The Golden State Valkyries needed only two seasons to reach the top of the WNBA. Their Game 7 victory on Saturday night clinched the 2026 championship and closed out the league's 30th season, and it also raised a natural question: where does this team fit among the 30 champions in league history? In a ranking of every WNBA title team, the Valkyries landed outside the top 10, though the company on that list includes some of the greatest teams ever assembled.
Golden State built its title on defense and balance rather than scoring. The Valkyries averaged 67.4 points per game in the Finals, the lowest scoring average by a champion in the championship series since Sacramento posted 66.8 per game in 2005. They are also one of only five WNBA champions that averaged fewer points in the Finals than the team they defeated for the title.
The clincher was anything but quiet. The Valkyries rallied in the second half to win Game 7, lighting up Halloween celebrations across the Bay Area. The Finals moved to a best-of-seven format in 2025, but this was the first series to go the full distance. The No. 2 seed Valkyries won three times at home at Chase Center and once on the road at State Farm Arena.
Gabby Williams, in her first season with Golden State, performed at a superstar level throughout the postseason. She averaged 21.0 points over 13 playoff games, including five performances of 25 points or more, and her 30 points in Game 7 helped secure the Finals MVP award. Her 19.6 points per game in the series rank 19th among the 30 players who have won that honor.
Topping the all-time ranking are the 2023 Las Vegas Aces, who went 34-6 in the regular season and 8-1 in the playoffs before beating the New York Liberty 3-1 in the Finals. Las Vegas led the league in scoring and defense, and A'ja Wilson earned her first Finals MVP. The Aces won it all despite losing free agent signee Candace Parker to foot surgery that July and playing Game 4 of the Finals without injured starters Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes.
Second on the list are the 2000 Houston Comets, the last of the franchise's four consecutive championship teams. Sheryl Swoopes won her first of three MVP awards that year, and two-time MVP Cynthia Cooper played her final full season at age 37. Right behind them, the 2020 Seattle Storm sit at No. 3. Sue Bird, part of all four Storm title teams, gives that group the nod for its depth and chemistry. 'We talked before every game that we were going to wear teams out with the pace that we played,' Bird said.
The rest of the top five includes the 2013 Minnesota Lynx, the second of four titles in a seven-season span for the franchise's 'core four' of Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen, and the 1998 Comets, whose .900 winning percentage (27-3) remains the best in league history. Cooper has said the 1998 team would be her pick as her favorite, in part because it was the final season for her close friend, point guard Kim Perrot, who was diagnosed with cancer five months after the title and died in August 1999 at age 32.
More recent champions are scattered through the middle of the list. The 2024 New York Liberty, who ended a 27-year wait for the franchise's first title by beating Minnesota in five games, sit at No. 11, one spot ahead of the 2001 Los Angeles Sparks. The 2025 Aces, lifted by Wilson's fourth regular-season MVP and second Finals MVP along with a 17-game winning streak that is the second longest in league history, check in at No. 15.
As for the Valkyries, their place outside the top 10 does little to dim what they accomplished. They won a championship in just their second year of existence, stayed fully committed to a defense-first identity all season and delivered the first Game 7 the WNBA Finals has ever seen. On a list reserved for the ultimate winners, simply belonging is its own kind of distinction.
