It's not too often than an expansion team in professional basketball does well, but the Golden State Valkyries have managed to surpass all expectations in their inaugural WNBA campaign. With an 84-80 win over the Dallas Wings on Thursday, the Valkyries managed to secure their spot in the 2025 WNBA playoffs; if the season ended today, they would be facing the Atlanta Dream in the first round.
Alas, the first WNBA playoff game in Chase Center will have to wait. According to Ben Pickman of The Athletic, the first home playoff game for the Valkyries will be held at SAP Center in San Jose, what with the Lavar Cup tennis tournament being held at the Valkyries' home arena in mid-September.
SAP Center wasn't even the Valkyries' number one fallback plan; they intended to have it moved to Oakland Arena (formerly and most commonly known as Oracle Arena) first, but there were also scheduling conflicts, forcing them to move their first playoff game to San Jose.
Considering how supportive San Francisco has been to the expansion WNBA franchise, not having the first-ever WNBA playoff game be played in the team's home city has to be a major disappointment. This also shows how low of a priority the Valkyries are in their home court, and how there weren't many lofty expectations placed on the team from the get-go.
But if the Valkyries continue achieving this much success in the early years of the franchise's existence, it won't be long before they become a pillar of the community's sports-loving side much like their NBA counterpart, the Warriors, always has been.
Valkyries stun the world with successful inaugural WNBA season
Expansion teams are usually made up of discarded players whom their former teams no longer need. But this only seems to have made the chip on their shoulder that much bigger. The Valkyries, all season long, have been more than the sum of their parts, with expansion draftee Veronica Burton arguably being the most improved player in the league and Temi Fagbenle being a solid starting center.
The Valkyries also added a few important cogs in free agency, bringing in veteran, former All-Star Tiffany Hayes in free agency. While Golden State isn't expected to proceed deep into the playoffs, especially with more battle-tested teams such as the Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, and Las Vegas Aces standing in their way, no one should ever count them out.
