Golden State Valkyries open season with enthusiastic fans, low expectations

The fervor in San Francisco's Chase Center for the Golden State Valkyries' first and only home exhibition game was completely out of proportion to the game's stakes. The roar from more than 17,000 fans when Kate Martin hit two free throws to tie the game late in the third quarter sounded like a response to something far more important than third-quarter free throws. It started early and went on all night: the player introductions were a party; an unsuccessful Los Angeles Sparks' challenge nearly brought down the house; and the Valkyries were cheered off the court -- much of it in the form of a standing ovation -- despite losing the game by a point.

It felt, to use a word rarely summoned in relation to professional sports, wholesome. The fervor is to be expected; far too many in the Bay Area have waited far too long to see this day. Somehow, the WNBA never had a team in this massive, diverse market with a history of supporting women's basketball. But they're here now, and judging by the earliest returns, this is the place where cynicism just might take the year off.

They're trying to call Chase Center "Ballhalla," perhaps believing a little Nordic mythology wordplay will conjure thoughts of a blissful future. The fans broke into several chants of "Let's go, Valkyries," which rolls off the tongue about as clumsily as you'd expect, lacking in poetry but not spirit.

The team is the first expansion team in 17 years, and the first in WNBA history to sell 10,000 season tickets. (Again, how did this take so long?) When they take the court Friday night against the Sparks for the first regular-season game in San Francisco, the Valkyries will do so in front of a sellout crowd.

"It was a blessing to finally see all of this come to pass," said forward Kayla Thornton, who won a championship last season with the Liberty. "They've been working on it since 2016, and to be the first ones to wear the jersey and take the court is amazing. To hear the cheers -- it's all great."

But, alas, a team cannot live on vibes alone. Most inaugural seasons are lessons in patience and foresight, and in the WNBA the time between creating a team and playing a game is almost comically short. All of which is to say: It figures to be a rough year.

The roster construction, through both the expansion and college drafts, has traveled the spectrum from unusual to mystifying. A rumored interest in trading for three-time All-Star Kelsey Plum ended with her being traded to the Sparks. Shyanne Sellers, a forward from Maryland drafted No. 17 in the college draft April 14, was cut after just a week of training camp. The team's top draft pick, 19-year-old Lithuanian Juste Jocyte, was chosen No. 5 but announced last week that she will remain in Europe this season and join the Valkyries next year.

The team says it drafted with the idea of fulfilling coach Natalie Nakase's desire for a fast-paced, widely spaced offense that can shoot 3s and wear down opponents, and there's a solid chance the roster configuration and reconfiguration could last well into the regular season. The Valkyries also seem to have drafted with at least one eye on the future: low salaries in advance of a new CBA for 2026 that promises a higher cap that aligns with the sport's burgeoning popularity; a free agent class after this season that includes 21 current and former All-Stars, some of whom could be enticed to the Bay Area by the first-rate facilities and the deep pockets of Warriors/Valkyries owner Joe Lacob.

For now, though, all of that is for another day. As the Valkyries finish their pregame warmups and sprint as one to the bench, where they high-five all the coaches and staff members before beginning an elaborate, players-only hand-slapping/hugging routine that eventually includes every possible combination of available humans. The decidedly noncorporate crowd, including an inordinate number of wide-eyed little girls with their parents, clearly knows its hoops. They roared for Kaitlyn Chen, the former UConn point guard whom Nakase describes as "just so loved by the basketball world in general." Chen, it turns out, will have to be loved in a different uniform this season; she was waived on Wednesday.

A team with no expectations can only exceed them, and that just might carry the Valkyries for the immediate future. The final play of the first game in team history was a 35-foot 3-point shot by Laeticia Amihere, who led the team with 20 points but was also cut Wednesday. She will always have this moment, though: Her last-second shot was followed by a massive, building-wide roar. Then the fans seemed to take a collective breath before more cheering broke out: slowly at first, then faster and then almost urgently.

"I know we lost," Nakase said, "but it almost felt for a second like we won."

The confusion is understandable. As the fans cheered, they began to stand, a few at first and then nearly everyone. The fans cheered down as the players looked up and cheered back, a moment that suggested this might be the rare place where -- for now at least -- the game itself is enough, and the scoreboard is nobody's god.