SAN FRANCISCO –The Golden State Valkyries cannot be killed. It doesn't matter if their offense turns to dust; they'll amp up the defense and grind their opponents down to sand. It doesn't matter if the game feels like it's slipping away; they'll tighten their bootstraps, put on their hard hats, and get to work. And it doesn't even matter if no one but themselves picked them to get this far; they'll find a way, through sheer heart and determination, to bludgeon their way to victory.
Because put simply, they have each other. And put even simpler, they have Gabby Williams.
And in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals, the highest, most pressure-packed stage in all the land, Williams took the reins and went absolutely nuclear. The Valkyries poured their hopes and dreams into their beloved ace's offense, and she made good on them. Williams put together an all-time 30-point heater, including a WNBA postseason record 28 second-half points, to guide Golden State to a nail-biting 68-63 victory over Atlanta and the 2026 WNBA title.
“At halftime, Gabby was like, ‘I just got to get going, we're good,'” a euphoric Veronica Burton said, drenched in champagne and decked out in the Valkyries' championship t-shirt. “And she clearly did that, and of course once we were rolling, it was over with… That's what she said at halftime, and it was like, ‘What can we do? What do you want me to call? What can I do?' And she just entered a different mode. It was honestly incredible to see.”
That different mode Williams entered took one simple adjustment from the Valkyries: Give her the ball, let her cook, and go from there – an adjustment that Golden State delayed until the moment was right, according to assistant coach Kasib Powell.
“She's coming to us like, is it now? Is it now? Is it now?' We're like, ‘Wait, wait, wait,'” Powell recounted after the win, explaining that the initial game plan in the first half was to use her as a facilitator off the ball until the moment was right to unleash Williams, who couldn't wait to be let loose. “When we got a little bit stagnant, and we weren't scoring, we was like, now's the time. And she was ready for it. She stepped up to it. She's a dog. She's a f—ing dog.”
Gabby Williams' all-time heater
The results were instantaneous.
On the first play of the third quarter, she and Burton set up their “41” halfcourt set, got her the ball, and like a bolt of lightning Williams raced to the rim for her first basket of the game. A few possessions later, Williams drove baseline, and although her layup got swatted, Kiah Stokes was right there to clean it up for her. What the Valkyries lacked in the first half, when their offense contained nothing but rocks and bricks, was a catalyst to punch the paint and get the Dream defense scrambling. An unleashed, empowered Williams became that catalyst.
With Williams attacking the rack with reckless abandon, the rest of the Valkyries turned it up. She found Stokes rolling and lasered her a one-armed bullet to get her another layup. Cecilia Zandalasini found the paint for a turnaround jumper. And then Kayla Thornton and Kaila Charles picked the ball away from Rhyne Howard and found Williams streaking down the court for an open layup.
“Keep giving her the rock,” assistant coach Landon Tatum told ClutchPoints, recalling what he and the Valkyries bench were thinking as they bore witness to what they were witnessing.
Then Williams began launching the real fireworks. The run starter: between the legs, crossover, step back into a 26-foot bomb. Next possession, a catch-and-shoot 3 from the corner between Angel Reese's eyes. Then the heat check: an open corner three from the chaos of running in transition. And just when you thought the heater couldn't get hotter, Williams faded baseline, rose over Jordin Canada's outstretched arms to take the lead and ignite the Ballhalla crowd into complete hysteria.
“Nat told me to stay patient,” Williams said at the podium. “I trust her with my life. I stayed patient. I trusted her. She said, ‘Stay patient, stay patient. The game is going to open up for you.' It did. It's what we did all year: just trust each other.”
And when the fourth quarter came, Williams tossed gasoline on the bonfire she started. With the game tied at 55 with three minutes left in regulation, Williams went right through Reese at the rim to take the lead. A minute later, Burton got Williams the ball with the shot clock ticking down, and the Valkyries' ace delivered a 31-foot dagger to put the Valkyries up 60-57. They never looked back.
Finals MVP Gabby Williams silencing the doubters
It was the ultimate silencing-the-doubters performance for Williams and the Valkyries. All year long, all anyone could say about Golden State's title chances had a ceiling. That there was no way they could win without a transcendent superstar to uplift an offense prone to clunkiness and droughts. That defense could only take them so far.
And in the game of their lives, Williams not only proved those doubters wrong; she became the offensive supernova no one believed they had. But instead of dwelling on the haters, Williams chose to focus on the believers.
“We were making jokes, like I can't wait to win and shut everybody up. I don't want to focus on that. I want to focus on people who believed in myself the whole time,” Williams said.
Article Continues Below“There was obviously a lot of negativity, but tonight I want to focus on the positive. There were a lot of people that believed in us and believed in me as well. It started with us believing in each other and that's so special.We just kept our circle so tight to shut out the outside noise or shut out the talk of we don't have this or whatever. We focused on the good stuff, focused on the positive. That was a beautiful thing to come in every day and feel that.”
Next to Williams, Stokes beamed.
“I want to say, I'm super impressed by Gabby. I'm very, very proud of her and I'm just glad that tonight she showed who she really can be because she's been our leader,” Stokes said. “She's been our offense, like the head of it all season, and for her to just come out tonight, Game 7, do or die, and everything on the line, and she showed up and showed out, I just want to tell you, I'm super proud of you and glad to call you my teammate. We did this, and we could not have done this without you.”
“That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me,” Williams smiled before turning back to the media to give Stokes her flowers and love. “There's a reason why Kiah Stokes is a four-time champion. As soon as we signed her, I knew it, done deal, championship. This mother f—– is a winner, period.”
“Yeah, mother f—–!” Nakase chimed in, her curse word filter completely evaporated by the joy of winning the title. “On that, too, Gabby is our closer. She stayed patient, and she stayed with it. Closing with 30, that is f—ing incredible. To me, the MVP is the Finals MVP. You have to play through the playoffs, you have to grind; you have to go through a seven-game series. She's the Most Valuable Player in the world, hands down.”
This was what Williams set out to do when she signed with Golden State this past offseason. She wanted to win, she wanted a home, and she wanted to be loved. So as the confetti fluttered in the air and her team embraced her in hugs and laughter, all while the Ballhalla crowd chanted “Gabby, Gabby, Gabby,” over and over again, it's safe to say Williams found all three.
“You guys have seen her all playoffs,” Tiffany Hayes smirked. “It was just a matter of time before Gabby was Gabby.”