Gabby Williams Says ‘Our Existence Is Political’ as WNBA Advocacy Continues

To Gabby Williams, being a female athlete is political in itself. The Golden State Valkyries forward and WNBA Finals MVP made that point to CNBC’s Alex Sherman in an interview published Wednesday.

She expects players around the league to keep weighing in on political and social issues. Williams brought up two examples from the league’s past, Black Lives Matter and the Georgia Senate race that ended in a January 2021 runoff.

“I think as a female athlete, just our existence is political,” Williams said.

Williams said she had seen advocacy at UConn before reaching the WNBA, and she welcomed that part of the league once she arrived.

She said she feels welcome at Ballhalla, as fans call Chase Center, and that she can be herself there. Fans have sold out every Valkyries game in that building since the team’s first, The Associated Press reported.

Kelly Loeffler co-owned the Atlanta Dream in 2020 while serving as a Republican senator from Georgia. In July of that year, she wrote to the league to object to its plan to promote Black Lives Matter.

On Aug. 4, players from the Dream, Phoenix Mercury, Seattle Storm, and Chicago Sky arrived for their games in black T-shirts backing the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who was running for Loeffler’s seat. The shirts said “VOTE WARNOCK,” ABC News reported. Williams was in her third season with the Sky.

The issue might have been just politics to Loeffler, Williams said, but for players it was their livelihood and who they were, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.

“We just wanted to support someone whose beliefs were in line with ours,” Williams explained.

Warnock unseated Loeffler in the Jan. 5, 2021 runoff.

Atlanta led 30-24 at halftime of Game 7, and Williams had 2 points. She scored 28 the rest of the way as Golden State beat the Dream 68-63 for the championship in its second season. No player had scored more in one half of a WNBA postseason game, according to the Valkyries.

Williams finished with 30 points and 4 blocks. Penny Taylor, with Phoenix in 2007, was the only other player to score 30 or more in a winner-take-all Finals game, the AP reported.

She led all players in the seven-game series with 19.6 points and 2.6 steals per game. During the regular season, she was named to the All-Defensive First Team for the first time and finished behind Angel Reese of the Dream in voting for Defensive Player of the Year.

All the Valkyries heard the season before, Williams said after Game 7, was that they had no stars, and all it took was good people.

“I just walked into a group full of love,” Williams said. “And that just changed the entire trajectory of my career.”

Williams signed a three-year contract with Golden State in April, after four seasons in Seattle.