Nobody's Pick, Everybody's Champion: The Valkyries' Underdog Title

Golden State Valkyries — 2026 WNBA Champions

The Golden State Valkyries are your 2026 WNBA champions, beating the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 on Halloween night at Chase Center. Two seasons. That's all it took.

And here's the part we need everyone to sit with: this title wasn't won by a superteam. No All-WNBA selections. No No. 1 pick. No face-of-the-league star. Golden State won it with expansion-draft picks other teams chose not to protect, a guard who got cut after her rookie deal, a 14-year vet who had never touched a ring, and a coach who demanded her players defend for three days before they were allowed to touch a basketball.

They were nobody's pick. Now they're everybody's champion.

"We didn't let anyone put a limit on us all year." — Veronica Burton

Game 7: The Night Ballhalla Became Boohalla

This was the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history, and it played like one. Costume-clad fans packed Chase Center, the Valkyries opened on an 8-0 run, and Atlanta missed its first 10 shots. Then Angel Reese broke the drought, Jordin Canada caught fire (13 first-half points), and the Dream went into the break up six.

Context: in the six previous games of the series, whoever led at halftime won. History said Atlanta.

Gabby Williams said no. She had two points at the half. In the third quarter alone, she dropped 15, including a 13-0 personal run with three straight threes, turning a 37-32 deficit into a 45-44 lead. Her 28 second-half points set a WNBA Finals record. She finished with 30, four steals and two blocks, and walked away with Finals MVP.

The dagger? Veronica Burton, calmly sinking two free throws with 5.1 seconds left. Remember that name. We're getting to her.

The Numbers Don't Lie

A star-less roster, a two-year-old franchise, and a stat sheet that reads like a dynasty:

A Roster Built From Everyone Else's "No Thanks"

When GM Ohemaa Nyanin and head coach Natalie Nakase built this team, they were working with what an expansion franchise gets: the players other teams left unprotected. Without a star or any track record, the outside expectations were low, and plenty of people laughed when owner Joe Lacob promised a title within five years. Here's who proved them wrong.

Veronica Burton

A 2022 Dallas lottery pick who was cut after two seasons. Golden State grabbed her in the expansion draft, and she became the gritty two-way engine of the franchise. She averaged 13.0 points and 2.3 steals in the regular-season sweep of Atlanta, and she iced the title at the line.

Gabby Williams

For years, the conversation around the French national was about potential. Seattle cored her to keep her rights, and when she finally hit free agency, she bet on a two-year-old franchise because she believed she couldn't win anywhere else. Result: career-best 14.4 ppg, All-Defensive First Team, DPOY runner-up, the most points ever scored in a Finals series, and Finals MVP.

Tiffany Hayes

Fourteen WNBA seasons. Zero rings. Until now. Moved into the starting lineup in Game 4 of the Finals and dropped 13 that night as the series swung.

Kayla Thornton

Another expansion-draft pick and a franchise cornerstone. When Golden State was down late in a win-or-go-home Game 3 against Dallas in round one, she's the one who pulled the group into a huddle under the basket to breathe and reset. They came back.

Kaila Charles

A bench piece who got thrown into the starting five mid-Finals and responded with a plus-14 in Game 4, then seven rebounds and nonstop defensive energy in Game 7.

Kiah Stokes

Long known as the quiet role player behind A'ja Wilson in Vegas. Pressed into starting every game after Iliana Rupert's pregnancy announcement, she guarded Angel Reese in the Finals and tied Lisa Leslie's all-time record with 31 postseason blocks.

Cecilia Zandalasini & Janelle Salaün

An Italian taken in the expansion draft and a French forward who arrived on a training camp contract. Global depth that most fans couldn't have named two years ago.

The Nakase Effect: No Egos, All Defense

Nakase set the identity from day one: scrappy, defense-first, no egos. The first three days of this year's training camp had no shooting and no offensive sets, only defense. That's how you end up with the league's stingiest unit, allowing a league-low 75.1 points per game.

But the real underdog move came mid-Finals. Down 2-1, Nakase graded her own coaching an F-minus, said her communication had been poor, and asked her players what they needed. Then she benched two starters, Thornton and Zandalasini, for Hayes and Charles. Nobody sulked. Golden State won the next two games and swung the series.

"Nobody cares who starts, nobody cares who scores, and nobody waits for permission to be great. That's the whole thesis of this team."

Why This One Hits Different

Women's sports has spent years being told to wait: wait for the investment, wait for the coverage, wait for the stars to sell it. The Valkyries didn't wait. They took the players the league overlooked and the role players nobody built around, and they turned them into the most valuable franchise in the WNBA and its newest champion.

That's the lesson for every overlooked athlete, every bench player, every hooper grinding overseas for her shot: the label other people give you is not your ceiling.

The question now is whether Lacob's other promise comes true. He told Williams he wants to build dynasties in the Bay. After this run, nobody's laughing.

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