By JANIE McCAULEY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Draymond Green proudly rocks a Golden State Valkyries No. 25 jersey, signifying the WNBA’s return to Northern California in 2025.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr regularly takes the podium for interviews wearing the expansion franchise’s signature purple T-shirts.
With 5-year-old Chase Center under the spotlight during NBA All-Star Weekend, many eyes are also on the women’s game. Caitlin Clark made headlines for not participating. A’ja Wilson and other WNBA players are making headlines with their presence.
And yes, the WNBA’s new expansion franchise that is coming to the bay is also getting a good look during All-Star Weekend.
Warriors power forward Gui Santos can feel the energy of the WNBA.
“You see the All-Star, you see the WNBA team coming up and you see how the Bay Area community is enjoying that, everybody’s watching the teams,” said Santos, who had a side broadcasting gig Saturday with the NBA. “You have everything going at the same time, it’s very good for the Bay Area. The Warriors, the whole organization, are trying to help them, trying to make all the Golden State fans turn into Valkyries fans and we all want to be one together because we are representing the Bay Area, we are representing the people that live here.”
WNBA players have not been hard to find, holding seminars with Jr. NBA kids, participating in a 2-on-2 game and showcasing their skills in the celebrity game. Bay Area native Sabrina Ionescu was seen at community events despite the league not being able to work out details for another Ionescu-Stephen Curry shootout.
The Valkyries unveiled their new locker room at the arena leading up to the festivities.
Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young said it’s hard to believe there wasn’t a WNBA team here earlier given all of Golden State’s success over the past decade, when the Warriors won four NBA championships.
“This is one of the elite franchises in the league today, the NBA,” Young said. “It’s a no-brainer to have a WNBA franchise out here. I’m surprised already that there’s not.”
While the timing coincides with the global growth of women’s sports, longtime Golden State owner Joe Lacob fell in love with women’s basketball when he watched the 1996 Olympic team. He admired Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer leading the unbeaten Americans to the gold medal in Atlanta.
An original investor in the former American Basketball League, Lacob has planned to bring a WNBA franchise here all along — then once Chase Center opened in 2019 it became a top priority.
The expansion team became official in October 2023.
“I want them to understand the opportunity that they have to come and be historians,” Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin said after the expansion draft Dec. 6. “Once you get to put on that jersey and you get to sit in front of a packed Chase Center, your whole experience is going to change.”
The WNBA is back for the first time since the Sacramento Monarchs folded following the 2009 season.
Earlier this month the Valkyries unveiled their new 31,800-square foot training center in what used to be the Warriors’ practice facility in downtown Oakland.
The plan all along was to find ways to still honor the Warriors’ deep history while building something special from scratch.
“We want them to feel that, too,” Valkyries President Jess Smith said. “Entering this organization knowing the greatness around them that’s here to help them in any way, shape or form. … It’s a really special place, and that won’t lose itself regardless of the branding because of the history that’s taken place here.”
Even coming from Brazil, Santos has a sense of how much the San Francisco area loves women’s basketball.
“They’re going to have a lot of support here,” he said. “Especially because the Warriors in the last 10 years they have made so much progress with that and now we have a lot of people who love basketball in the Bay Area so it’s not going to be different for the Valkyries.”
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