Golden State Valkyries celebrate first WNBA title, won in only their second season, with Bay Area parade

The Golden State Valkyries held a championship parade and celebration in the Bay Area on Wednesday, four days after winning the first title in franchise history. The team beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals at Chase Center, closing out a series the expansion franchise had trailed two games to one.

Forward Gabby Williams scored 30 points in the deciding game and was named Finals MVP. She managed only 2 points in the first half, then scored 28 after halftime, including a fourth-quarter 3-pointer that tied the score at 60 after Atlanta's Rhyne Howard had pulled the Dream level at 57 with just over two minutes left. Golden State guard Veronica Burton sealed the win by winning a jump ball against Atlanta's Allisha Gray with 11 seconds remaining and then making two free throws with 5.1 seconds on the clock. Atlanta forward Angel Reese finished with 8 points and 12 rebounds; guard Jordin Canada led the Dream with 18.

A title built in two seasons

Golden State joined the WNBA as an expansion franchise in 2025 and made the playoffs in its first year, a first for a first-year expansion team in the league. Owner Joe Lacob had said publicly that he expected the franchise to win a championship within five years of its founding; it did so in its second. Golden State's run was not uninterrupted: after falling behind Atlanta two games to one, head coach Natalie Nakase reshuffled her starting lineup, inserting Kaila Charles and Tiffany Hayes and moving Kayla Thornton and Cecilia Zandalasini to the bench. Golden State won four of the next five games to close out the series 4-3.

Center Kiah Stokes, who had 13 rebounds and two blocks in Game 7, won her fourth WNBA championship, having previously won titles elsewhere in her career. For Atlanta, it was a fourth Finals loss in franchise history, though forward DeWanna Bonner became the first player in league history to reach 600 career postseason defensive rebounds during the series.

"We gotta build a bigger trophy case," Golden State co-owner Peter Guber said after the deciding game.

A record audience

The series drew the largest television audience for a WNBA Finals since 1999. According to viewership figures released by the league, based on Nielsen's Total Audience Delivery measurement, the seven-game series averaged 1.88 million viewers, up 30 percent from the 2025 Finals, while the full 2026 postseason averaged 1.49 million viewers, the most-watched since the league's inaugural 1997 season.

• Game 1 (NBC/Peacock): 2.1 million average viewers, the most-watched Finals opener in a multigame series
• Game 4 (NBC/Peacock): 1.9 million, the most-watched Finals Game 4 ever
• Game 7 (USA Network/CNBC/Peacock): 3.3 million average, the most-watched postseason game and the most-watched game of any kind in WNBA history on cable, up 128 percent from the comparable game in 2025

The ratings growth comes as the league has expanded its national television footprint across NBC, USA Network, CNBC, Peacock and other outlets this season, alongside a broader rise in women's basketball viewership that has also lifted college and Olympic broadcasts in recent years.

A hometown celebration

Williams, the Finals MVP, grew up playing youth basketball in the Bay Area and had commuted to Chase Center from Oakland this season. Her path to Golden State ran through three other franchises: Chicago, which drafted her fourth overall in 2018 and later placed her on a suspension list while she played for the French national team; Los Angeles, which acquired her in that trade; and Seattle, where injuries cost her 58 games over four seasons. She signed with Golden State as a free agent before the 2026 season, in what a profile published through the league's website described as the first time she had real control over her own career path. She was not named an All-Star until 2025.

"It's easy [to be patient] when you trust the people around you. It's harder when you don't," Williams said of staying composed after her scoreless first half in Game 7, crediting Nakase for building trust with players through off-court conversations over the season. Of playing a title-deciding game in the region where she grew up, she said: "This is my time to give my everything for this community."

The parade and celebration, which the team also used as a tip-off ceremony for the coming offseason calendar, took place Wednesday in the Bay Area; the league posted video highlights of the event on the team's website Thursday. Golden State's title is the Bay Area's second professional basketball championship in five years, following the Warriors' 2022 NBA title.

What's next

Atlanta's roster is largely set to return. All five Game 7 starters, including Howard and Gray, are signed through next season, and the franchise is moving its home games to the larger State Farm Arena. Reese, who joined the Dream in an April trade and went on to win Defensive Player of the Year and an Olympic gold medal with the United States this year, said she expected the team to contend again. In comments reported after the loss, she said: "Just because we didn't win today doesn't mean that we won't be champions in the future," adding that this Dream roster was "the most competitive team I've been part of."

For Golden State, the offseason will include the league's broader free-agency period and the usual roster turnover, but the franchise enters it as the reigning champion in just its second year of existence, with its core players, including Williams, Stokes and Burton, having delivered on the timeline its ownership group set when it joined the league.