At the onset of the 2025 WNBA season, the Golden State Valkyries are a new expansion team addition. On September 26, 2023, it was reported that the owners of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors wanted a WNBA future odds team. Namely, Joe Lacob and Peter Guber were finalizing an agreement to start a WNBA expansion team in San Francisco. Lacob had previously helped found the American Basketball League (ABL). Specifically, he owned one of their teams, the San Jose Lasers. The ABL folded in 1998 and the Lasers were the last San Francisco Bay Area women’s basketball team.
2025 Golden State Valkyries
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2025 Golden State Valkyries Team Overview
The expansion team was officially announced on October 5, 2023. Plans to begin play in 2025 make it the first expansion team in the WNBA since the Atlanta Dream in 2008. Accordingly, the franchise’s expansion fee was reported to be $50 million over 10 years. The team name was reported to include “Golden State,” with the name, logos, and uniforms to be announced at a later offshore betting 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 of the NWSL, was hired as the team’s president. Next, 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 occurred in early December 2024. And then Golden State will participate in its first WNBA draft in 2025.
Specifically, the team name – Golden State Valkyries – and logos were revealed on May 14, 2024. The WNBA odds logo features the Bay Bridge, symbolizing the connection between San Francisco and Oakland. Also, the cables are 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.
The Golden State Valkyries have named their first head coach. Former Las Vegas Aces assistant Natalie Nakase has led the newest WNBA franchise. Previously, she had spent the last three seasons on Becky Hammon’s staff in Las Vegas. She helped guide the Aces to back-to-back WNBA championships in 2022 and 2023. Nakase also brings NBA experience to Golden State. Correlate that she served as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers from 2018-20.
Initially, the Golden State Valkyries didn’t set out to form an international-heavy roster in the WNBA expansion draft. Heading into the draft, coach Natalie Nakase and general manager Ohemaa Nyanin said the nonnegotiable attributes they emphasized were “competitiveness, high character, and a never-satisfied mindset.”
Yet by the end of the draft, Nakase and Nyanin were struck by their roster’s initial international presence. Seven of the 11 players the Valkyries selected Friday hail from outside the United States. Namely, the selections included Temi Fagbenle (Great Britain), Stephanie Talbot (Australia), Julie Vanloo (Belgium), Maria Conde (Spain), Cecilia Zandalasini (Italy), and Iliana Rupert and Carla Leite, both of whom hail from France.
Late on, Nakase said she was particularly excited by Fagbenle’s availability. In 2024, the veteran Indiana Fever forward built an instant rapport with No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark and broke into the starting lineup just seven games into the season.