(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect) Grant Afseth Mon, November 2, 2026 at 2:27 PM UTC · 5 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joe Lacob got his hands on the WNBA trophy Saturday night at Chase Center. His Golden State Valkyries had just finished off the Atlanta Dream, 68-63, in Game 7 at home, and Gabby Williams , who scored 28 of her 30 points after halftime, had been named Finals MVP.
No Finals had ever reached a Game 7. The 2025 series, the first played as a best-of-seven, ended in a Las Vegas sweep.
On Oct. 5, 2023, at a Chase Center event announcing the expansion team, months before it had a name, Lacob said it would win a WNBA championship within its first five years.
Saturday's title came in Year 2. Lacob said he can "absolutely" compare it to the four the Golden State Warriors have won since he bought that team in July 2010.
"Two years, it's insane," Lacob said. "It's just a lot of good decisions, a lot of good execution, a great coach. I said it when I got up there, I really want to give the credit to those three women. I give myself credit for hiring them, but other than that, they did it. They were all spectacular in their jobs; they deserve it."
Lacob hired team president Jess Smith and general manager Ohemaa Nyanin before the Valkyries ever played a game. Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase came in October 2024, off Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon's staff, after a late breakfast with Lacob in Las Vegas.
After her postgame news conference Saturday, Nakase shook hands with each media member to thank them.
"I didn't score one basket," Nakase said. "Thank you, I appreciate it. Without you guys, we wouldn't be [here]."
At the podium, she said Lacob had given whoever took the job five years to win a title.
In 2025, the Valkyries were the first expansion team to make the playoffs in their first season, going 23-21 before Minnesota eliminated them in the first round. This season's team went 32-12 as the No. 2 seed.
According to the WNBA, no expansion franchise in league history has won a championship faster. The Dream entered the league in 2008 and reached the Finals in their third season, which had been the fastest for an expansion team.
Lacob was also a founding owner of the San Jose Lasers, who played in the American Basketball League, a women's pro league, in the late 1990s.
The Dream drafted Tiffany Hayes 14th overall out of UConn in 2012. She played 10 seasons in Atlanta, from 2012 to 2019 and again in 2021 and 2022, and spent 2023 with the Connecticut Sun.
Hayes announced her retirement on Dec. 13, 2023. The Aces signed her the following May, and she was named Sixth Player of the Year with Nakase on the Las Vegas staff. In February 2025, she signed with Golden State as a free agent.
A one-year deal brought her back for this season. She scored 11 points Saturday against the team that drafted her, and the title is the first of her 14 WNBA seasons.
"Amazing, words can't describe this, man," Hayes said.
Kiah Stokes, who also left Las Vegas for Golden State, won her fourth. Her first three came with the Aces.
"This is just what happens when you invest in women's sports," Hayes explained. "Valkyries, we here baby, we here, we here and we ain't going nowhere! Invest in women's sports, baby, let's go!"
Atlanta won Game 3 97-71 on Oct. 21 at State Farm Arena to take a 2-1 series lead. Nakase put guard Kaila Charles in the starting lineup after that loss, and the Valkyries won three of the next four games.
Charles finished Game 7 with 4 points and 7 rebounds. The support around the team reached her within a week of her arrival in San Francisco last year.
"We feel that from not only the organization, teammates, the girls that they put together, but the city," Charles said.
"Ever since I stepped into San Francisco, I came last year and in one week and they just accepted me, they cheered for me and I'm able to find a home," Charles continued. "That's just what the city embodies, and for us to be able to love each other I think that's what made us this successful and that's why we kept fighting out there until we were able to win it all. So we did this for the city because they pour into us and we want to pour back into them."
Golden State has sold out every home game at Chase Center since its first one. The Valkyries led the WNBA in attendance this season and had the league's best home record. Their first home playoff game, in September 2025, was moved 54 miles south to SAP Center in San Jose because of a scheduling conflict at Chase Center.
"What I'm so incredibly impressed by is honestly, at the end of the day, is 'Ballhalla' and our fan base," Lacob explained. "Just so behind our team. You just can't buy that, you can't. It's so incredible. I can't wait for the parade."
Lacob said he thinks more titles are coming, the way they did with the Warriors.
"I'm not thinking about that right now; I'm just thinking about enjoying this a little bit," Lacob said. "I'm not really good at enjoying things for too long, but winning's fun. I don't know if you noticed."
The parade is Wednesday afternoon, along San Francisco's bay front.
Source: Sports
