Gabby Williams scored 28 of her game-high 30 points in the second half and the Golden State Valkyries beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 to win the WNBA championship in only their second season.

Williams, named Finals MVP, carried a team that had trailed for much of the night at Chase Center in San Francisco. Kiah Stokes converted a Williams miss into a key basket with 53 seconds left, and Williams won a jump ball over Allisha Gray with 8.3 seconds remaining before Veronica Burton was fouled with 5.1 seconds to go and made the final points.

It was the first Game 7 in a WNBA championship final series, and the first title for a franchise that did not exist three years ago.

"All we heard last year: We don't have no stars, we don't have no talent," Williams said afterwards. "Yeah right. We got good people. We got winners."

How they got there

The Valkyries are owned by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, who also own the Golden State Warriors. They went 23-21 in their first season and lost in the first round of the playoffs, then signed Williams as a free agent and went 32-12 this year.

They beat the Paige Bueckers-led Dallas Wings and the A'ja Wilson-led Las Vegas Aces to reach the finals. Atlanta, by contrast, had not lost a game on its path to the series, sweeping the Washington Mystics and the New York Liberty.

Golden State won Game 1 at home 68-64 behind 26 points from Williams, then Atlanta dominated the next two games before the series swung back.

The series

Atlanta had looked in control. Angel Reese posted 30 points and 16 rebounds in Game 2 and 21 points and 12 rebounds in Game 3, but she struggled in Games 4 and 5, shooting four-of-20 with 15 points combined as Golden State wrestled the series back.

Game 6 came with its own argument. It started at 12:30 p.m. because the Atlanta Hawks were scheduled to play at State Farm Arena that night; the Dream's regular home, Gateway Center Arena, holds only about 3,500 people against roughly 17,000 at State Farm. The Dream's owners said they had raised concerns about the finals schedule clashing with NBA games and that those concerns "did not receive the attention, nor the urgency that they deserved". WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league preferred to play at the larger arena, and the game sold out anyway.

In the decider, Golden State rallied from nine points down in the third quarter and were tied at 53-53 midway through the fourth. Williams hit a 31-footer to put the Valkyries ahead for good at 60-57 with 2:18 left, then added free throws, and Stokes tipped in a miss in the final minute to make it 64-57.

"This is for all the people out there who are underrated, misunderstood," coach Natalie Nakase said from midcourt. "This is proof: If you put all your heart and all your soul into it, you can win championships."

Veronica Burton backed Williams with 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. "We didn't let anyone put a limit on us all year," she said.

A record season for the league

The 2026 season was the WNBA's most successful commercially. The league said 3.8 million fans attended 330 regular-season games, a new attendance record, with average attendance up 21 percent on last year's record high.

ESPN, ABC and CBS all delivered their most-watched seasons, according to the league, and the WNBA had three times as many games averaging at least one million viewers as the previous record, set last year.

The Valkyries sold out every home game in franchise history and set league attendance records. On Saturday the crowd of 18,064 — known at Chase Center as "Ballhalla" — was credited by owner Joe Lacob, coach Natalie Nakase and Williams as the season's engine.

"Honestly, everyone here, not just the players and the staff. Also the community, the city, the Bay Area," Williams said on court after being named MVP. "Y'all have been pouring into me all season. It's a long season and y'all gave me energy."

Williams became the first player in WNBA postseason history to score 28 points in a half. She was the Valkyries' only All-Star.

Atlanta's long wait

For the Dream, the defeat extends a painful record: the franchise is now winless in four WNBA Finals appearances.

Jordin Canada led Atlanta with 18 points, five assists and four rebounds, but Angel Reese struggled throughout, finishing with eight points on three-of-seven shooting in 33 minutes.

Atlanta had arrived in the finals unbeaten in the postseason and looked the stronger team for stretches of the series. The difference in the end was Williams, and a home crowd that had waited for a contender.

What it means

The Valkyries' rise is the fastest expansion story in the league's recent history: a team with one All-Star, built around a free-agent signing, beating two of the league's established powers in the playoffs and then the team that had swept its way to the finals.

It also lands at a moment when women's sport in the United States is drawing record audiences and investment. The WNBA's attendance and viewership numbers this season are the kind of figures that make expansion fees and broadcast deals easier to argue — and they arrived in the same year the league moved its finals from a five-game to a seven-game series, producing a Game 7 in the first attempt.

The commercial momentum is not confined to basketball: the same week saw record box office returns in cinemas, while American households remain squeezed by inflation even as they spend on live events. Sport, like the NFL's Thursday night slate, has been one of the few places where that spending has held up.

For Golden State, the question now is whether a second season like this one is repeatable. For the league, the answer matters more than the trophy.