Being proven wrong is a bad feeling in general, but being proven wrong as a sports writer cuts particularly deep.
With no big-name signings, despite having the budget and the location, I felt the expansion Golden State Valkyries wouldn’t enjoy a good season. I loved the expansion draft selections and training camp invites (although I still feel Chloe Bibby deserved a fairer shot), but didn’t see the team making the playoffs without that one surefire star.
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The Valkyries, though, have proven that not all teams need to get superstars, some can afford to make them, which is what’s happening with Veronica Burton right now.
On Friday, the Valkyries won their 18th game of the season, which is a WNBA record for an expansion team, and while they dropped the next two contests, first to the Atlanta Dream on Sunday and then to the Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday, they’re still at No. 7 in the league standings. But the gap between them and the teams just below them in the standings—the Seattle Storm, the Los Angeles Sparks and the Washington Mystics—is very narrow. Only two of the four will make it to the postseason.
Even if they don’t make the playoffs, will the Valkyries still be in contention for the best expansion franchise in WNBA history?
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First, it’s important to establish whether we can consider a team that relocates an expansion franchise. The short answer is no. A team that gets to keep their front office and roster—or parts of both, at least, as it is an organizational decision to make changes, not something enforced by the league and its rules—isn’t exactly starting from the ground-up.
The 1997 season clearly doesn’t count, as all franchises were new. In 1998, the WNBA grew by two franchises with the Detroit Shock and Washington Mystics, and in 1999 by another two with the Minnesota Lynx and Orlando Miracle. In 2000, another four teams joined the league: the Indiana Fever, Miami Sol, Portland Fire and Seattle Storm. In 2006, the Chicago Sky debuted, and in 2008 the Atlanta Dream rounded up the overall number of teams to 12 until 2025, when the Valkyries joined the WNBA. So, out of the 11 franchises that joined the league, are the Valkyries indeed the best one?
The Detroit Shock won 17 games in their first WNBA season, losing only 13, which made for 58 percent winning percentage. They missed out on the playoffs, as back then only four teams played in the postseason. In 1999, the Miracle and the Lynx managed to win 15 games, losing 17. While six teams had the same record, the Lynx missed out on the playoffs because the Western Conference was stacked, with three teams having better records; in the East, the Shock edged out the Miracle for the final playoff spot in the final game of the season between the two teams.
The 2000, 2006 and 2008 expansion teams fared pretty badly, which puts the Valkyries in the same category as the Shock, Miracle and Lynx as the top four newcomers in W history. And if they will make the playoffs, they will indeed be in a category of their own.
What’s more interesting, though, is where the Valkyries will be in five or so years. Longevity remains the main issue in the W. The Shock and the Lynx managed to win seven championships combined, and both became sports dynasties. At one point, the Shock were such a big deal in Detroit that September 17, 2003 was proclaimed “Detroit Shock Day” by then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
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With the established legacies of men’s sports franchises in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and NFL’s San Francisco 49ers in the Bay Area, we will get to see a “Golden State Valkyries Day” proclaimed in San Francisco? I have my doubts, but then again, I have no problem with being proven wrong by this franchise again—and again.
