Valkyries Make WNBA History With Championship in Second Season

It took only two seasons for the Valkyries to become WNBA champions.

Golden State defeated the Dream in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday to win the title in just its second season since joining the league as an expansion team in 2025. 

It’s the quickest a WNBA expansion franchise has ever won a title. It’s also faster than any expansion franchise in any of the four major men’s sports, beating out the NHL’s Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup in their sixth season. The Chicago Fire won the MLS Cup in their inaugural season.

Winning the WNBA championship in Year 2 accomplishes the challenge team owner Joe Lacob gave Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase when she was hired in 2024: To win a title within the team’s first five seasons. Lacob leads the Golden State Group, which also owns the NBA’s Warriors and the Chase Center, which both teams play in.

“He was like, ‘Okay, the goal is going to be 5 years. You gotta bring home a championship.’ And I’m just like, ‘Hell yeah we’re going to bring home a championship,’” Nakase told FOS in 2024, days after the team announced her hiring. 

Before winning the title, the franchise had already secured several major accomplishments off the court.

The team has led the league in average and total attendance for the last two seasons. Earlier this year, they were valued at $1 billion by CNBC, the first franchise to reach that mark. This season, they also became the first women’s sports team to declare $100 million in annual revenue.

The success has led other expansion franchises to publicly express the desire to emulate the Valkyries’ model. Portland Fire GM Vanja Černivec, who was the Valkyries’ VP of basketball operations last season, described the Valkyries as the “standard” to FOS earlier this year.

Golden State should have many of its core players in the fold for next season, as Gabby Williams, Veronica Burton, Kaila Charles, Janelle Salaün, and Kiah Stokes are all under contract. But they will have a few offseason questions, particularly former All-Star Kayla Thornton and role players Cecilia Zandalasini and Kaitlyn Chen.

They may also need to find a replacement for 37-year-old Tiffany Hayes, who had previously retired, and has teased her second retirement after this run.

A Strange WNBA Finals Is Over

Game 7 of the WNBA Finals concluded in routine fashion despite a series that will be remembered for its logistical chaos, mostly on Atlanta’s side.

Games 3, 4, and 6 were all rescheduled to allow the Dream to host games at the 17,000-seat State Farm Arena rather than the 3,500-seat Gateway Center where the team played most of its regular-season games. There was a scheduling conflict with a Sombr concert for Game 3 and two Hawks regular-season games for Games 4 and 6.

The WNBA announced that Games 3 and 4 were rescheduled less than a week before the start of the Finals, but did not announce a change for Game 6 until after the teams were tied 2–2, guaranteeing a sixth game. On Monday, three days before Game 6, the league announced that the game would be rescheduled from 8 p.m. ET to 12:30 p.m., sparking mass backlash over a matinee Finals game.

Due to evening Hawks games, fans and media were asked to vacate State Farm Arena less than two hours after Games 4 and 6 to allow workers to change the court. Had the Valkyries won Game 6, which ended close to 3 p.m., their championship celebration could have been rushed as media, fans, and staff were asked to leave by 4 p.m.

Fortunately for all parties involved, overtime was avoided, and the championship coronation was delayed to Saturday in San Francisco. Game 6 also delivered 1.5 million viewers on USA, E!, SYFY, and Peacock during the early window, according to preliminary Nielsen and Adobe Analytics numbers, 4% more than last year’s series-clinching Game 4.

Engelbert’s Final Finals

The historic and tumultuous 2026 Finals is perhaps a fitting way to close out Cathy Engelbert’s tenure as WNBA commissioner.

In early September, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that Engelbert would be retiring at the end of 2026 after seven years as WNBA commissioner.

Engelbert’s tenure marked hypergrowth for the league, including securing a media rights deal worth more than $3 billion, six times more than its previous deal. The league and its union also agreed on a transformative collective bargaining agreement that significantly increased player salaries. 

However, there have also been tumultuous parts of her tenure. Players have talked about her inability to build relationships with some of the league’s top stars. The league has also been embroiled in culture wars throughout the last few seasons.

Ahead of Game 1, Engelbert gave possibly her final press conference, saying she’s already suggested several names to Excel Search & Advisory, the firm the league hired to help assess its next commissioner. 

“The good news is there’s people who really want to take on this role, which I think is great,” Engelbert said.