WHAT a week it has been for sports. The major European leagues are back, with a bang, following an extended international break, the Champions League has returned with enticing football, and the National Football League (NFL) continues to offer the most thrilling, fast-paced action anyone can imagine, with plots and sub-plots that could almost fill the MetLife Stadium.

That said, one of the best, feel-good sports stories that stretches beyond our wildest imaginations is happening before our very eyes, with very few paying attention. Due to its shorter operating history, a smaller market and media footprint, and various cultural factors, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) takes a backseat to the older and high-flying athleticism of the National Basketball Association (NBA). And even with the recent boost from high-profile collegiate stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the WNBA still lags the NBA by hundreds of miles.

The WNBA Finals start tomorrow, October 17, and features three-time finalists, the Atlanta Dream (2010, 2011, 2013), and the most unlikely of opponents, the Golden State Valkyries, a team that entered the league in 2024, just two years ago. Incidentally, the Valkyries were the first expansion team in the WNBA since the Dream in 2008, and fittingly, their path to the finals lived up to the story behind the team’s name.

The name (valkyrja) translates from Old Norse as “chooser of the slain” and is a supernatural female figure from Norse mythology who chooses which warriors die in battle and guides their souls to Odin’s hall, Valhalla, where the deceased warriors become einherjar (‘single fighters’ or ‘once fighters’). The Valkyries (32-12) narrowly finished second in the WNBA regular season table — behind the Minnesota Lynx (33-11) — and enter the final series with at 5-1 play-off record, having gotten past the Dallas Wings 2-1 in the first round, before dispatching the last season’s champion, the Las Vegas Aces 3-0, even with A’ja Wilson, who has won the WNBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award five times, including this season. And after winning the award earlier this month, Wilson became the first player in WNBA history to win three consecutive MVPs and reach five total MVP honours (2020, 2022, 2024, 2025, and 2026).

The Valkyries finished eighth in their inaugural season, with a 23-21 record, making the playoffs as an eighth seed, becoming the first expansion team in the history of the WNBA to make it to the playoffs. More remarkable is that the team achieved that feat with players who were unsuccessful elsewhere, some from the Wings and Aces, both teams that they faced in this year’s play-offs. From the Wings, Kaila Charles (28) was waived in June 2025 and has played in all 44 games for the Valkyries this season, starting 11 of those played. While not an accomplished shooter or playmaker, the 6’1” Charles is a workhorse, doing the little things required for a winning formula, while averaging over 23 minutes per game in the takedown of her former team.

All-Star point guard Veronica Burton (26) was also cut by Dallas, after the 2022 firstround pick of the Wings spent two seasons with the team, before being waived just prior to the 2024 season. She had a stint with the Connecticut Sun, before she was grabbed in the expansion draft by the Valkyries, and has obviously thrived. Burton was not an All-Star player in Dallas, but the Valkyries have helped her hit the mark, starting all 44 games each of her two seasons in Golden State, receiving a vote for Defensive Player of the Year this season, and hit some critical shots during this postseason run.

The Aces won the 2025 title, then lost a number of role players this past summer, including Kiah Stokes (33), a three-time champion with Las Vegas, who was lured away in free agency by Head Coach Natalie Nakase, formerly an assistant with Las Vegas, to come to join up in Golden State, and will now start in the WNBA Finals for the second consecutive season. Stokes started 43 games for Golden State this season as an all-defence level centre and was the primary defender on Wilson in the semi-final series, limiting her to 23 for 56 (40 per cent) from the field, well below her 53 per cent for the regular season. Tiffany Hayes (37) won Sixth Woman of the Year for the Aces in 2024, playing alongside Stokes, but instead of returning to the Aces or retiring, she was recruited by Nakase and two seasons in, she logged 21 points against her former team in Game 2 of the semi-final series.

And the ‘outcasts’ were not limited to the Wings and Aces. Forward Gabby Williams (30) was rejected by the Chicago Sky to start her career, while Kayla Thornton (33) has journeyed and played in nine countries outside the United States, plus three other WNBA team (including the Wings), and starting forward Cecilia Zandalasini (30) were onboarded in the expansion draft. Plus, French forward, and unanimous 2026 Sixth Woman of the Year, Janelle Salaün (25) was unsigned until the Valkyries copped her signature, and even the catalytical backup point guard Kaitlyn Chen was a third round (30th overall) pick last year.

The Valkyries took a lot of players other teams didn’t want and built a super team. Coach Nakase won Coach of the Year, and Veronica Burton won Most Improved Player last season, while finishing eighth, then improved on that performance by finishing second in the league and nearly sweeping through the play-offs, en route to the WNBA Finals. A second- year team, led by a second- year coach enters the finals as JustBet favourites against an Atlanta team that is 5-0 in these play-off, has qualified for the WNBA play-offs in 10 of its 17 years of existence, and has reached the WNBA Finals on three previous occasions, but never won. A bestof- seven series will decide, but a Cinderella team looking for a storybook ending makes for a storyline that is extremely hard to resist.

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