The Golden State Valkyries aren’t built like your typical championship team.
The franchise entered 2026 on the back of a historic playoff appearance in its inaugural season, but still very much building its identity.
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General manager Ohemaa Nyanin crafted the roster primarily with expansion draftees, then filled the margins with overlooked free agents, waiver-wire pickups and two splashy signings that proved the perfect concoction for a championship and, perhaps, a contender for years to come.
Here’s how they came together.
Mere months after the Valkyries came to be and owner Joe Lacob hired his three leaders – Nyanin, president Jess Smith and head coach Natalie Nakase – the team began collecting its foundational pieces through the December 2024 expansion draft.
Of their 12 selections that night, three became key figures not only in the title run, but as faces of the franchise.
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Veronica Burton, 26, brought perhaps the most impact, taken third overall in the expansion draft.
Burton was a seventh-overall pick by the Dallas Wings in the 2022 WNBA draft out of Northwestern. But since then, the Wings had waived her, the Connecticut Sun signed her to a rest-of-season contract and subsequently informed her that they wouldn’t protect her in the expansion draft.
A vote of confidence from the Valkyries that winter flooded out the years of rejection for Burton; she took the opportunity and ran, winning Most Improved Player in 2025, then leading the Valkyries to a title in 2026 as the brain of an operation that thrives on connectivity.
Then there’s forward Kayla Thornton, selected from the New York Liberty as the more established, veteran pick. She came with a 2024 title under her belt and another Finals appearance in 2023.
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Thornton quickly became a standout in the Valkyries’ inaugural year, averaging 14 points and seven rebounds to earn an All-Star nod. Her season came to an abrupt end shortly after the break when she was sidelined with a knee injury that required surgery.
The 34-year-old signed a one-year contract to remain with the Valkyries in 2026, where she had a fully healthy season and epitomized the defensive identity for her ability to defend all positions and make scrappy plays.
Golden State selected forward Cecilia Zandalasini from the Minnesota Lynx, where she’d won a title her rookie year in 2017. She had built a reputation playing internationally, primarily in Turkey and her home country Italy.
She became one of the Valkyries’ essential scorers in the starting lineup for a majority of the 2026 season.
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Another expansion draftee, center Iliana Rupert from the Atlanta Dream, announced her pregnancy at the beginning of the season and didn’t play.
The title isn’t won without two major free agent signings: Guard Gabby Williams and center Kiah Stokes. Both entered with varying degrees of expectation, but delivered in ways that took this team over the top.
Williams made her name as one of the league’s best two-way players, going from the Chicago Sky to the Seattle Storm with a decorated international career as part of Team France. Her Bay Area roots drew her to Golden State, as did the organization’s belief that she had untapped powers as a primary scorer.
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She delivered, leading the team in scoring while becoming a postseason hero; her 28 second-half points in Game 7 earned her Finals MVP and legend status.
Stokes came to Golden State having won everywhere else she’s been. She had three rings from the Las Vegas Aces’ titles in 2022, 2023 and 2025. The 33-year-old signed with Golden State expecting to play a backup role to Rupert, but she was thrust into the primary job with news that Rupert would miss the season.
Stokes owned the role and turned it into a yearlong block party. Her 19 blocks in the Finals set a WNBA Finals record, earning her mark as the first player to ever win consecutive titles with two different teams.
This is where Nyanin’s creativity and Nakase’s know-how came into play.
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When Nakase took the head coaching job, she asked veteran Tiffany Hayes to join her in 2025 to provide a little familiarity for the new coach. The two had grown close with the Las Vegas Aces, where Nakase was an assistant coach and Hayes a primary bench player.
Hayes, who played her 14th season this year, won Sixth Player of the Year in 2024 but hadn’t won a title yet. She re-signed with Golden State this year at age 37 and served as a spark plug for the Valkyries on both ends – aggressive when it mattered.
Janelle Salaün was an international find, signing in 2025 as a free agent out of the European professional leagues. The forward from France made the all-rookie team that year, but came into her own in 2026 in a non-starter role. She set league records for scoring off the bench and won the unanimous Sixth Player of the Year award. It was the Valkyries’ only significant individual award won in their title year.
Kaila Charles wound up a crucial part of the title run. She played primarily off the bench, but was swapped into the starting lineup in the final four Finals games against Atlanta.
That marked a long way up for Charles, who played for four different teams before landing with the Valkyries in 2025. The Dallas Wings had waived her last year and Golden State signed her multiple seven-day hardship contracts before she fought her way into a regular role and two-year contract signed before the 2026 season.
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Laeticia Amihere started her career with the Atlanta Dream, selected eighth overall in 2023. The Valkyries signed her in free agency in 2025 and she cracked the roster out of training camp in 2026, Golden State needing her size and length. All those factors would come into play as she helped scout the Dream and defend Angel Reese in the Finals.
The Valkyries signed Aminata Gueye, a French center familiar with Salaün and Williams, to a rest-of-season hardship contract at the end of September and she quickly became part of the mix, defending MVP A’ja Wilson in the semifinal round.
Miela Sowah and Ashten Prechtel won as developmental players. Sowah, an Australian native who played four years at Duke, signed as a training camp free agent and Prechtel, who won an NCAA title at Stanford in 2021, signed on a hardship contract in May.
Only two Valkyries draft picks walked the parade route on Wednesday.
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Kaitlyn Chen is Golden State’s first homegrown player with the biggest impact.
The Valkyries drafted Chen out of Connecticut in the third round in 2025. She didn’t make the roster out of camp, but came back that June.
She signed a training camp deal this year without a sure-fire chance of cracking the team; not only did she make the cut, she contributed key scoring games and backed up Burton brilliantly all season while adding to the team’s chemistry with her sense of humor – hello, Game 7 hot dog costume.
Justė Jocytė, the fifth overall pick in the 2025 draft out of Lithuania, wasn’t activated until April 2026 because she was finishing her season in Europe. She made her debut in May, but didn’t earn a regular role.
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This article originally published at Valkyries were far from a typical title team. Here’s how they came together.
