Golden State Valkyries Celebrate WNBA Title With San Francisco Parade

The Golden State Valkyries celebrated their WNBA championship with a parade along San Francisco's Embarcadero on Wednesday, marking a title won in the franchise's second year of existence. The team beat the Atlanta Dream in a seven-game Finals, taking the decisive game 68-63. Gabby Williams, named Finals MVP, scored 30 points in the clincher, 28 of them in the second half, and averaged 19.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists for the series. No North American professional sports team had won a title that quickly, and the Valkyries did it without a single All-WNBA player, a first in league history. Williams said the team won on character, not star power. Golden State had been 10-7 at the midpoint of the season, traded the No. 8 pick in the 2026 draft for two second-rounders, and lost center Iliana Rupert for the season to maternity leave. At the celebration, veteran center Kiah Stokes wore a shirt showing an ESPN power-index ranking that had the Valkyries sixth in title odds.

The right-leaning New York Post leads with the parade and the game itself, giving the Finals score, Williams' 30-point night and series averages, and noting that Williams and coach Natalie Nakase were prominent in the celebration. Its headline stresses a moment Bay Area natives will remember, and it says little about doubts about the team. The left-leaning New York Times also covers the parade but frames it through the city, calling the Valkyries the champions of a start-up town and saying the young team has made the Bay Area swoon, with no stats in its excerpt. Both agree on the Wednesday parade and the team's rapid rise. They differ in emphasis: the Post stresses on-court results, while the Times stresses civic and cultural reception. Awful Announcing, an independent outlet, offers a distinct angle by focusing on Stokes' shirt mocking ESPN's ranking, including ESPN Analytics' reply and the point that betting markets also ranked the Valkyries third.