The Golden State Valkyries Reveal Logo, Host Block Party

I scanned Bay Area Twitter to see what local figures think about the latest WNBA team

In 2020, I purchased my first WNBA League Pass subscription and wrote about how I wanted to support women’s sports more intentionally. One year later, in 2021, I attended my first WNBA game while visiting Brooklyn. Ever since then, I’ve been hoping a team would eventually land in the Bay Area. (There are only 12 teams currently in the W, and unless you live in one of those 12 cities, or are visiting at a particular time of the year while the season is happening, it’s hard to catch a game in person).

By the grace of the glorious hoop gods, the WNBA finally announced a Golden State expansion last October. The Golden State Warriors-affiliated, Joe Lacob-owned women’s squad will play at Chase Center, a few miles from where one of the first-ever women’s professional leagues once began in San Francisco circa 1970, after the Warriors surprised everyone by drafting a high school girl named Denise Long in 1969.

Up until yesterday, the legacy of women’s basketball in the Bay Area has remained mostly underappreciated and unknown by many. But that’s already changing with the highly-publicized arrival of the WNBA.

After months of anticipation, it turns out that the latest Bay Area sports franchise — and the first professional women’s basketball team since the San Jose Lasers in 1996 — will be known as the Valkyries, with a violet and black uniform scheme that University of Connecticut star player and top WNBA prospect Paige Bueckers has already dubbed the “prettiest colorway ever.”

The team will officially announce themselves to Bay Area fans this weekend with a free inaugural block party in San Francisco, with appearances from local legends like Kehlani, E-40 and P-Lo.

For more details on the Bay’s reactions to it all, you can read my full report for KQED, San Francisco’s NPR outlet, here: The Valkyries Are Hosting Their First Block Party in SF.