The captain of the Blue, Gabby Williams, was masterful in winning the WNBA title with the San Francisco Valkyries against Atlanta, at the end of a final where she scored 30 points out of 63 and was voted best player. This is the first time that a French woman has won this prestigious distinction in the American basketball tournament.
Published on: 01/11/2026 - 09:33 Modified on: 01/11/2026 - 10:29
French winger Gabby Williams delivered an exceptional performance during the final of the WNBA tournament, Saturday October 31 in San Francisco, by scoring 30 points against Atlanta. His Valkyries team won 68-63, a record for a North American league final.
“She has been our offensive leader all season, and to do what she did tonight, in game number 7 of the finals, I just want to say thank you very much. I am so happy to be your teammate, we would never have been able to accomplish this, without you,” greets her partner Kiah Stokes after the coronation on Saturday evening.
Also readWNBA: how Frenchwoman Gabby Williams became one of the best players in the world?
"Gabby, Gabby"
Gabby Williams transcended herself when San Francisco entered the tough: she averaged 14.4 points during the regular season, and she increased the cursor to 20.3 points on average between the start of the play-offs and the final match of the final, or six points more per game.
The 18,000 people in the electric “Ballhalla”, nickname of the San Francisco arena on WNBA game days, understood this and the stands vibrated with thunderous “Gabby, Gabby” at the end of the match.
By her own admission, her decision to join the Golden State Valkyries in April "changed the course" of her career and this title, the best next to those in the Euroleague (2022 and 2026), places her among the best basketball players in the world.
“She’s the MVP of the season”
A true jewel of the orange ball, Gabby Williams never gives up and radiates on the floor a fighter's aura, a champion's character and flawless leadership.
Her prodigious match on Saturday illustrates this perfectly: she only scored two points in the first half, but did not get annoyed, waited, and made the successful shots in the second period.
"Gabby is our finisher. She stays patient, she stays in the match. To score 30 points is truly exceptional. For me, the MVP of the season is the MVP of the finals. That means you have to play in the play-offs, and then the finals. She is the best player in the world at the moment, by far," applauds her coach Natalie Nakase, who led the Valkyries to the title after only two years of existence in the elite.
It was Gabby Williams, already, who beat the defending champion Las Vegas Aces and their star A'ja Wilson, WNBA MVP, with a tough 3-0 to reach the final.
A maturity that she will be able to instill in the French team, with whom she has already won two silver medals, at the Paris Games in 2024 and at the World Cup this summer in Berlin.
Formidable without the ball (she was voted best defender in both international competitions), the native of Sparks, Nevada, continues to improve in shooting, a range of qualities that gives nightmares to her opponents.
“I wasn’t going to lose Halloween,” she says with a smile after the title.
On the contrary, she celebrated the sacrosanct celebration with sips of white wine, cap upside down on her head in the middle of a press conference, for a start to the evening that she will dream of for a long time to come.
With AFP
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