Welcome to A Fan’s Notes, a column about the Golden State Valkyries, written by Gazetteer SF managing editor Megan Rose Dickey whose bias for her hometown team is unabashed and unabated.
Like Beyoncé once said, “you can be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare.”
On Saturday night, the Golden State Valkyries chose nightmare and, girl, was it beautiful.
Oct. 31, 2026 will be etched into history as the night the Valkyries defeated the Atlanta Dream to become WNBA champions, in the spookiest arena on earth: Boohalla.
I had my Halloween costume all figured out for game night. In the theme of the WNBA, I was going to be Minnesota Lynx (booo, I know) guard and WNBA Rookie of the Year Olivia Miles, but then I remembered the shirt.
Every time I’ve worn a particular cream-colored Valkyries shirt to Ballhalla, we’ve won. So even though it hadn’t been washed in over a month (long story, don’t worry about it), the costume stayed home and the shirt went on instead.
And go figure, we won.
Ballhalla has always been loud, but Game 7 at Boohalla was different. We were on our feet for much of the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. There was one point when I was truly worried my wife was going to pass out from all the screaming she was doing.
With 11 seconds remaining in the game and the Dream clearly trying to foul our soon-to-be Finals MVP Gabby Williams, the refs called a jump ball instead of a foul.
Insanity.
I looked over to my wife, and thankfully, she was still conscious. She just had to survive a little longer before the buzzer and all of Ballhalla let out a collective roar that could be heard around the world.
The Valks were crowned champions.
Now, I’ll be honest with you all. I can’t call myself a day-one fan. That title belongs to that first group of die-hards who put down deposits for season tickets. But I’ve been a fan before the Valks ever tipped off. Before they had a roster. Before they had a name. Before they even had a general manager.
It all really started for me in April 2024 when I got my first taste of what would become Ballhalla fandom. At the time, no one really knew much about the franchise. We knew that the Bay Area was getting a WNBA team, and we knew that Jess Smith, a former executive for National Women’s Soccer League team Angel City FC, would be its president. That was about it.
The Bay was hyped anyway. As of April 17, 2024, the Valkyries had already secured 6,400 season-ticket deposits for its 2025 inaugural season.
That night, at a packed house at Manny’s in the Mission, I sat down with Smith and Women’s Sports Foundation CEO Danette Leighton for a conversation about Golden State’s brand new franchise and the state of women’s sports. The room was at capacity and the audience was locked in.
During the audience Q&A period, the crowd wanted to know about ticket prices, what the team would do to involve Oakland, pay equity, charter flights, and whether former Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer would coach the team. We were also all dying to know the name, but Smith wasn’t budging, despite my pestering. I even mentioned how my wife wanted the team to be called the Valkyries. The audience collectively exclaimed “Oooooooh” in approval, but Smith maintained her poker face. Well played.
All she told me was that the name would “give a nod to the Warriors” but still be “something that stands on its own.”
The free swag was just as cryptic: plain black t-shirts that simply read “Golden State x WNBA” in white, next to a white WNBA logo.
The energy in that room was immaculate, a preview of what was to come at Ballhalla. That night was all it took for me to become a fan. My wife and I placed our deposits for season tickets within the next 24 hours and we never looked back.
That July, I spent some time with General Manager Ohemaa Nyanin at a basketball camp Golden State hosted at its practice facilities in Oakland. At the time, Nyanin had only been in the role for a couple of months, but she had already received her marching orders from owner Joe Lacob to win a championship within the franchise’s first five seasons.
Nyanin told me she welcomed “all the high expectations” and that while she had yet to hire a head coach, multiple conversations and interviews with head coach candidates had already taken place. Those conversations resulted in the hiring of Natalie Nakase, who had formerly held assistant coaching roles at the Los Angeles Clippers (NBA) and the Las Vegas Aces (WNBA).
Five years? They did it in two.
Smith, Nyanin and Nakase are now the three most important leaders in women’s sports. Who wants to disagree? And moments after the final buzzer sounded at Boohalla, Lacob knew exactly who deserved all the credit.
“I have to say, Natalie Nakase, Ohemaa Nyanin, and Jess Smith, those three women made this happen,” Lacob told the raucous crowd. “They deserve all the credit in the world. But finally, but finally, who needs to be thanked the most, is all of you. Ballhalla! Ballhalla!!”
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
In actuality, my whole crew was crying. On behalf of Ballhalla, thank you, Joe. We appreciate that recognition.
See you at the parade. V’s all the way up.
