By JANIE McCAULEY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Draymond Inexperienced proudly rocks a Golden State Valkyries No. 25 jersey, signifying the WNBA’s return to Northern California in 2025.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr repeatedly takes the rostrum for interviews sporting the growth franchise’s signature purple T-shirts.
With 5-year-old Chase Heart beneath the highlight throughout NBA All-Star Weekend, many eyes are additionally on the ladies’s recreation. Caitlin Clark made headlines for not taking part. A’ja Wilson and different WNBA gamers are making headlines with their presence.
And sure, the WNBA’s new growth franchise that’s coming to the bay can be getting a superb look throughout All-Star Weekend.
Warriors energy ahead Gui Santos can really feel the vitality 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,” stated Santos, who had a facet 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 gamers haven’t been laborious to seek out, holding seminars with Jr. NBA youngsters, taking part in a 2-on-2 recreation and showcasing their expertise within the movie star recreation. Bay Space native Sabrina Ionescu was seen at neighborhood occasions regardless of the league not with the ability to work out particulars for an additional Ionescu-Stephen Curry shootout.
The Valkyries unveiled their new locker room on the enviornment main as much as the festivities.
Atlanta Hawks star Trae Younger stated it’s laborious to imagine there wasn’t a WNBA group right here earlier given all of Golden State’s success over the previous decade, when the Warriors gained 4 NBA championships.
“This is one of the elite franchises in the league today, the NBA,” Younger stated. “It’s a no-brainer to have a WNBA franchise out here. I’m surprised already that there’s not.”
Whereas the timing coincides with the worldwide development of girls’s sports activities, longtime Golden State proprietor Joe Lacob fell in love with ladies’s basketball when he watched the 1996 Olympic group. He admired Corridor of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer main the unbeaten Individuals to the gold medal in Atlanta.
An unique investor within the former American Basketball League, Lacob has deliberate to carry a WNBA franchise right here all alongside — then as soon as Chase Heart opened in 2019 it turned a prime precedence.
The growth group turned official in October 2023.
“I want them to understand the opportunity that they have to come and be historians,” Valkyries basic supervisor Ohemaa Nyanin stated after the growth 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 again for the primary time for the reason that Sacramento Monarchs folded following the 2009 season.
Earlier this month the Valkyries unveiled their new 31,800-square foot coaching middle in what was once the Warriors’ follow facility in downtown Oakland.
The plan all alongside was to seek out methods to nonetheless honor the Warriors’ deep historical past whereas constructing one thing particular from scratch.
“We want them to feel that, too,” Valkyries President Jess Smith stated. “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 way of how a lot the San Francisco space loves ladies’s basketball.
“They’re going to have a lot of support here,” he stated. “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.”
___
Initially Printed: February 16, 2025 at 10:15 AM PST
