Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase had a strong feeling top free-agent target Gabby Williams was going to say yes. The conversations she and general manager Ohemaa Nyanin had with Williams left her convinced that their pitch would be successful.
On a Saturday night during the WNBA’s whirlwind free agency period, Nakase decided the occasion called for a celebration. She broke out a double bottle of Caymus wine after weeks of work alongside Nyanin and the rest of Golden State’s staff.
“I had a really good feeling in terms of our conversation,” Nakase said. “I was just like, ‘I’m gonna celebrate early, because I feel good.’”
That intuition proved to be fruitful. Just hours later, Nyanin called Nakase with the good news. Williams had said yes to the Valkyries, the team that shocked the WNBA in 2025 and went on to become the first expansion team in league history to reach the postseason in its inaugural season.
Williams became Golden State’s first major free agency splash, beating out the Minnesota Lynx and defending champions the Las Vegas Aces, the team the Valkyries will host on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. This is yet again another rematch between Nakase and her former boss in Aces head coach Becky Hammon.
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When the Valkyries hired Nyanin and Nakase, Joe Lacob, the team’s owner, gave the two women a tall task. He wants his new WNBA team to win a championship within the franchise’s first five years of existence. When Williams was introduced to the media in San Francisco for the first time last month, Nyanin reminded the room of that challenge.
“The journey of building a championship team is what we are working towards daily,” she said. “And as Mr. Joe says, we’re on the clock.”
Williams and her new coach Nakase have similar motivations and circumstances, which have shaped their lives. They’ve dealt with underestimation and hesitation when it came to career advancement.
Could this partnership between coach and player who have had similar experiences help the Valkyries get to where they want to be? That’s the calculation that the franchise has made in year two.
When Williams shared why she wanted to come to Golden State, she stated that besides being able to win in front of an engaged fanbase, she believed that the Valkyries could raise her ceiling as a player. The calculation that the franchise has made in year two is that raising Williams’ ceiling is intertwined with winning, and without one there isn’t the other.
Williams has been open about the amount of freedom she has playing for the Valkyries in the early going of the season. “I get to handle the ball a lot more,” Williams said. “I think I get to create a lot more. I think I get to get my shot a lot more, and on defense I get to pick who I want to guard and have the matchup I want.”
The style the Valkyries play is very much built around some of her most prominent skills. She’s a slasher who makes plays in transition and thrives when the ball moves. She called it a more European style. Williams is a French-American who has citizenship in both countries. Williams has played multiple seasons in the EuroLeague and has become a mainstay on France’s women’s national basketball team.
On the global stage she’s most known for the infamous last-second shot she made during the gold medal game of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Because Williams stepped on the three-point line, the United States escaped with a one-point victory over France.
UNBELIEVABLE ENDING IN PARIS. 😱
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 11, 2024
Gabby Williams banked it in at the buzzer but her FOOT WAS ON THE THREE-POINT LINE. TEAM USA WINS BY A SINGLE POINT.#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/DJI7YxfVMl
Something else that brought her to Golden State was Nakase’s understanding of Williams wanting more and how the rest of the league saw the 29-year-old wing. Williams has been put in a box for the majority of her WNBA career. She’s been called the “French Army Knife” a term that is affectionately given to a versatile player who can do a little bit of everything and adapt to a variety of roles on the court.
Williams explained that Nakase was someone who believed in what she brought to the WNBA rather than just referencing what Williams had done overseas. Nakase made Williams feel valued, something she had trouble feeling as often prior.
“And I think that’s been my struggle a bit was always: ‘Oh, well, you can do this, but here you do this.’ She’s like, no, I’ve seen you do this here, so you’re going to do it again here, you’re just going to emphasize on it.”
May 10, 2026; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Valkyries forward Gabby Williams (1) dribbles around a screen set by forward Janelle Salaun (13) against Phoenix Mercury guard Kiana Williams (center right) during the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Nakase knows what being underestimated looks like and sounds like. She became a staple of UCLA women’s basketball as a 5-foot-2 point guard who walked onto the team. She worked her way up in the NBA starting as a video coordinator for the Los Angeles Clippers before transitioning into an assistant coach.
And then in 2022, Nakase joined Hammon in Las Vegas and was instrumental in the Aces winning back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 before being hired by Golden State in the fall of 2024. She now is one of the assistants of the Team USA’s women’s national team that’s set to compete in the 2026 FIBA World Cup in Berlin this fall.
“I think she is just a dog,” Mercury forward and Team USA mainstay Kahleah Copper said about Nakase. “I think she got it out the mud, you could clearly tell. Just kind of worked her way up and was crazy competitive and I really like and I respect that.”
While Nakase eventually reached the top of the profession, she could have gotten there sooner. She has been open about the fact that each year after her first season on Hammon’s coaching staff, she got a bunch of offers to be a head coach. But something in her told her to stay until Hammon gave her the push she needed.
“ [Hammon’s] just like, I’m really going to try to push you this time,” Nakase said. “And I said, but I love you guys, like I want to be here, and she’s like, but it’s time. So sometimes it’s about timing, and I think people need to understand, like, when that happens, it’s nothing that’s forced, it’s more like we kind of met [Williams] at the right time.”
Like Nakase, Williams hesitated leaving what was comfortable. She had multiple opportunities to leave Seattle, her team of four seasons, including following the 2024 Olympics where she played in the WNBA on a prorated deal. She returned to the Storm although she received interest from two other teams in the Liberty and the Mercury in addition to Seattle. The Storm then cored her — the WNBA’s version of an NFL franchise tag—in 2025. Williams could have requested a trade, but didn’t.
But then out of a desire to not just be known as the “French Army Knife,” Williams chose Golden State. But she chose the Valkyries also understanding that she was going to have to grow if she wanted to win. Nakase has already challenged her to lean into discovering how she wants to lead as someone now with a much larger role on the team.
“I have challenged her already,” Nakase said about how Williams is figuring out her leadership style. “You’re so competitive, let that fire come out, because we can definitely utilize that.”
That growth in Williams could take the Valkyries from a first-round playoff team into something greater. While teams haven’t even been playing for a full month, it’s clear that Golden State has the potential to make a leap.
The Valkyries will enter Sunday against the Aces, Nakase’s former employer and the team who also had interest in Williams, with the best defensive rating (99.8) and net rating (10.2) in the WNBA. They also boast the fourth-best offense, and make the most threes per game and give up the least points off their own turnovers.
Williams so far is averaging the most points she has per game in her career (14.3) along with the most attempted threes per game in her career (5.4) and the best three point shooting percentage of her career (39.5%).
As of now the Valkyries’ bet on Williams’ growth is proving to be prescient. We’ll see by the fall if Golden State remains ahead of schedule.
