This has, without a doubt, been the best two week span of Gabby Williams’ WNBA career. In the Golden State Valkyries’ first five games of the 2026 playoffs, they went 4-1, eliminating the No. 7 Dallas Wings and snagging Games 1 and 2 against the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces. In these games, Williams — who averaged a career high 14.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.6 steals during the regular season — is recording 24 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.4 steals per game, including 36 points in an OT loss to the Wings and a 25/11/5 game to stifle the Aces in Game 1 in San Francisco.
To those who only know about Williams’ abilities from watching her in the WNBA since 2019, these numbers may be shocking. The playoffs are where the lights are the brightest: where frauds get exposed and reputations get stained. How is it that, so far, the exact opposite is happening for Williams and her PR?
Williams on the International Stage
You have to look outside the United States for those answers. Williams made her debut for the French national team in June of 2021, and has quickly become one of the country’s best basketball products it’s ever seen. During this year’s FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, newly-crowned team captain Williams averaged 18.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and four assists per game, which led France to a silver medal, clinched a spot on the tournament’s All-Star 5, and ended with her being named Best Defensive Player.
Williams showed up similarly in the 2024 Paris Olympics (where France once again won silver), averaging 15.5 points, 4.8 assists, and 4.7 rebounds per game, all the while being a literal toe’s length away from shocking the basketball world and stealing gold from Team USA. It is through Williams’ efforts — with the support of talents like Marine Johannès, Leïla Lacan, and Dom Malonga — that the rest of the world became acutely aware of the reality that the United States is not as untouchable as it once was when it comes to women’s basketball.
These performances, as well as countless others, led to Williams being awarded her second Alain Gilles Trophy, reserved for the French Player of the Year, on Friday.
The EuroLeague has known Williams has it in her, too. Since starting her international career in 2020, the forward has racked up just about every individual and team accolade a player can ask for: two EuroLeague championships, 2022 Final Four MVP, two All-EuroLeague First Team selections, two All-EuroLeague Second Team selections, three Defensive Player of the Year nods; the list goes on.
And yet, despite all these signs that Williams is one of the best players in the world, it took seven years in the W to tap into her true potential. It’s true that international success doesn’t always translate to dominating the W, but this playoff run is showing Williams’ previous coaches that they may have made a grave mistake reducing the star to just her defensive ability.
The Valkyries Believe in Williams
If you ask Williams herself, she’ll tell you the difference between this season and the ones before it (including at UConn) is simple: it’s belief.
“I came [to the Golden State Valkyries]because I wanted someone to believe in me,” she said after the Valkyries’ 16-point comeback in Game Three to extend their season. Williams only scored two points in the first half before exploding for 17 in the second on 5-10 shooting (3-4 from three). It was the wing’s clutch time heroics plus Veronica Burton’s nonstop motor that willed Golden State to the semifinals. “I’ve had these moments with Fener[bahçe Opet], with my national team, but I never quite got that belief in the W from the staff or from teammates.”
Williams even quipped that she “wasn’t allowed” to shoot the ball in college, which may explain why the now 34.2 percent three-point shooter only made one shot and attempted 12 from beyond the arc during her four-year collegiate career. This year, she shoots five a game, a sharp 1.3 increase from her previous high during her last season in Seattle.
The belief in Williams is loud from every level of the franchise, from teammates to coaching staff to front office. After Game One on Sunday, Valkyries owner Joe Lacob told ESPN, “Print this. Gabby Williams is the best player in the world…No one is saying it, but they need to start saying it.”
The fans love her too. Before any game day at Ballhalla, you’ll see lavender #1 jerseys littering the streets and train cars in and around San Francisco: signs of the young franchise’s gratitude that she gave the Valkyries a chance as a highly-lauded free agent during the 2026 free agency period. After her 15th point on Sunday, a smooth double-clutch layup in transition, Williams turned to the crowd at Chase Center and pumped her arms, declaring that the Aces “can’t f*** with” her. Deafening “Gabby, Gabby,” chants followed.
“I don’t even have the words for it, honestly,” Williams said about getting to play in the Bay, a community in which she has roots dating back to her childhood. “The Bay has always been love; the Bay has always been a community like this, and now [seeing]all these…Bay Area legends that I looked up to since I was a kid, it just feels like a party. I’m just enjoying it…I’m taking advantage of the energy and this magic that we have in this arena.”
Williams and the Valkyries have the chance to continue the magic if they manage to snag one more win against the Aces and make the franchise’s first WNBA Finals berth, which would be a feat underheard of for any second-year expansion team in the history of the league. And to think, all it took was a little belief.
