The Golden State Valkyries are an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The Valkyries compete in the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

(WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team began play in the 2025 season. The Valkyries play their home games at

Chase Center Chase Center is an indoor arena in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is the home of the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA), Golden State Valkyries of the Women's National Basketball A ...

in San Francisco, while being headquartered in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

History

The

(WNBA), which started in 1997, previously had a team in northern California in the

Sacramento Monarchs The Sacramento Monarchs were a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009. They played their home games at ARCO Aren ...

, which played from 1997 until folding in 2009, despite winning a league championship in 2005. After the Monarchs ended, the WNBA remained steady with 12 teams, although there was often talk of expanding the league. On September 26, 2023, ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports journalism department of ''The New York Times''. It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories ...

'' reported that the owners of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...

, Joe Lacob and

Peter Guber Howard Peter Guber (born March 1, 1942) is an American film producer, business executive, entrepreneur, educator, and author. He is chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment. Guber's films have grossed over $3 billion worldwide and received ...

, were finalizing an agreement to start a WNBA

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

in San Francisco. Lacob had previously helped found the American Basketball League (ABL), which played before the WNBA, and owned one of their teams, the San Jose Lasers. The ABL folded in 1998 and the Lasers were the last

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

women's professional basketball team. On October 5, 2023, the expansion team was officially announced, with plans to begin play in 2025, being the first expansion team in the WNBA since the

Atlanta Dream The Atlanta Dream are an American professional basketball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Dream compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded for the ...

in 2008. The expansion fee for the franchise was reported to be $50 million over 10 years. It was reported that the team's name would include "Golden State", with announcement of the name, logos, and uniforms to come at a later date. Within the first few hours of being announced, over 2,000 season ticket deposits were placed. On January 30, 2024, Jess Smith, an executive with

Angel City FC Angel City Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Los Angeles, California, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The formation of the team was announced on July 21, 2020; it beg ...

of the

NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...

, was hired as the team's president. On April 16, the team surpassed 6,000 season ticket deposits. Ohemaa Nyanin was announced as general manager on May 7. A WNBA

expansion draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or sports franchising, franchises. This occurs mainly in Sports in North America, North American sports and closed leagues. O ...

occurred in early December 2024, and Golden State will participate in its first

WNBA draft The WNBA draft is an annual draft (sports), draft held by the Women's National Basketball Association, WNBA through which WNBA teams can select new players from a talent pool of college and List of WNBA players, professional women's basketball p ...

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

. The team name – Golden State Valkyries – and logos were revealed on May 14, 2024. The logo features the Bay Bridge, symbolizing the connection between San Francisco and Oakland with the cables doubling as wings and the tower doubling as a sword. The thirteen lines from the sword represent the Valkyries as the thirteenth team in the league, and the wings split the space into five triangles to represent the ten players on the court. The outer shape is a V to represent the Valkyries.

Season-by-season records

Players

Current roster

Coaches and staff

Head coaches

On October 10, 2024,

Natalie Nakase Natalie Mitsue Nakase (/nɑːˈkɑːseɪ/;born April 18, 1980) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Golden State Valkyries of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). After retiri ...

was hired by the Valkyries to be their first head coach.

General managers

* Ohemaa Nyanin (2024–present)

Assistant coaches

* Kasib Powell (2025–present) * Sugar Rodgers (2025–present) *Landon Tatum (2025–present)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Golden State WNBA team Golden State Valkyries Basketball in San Francisco Women's National Basketball Association teams 2023 establishments in California Basketball teams established in 2023 Golden State Valkyries Women's sports in San Francisco