travels and a star who would rather not be the story.
Burton didn’t make it about Atlanta. “Atlanta is an incredible team. I think we’re well aware of that,” she said. “I’m not sure it’s necessarily just against them. I think we’ve been playing some really good basketball lately.”
“We just were playing more complete games,” Burton said. “When they go on a run, being able to stay composed, stay together.”
For Nakase, it came down to effort. “I don’t think we were emptying the tank,” she said. “We talked about how our roster is our advantage. But the only way it’s going to be our advantage is if you empty the tank.”
“We’re focusing on ourselves, we’re holding each other accountable,” Nakase said.
Asked what philosophy had a franchise this new winning this fast, Nakase didn’t hesitate. “Team over self, all 14 players. They buy into that,” she said. “Everyone can start, and anyone could come off the bench. The fact that they don’t care, it just makes us really dangerous. We’re always going to celebrate whoever is hot.”
KBSN asked Williams what it’s like to be the superstar people don’t talk about, and what has worked for her in a season where she was named an All-Star starter. She gave the credit away. “I think I’m just in the right place,” Williams said. “I’m really gracious and lucky to represent the Valkyries at All-Star and as a starter. But it’s not me. It’s everything that the franchise stands for and is about. I just am lucky enough to be in that position.”
“My teammates pick me up, they carry me,” she said. “We’re winning a lot of games because everyone’s working their ass off. It’s just a testament to all the work that everyone is doing around me.”
KBSN then asked Nakase the same question about Williams. “For someone who is that good on both ends of the ball, she just doesn’t like the attention,” Nakase said. “She leads with grace. She leads with humility, and I think that’s what also allows everyone else to shine, because she doesn’t need to shine every night.”
Months later, with a championship on the line, none of that has changed.
At media availability ahead of the Finals, Nakase went even further on Williams. “She is the best two-way player in the world,” she said. “And she’s not asking for anything. She just was asking for a culture.”
Valkyries GM Ohemaa Nyanin has her own Williams story. A few days into training camp, Williams stopped her in the player hallway looking like something was wrong and asked to talk. “In my mind, I’m thinking about 40 different possibilities of what she could say,” Nyanin said. Instead, Williams wanted help getting the shoe sizes of the team’s practice players so she could buy them basketball shoes.
“I knew that she was kind, but I didn’t know the length of her kindness,” Nyanin said. Asked what’s behind Williams’ success on the court, she landed on almost the same words Williams used back in July: “Right place, right time.”
Williams still points back to the coach. “Nat has taken an expansion team where a lot of us weren’t protected, were cut,” she said. “She’s believed in all of us based off of our effort.”
Burton, the point guard, sees it every day. “Her ability to connect and understand what each player needs is really unique, especially at the professional level,” she said. “Even with the success, even with the struggles, that routine remains the same.”
That steadiness comes from home. Nakase grew up playing basketball every day with her dad and two older sisters, and her dad made a point of putting her on teams where she was the worst player, including older teams and women’s leagues. “Coaching is never about you, and it should never be about you,” she said. “It’s all about pouring yourself into others and building their confidence, building their weaknesses into strengths, and making them also understand it’s okay to have weaknesses.”
Williams picked Golden State in free agency after playing for a team with four All-Stars that still went out in the first round. “Just realizing how far culture gets you,” she said. In her free agency meeting, Nakase and GM Ohemaa Nyanin asked her question after question about herself. “They really try to just get the best out of every single player, and that’s the formula,” Williams said. “That’s why they’re gonna be a team that contends.”
The Bay has its own pull on her. She spent much of her childhood at her cousins’ house, and they now live in Oakland, about 10 minutes from her. The night before media availability, she was there for Taco Tuesday, and the conversation turned to how far she had come.
“I would not be half of who I am without the Bay Area, without my cousins teaching me about their culture since I was a kid,” Williams said. “You can’t even dream of doing something this big for a community that you care so much about.”
She tied it to a region that lost the Raiders and the A’s. “Now we have the Valkyries. Now everyone’s wearing lavender,” she said. “Not even on a game day, you just see lavender everywhere. It’s just an amazing full-circle moment for me.”
The Valkyries know a regular-season sweep won’t carry over. Williams pointed to DeWanna Bonner’s championship experience as the biggest change in Atlanta since July. “I can imagine how much she’s talking in that locker room on what it takes to win,” she said.
Burton said Golden State has grown too, especially at handling tough moments late. “We’re two very different teams from the last time we played,” she said, “and that’s exciting.”
“To see young little girls, young little boys at our games cheering us on, that’s what this is all about,” Burton said. “It is a privilege, and we don’t take it lightly.”
Game 1 of the best-of-seven series is Saturday, Oct. 17, at Chase Center in San Francisco, with tipoff at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. Game 2 follows Monday, Oct. 19, before the series shifts to Atlanta, where Games 3 and 4 will be played at State Farm Arena. Whichever team wins, the WNBA will crown a first-time champion.
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