OAKLAND – Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase rarely posts on social media. On Monday morning, though, she reposted the WNBA’s photo of the team in their championship gear, celebrating their WNBA championship that they earned 36 hours prior in a Game 7 win at Chase Center.
In that Instagram story on Monday, she wrote: love wins.
That had been a mantra throughout the postseason, sometimes met with skepticism; but how did they actually win at basketball? Could the power of friendship actually be enough to win a championship?
“The love for each other, the front office, the staff, everybody did a great job of bringing in a bunch of selfless women who just love to work hard, love to have fun and enjoy each other’s company,” said Kaila Charles. “I think that’s why we were so successful, because we had so much love.”
Of course, the Valkyries also won a WNBA title because Gabby Williams scored 28 second-half points in Game 7 and Golden State put together arguably the greatest defense of all time.
Nakase and her team kept insisting there was something special, though. In exit interviews on Monday, players wondered aloud if there would ever quite be a team and season like this again.
“I’ve never seen (this chemistry) before,” said veteran guard Tiffany Hayes. “I’ve been (in the WNBA) so long. I’ve never seen that type of camaraderie happen in the time span, and it did. So that just goes to show you the type of people that are here, and I think that’s the one thing that I’ll remember.”
Hayes was one of three WNBA free agents who joined the Valkyries in their two offseasons, becoming their first signing in 2025 before Williams and Kiah Stokes signed before the 2026 season. Most of the roster, though, to some extent had been told they weren’t good enough to have that choice; Kayla Thornton, Veronica Burton and Cecilia Zandalasini were all taken in the expansion draft.
Juste Jocyte and Kaitlyn Chen were taken in the collegiate draft the past two years. Charles had been an emergency hardship signing after being cut by Dallas last year.
That collective experience brought the team together.
“A lot of people doubted us,” Thornton said on Monday. “A lot of people overlooked us. I know we’ve had a lot of people say we’re (a team of) sixth women, a lot (of us) have been cut, been denied, told we shouldn’t be in this league… So to be able to come together and to be able to share something and to put all our super strengths and all our denials and our letdowns together and to create something special like this, this means a lot.”
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Thornton, along with Hayes, will be an unrestricted free agent this winter. She said she hadn’t thought much about free agency yet, while Hayes said she’d like to come back.
Zandalasini is a restricted free agent and said she “loved it” in the Bay but she also hadn’t thought as much about her future with the organization.
But much of the Valkyries core is returning for sure; Williams, Burton, Stokes and Charles are all under contract. Jocyte is still on her rookie deal and Chen is a reserved free agent, so she’ll be back so long as the Valkyries extend her an offer.
Then there’s Iliana Rupert, who missed the season due to pregnancy, and it’s still unknown if or when she would return. Janelle Salaun, who did not speak at exit interviews, is also a question mark after she barely played in the postseason.
So it’s true that this exact group might not be back together, and that this season might not be something replicable.
The Valkyries have stuck to their identity on the court and off for two years, though; let it fly, empty the tank, defense first and love wins.
“It’s been very calm, and I’ve just had a moment to kind of soak it in,” Williams said. “I guess I didn’t have any expectations, but if I did, I thought it would just be partying and then rolling and energy. But I found like a very, I don’t know, just like a serenity in everything that I’ve just loved.”
