History will be made in the 2026 WNBA Finals.
Either the Atlanta Dream or Golden State Valkyries (including former Dream star Tiffany Hayes) will win the first title in franchise history. If Golden State prevails, it will mark an expansion team’s fastest-ever ascent to Finals glory. If Atlanta wins, it will erase an 18-season championship-less stretch, the longest title drought among current WNBA cities.
Those are just the top-line historical stakes for the best-of-seven series that begins Saturday, Oct. 17 in San Francisco.
Here’s more of what a Dream or Valkyries title would mean for all involved.
Multi-time WNBA champs
There’s been much fanfare surrounding DeWanna Bonner’s quest to close her WNBA career with another championship, as that goal motivated her decision to sign with the Dream after agreeing to a buyout with the Phoenix Mercury.
For DB, a chapter-closing championship would be her third, joining the two title she won with the Mercury in 2009 and 2014. Her still-new Dream teammate, Jordin Canada, would also become a three-time champion, as she owns 2018 and 2020 titles from her Seattle Storm days.
Two members of the 2019 champion Washington Mystics, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and LaToya Sanders, would get title No. 2 with a Dream win, with Sanders’ second coming as an assistant coach.
A Valkyrie, however, could enter a more rarified championship realm.
A Golden State title would give Kiah Stokes four championships, making her the 10th player in WNBA history with four or more titles. Chelsea Gray, alongside Stokes, has won three with Aces in 2022, 2023 and 2025, in addition to her 2016 Los Angeles Sparks title. Sue Bird collected a quartet of titles with the Seattle Storm, with the first coming in 2004 and the final in 2020. The Houston Comets’ legendary trio of Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson won four-straight trophies together back when the league launched, while the core of the Minnesota Lynx dynasty in Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen captured four in the 2010s.
Rebekah Brunson, a contributor to the run of Lynx titles across the 2010s, has the most championships in WNBA history, standing alone with five as she also won it all in 2005 with the Sacramento Monarchs.
With a Golden State win, Stokes would become the closest thing to a 2020s Brunson, who was a top-tier star-in-her-role player. Although often the shakiest member of the championship-winning starting five during her Aces tenure, Stokes has become foundational to the Valkyries and their Finals chances.
Kayla Thornton would become a two-time champ with a Valkyrie title, adding to the 2024 trophy she helped the New York Liberty win. The out-for-the-season Iliana Rupert, a member of the 2022 Aces alongside Stokes, would also become a two-time champion.
NCAA x WNBA champs
With the Valkyries stocked with former UConn Huskies and the Dream featuring several South Carolina Gamecocks, in additional to a notable national champion from another SEC school, quite a few players could complete the impressive NCAA-WNBA championship double.
The aforementioned Stokes, a three-time champ at UConn in 2013, 2014 and 2015, already has attained this accomplishment; fellow former Huskies Tiffany Hayes (2009; 2010) Gabby Williams (2015; 2016) and Kaitlyn Chen (2025) could join here, as would Golden State’s lone Gamecock in Laeticia Amihere (2022) and their Stanford Cardinal, development player Ashten Prechtel (2021).
For the Dream, South Carolinians Allisha Gray (2019) and Te-Hina Paopao (2024) can add a WNBA title to their NCAA ones, as would LSU Tiger legend Angel Reese (2023).
Unrivaled x WNBA champs
Last season, Chelsea Gray secured the first-ever Unrivaled-WNBA championship double, winning it all in Unrivaled and the WNBA in the same season for Rose and the Aces, respectively.
This year, two members of Unrivaled champion Mist will be on opposite sides in the WNBA Finals. Will Valkyrie Veronica Burton or Dreamer Allisha Gray complement their Unrivaled crown with the WNBA trophy?
A member of the 2025 Unrivaled champs alongside Chelsea Gray, Angel Reese could also become an Unrivaled and WNBA champion with a Dream victory.
FIBA World Cup x WNBA champs
There are, at least not yet, no players on the Valkyries or Dream who could add a WNBA title to an Olympic gold medal.
However, Angel Reese and Rhyne Howard, who helped Team USA win the 2026 FIBA World Cup over a France side featuring Gabby Williams, Janelle Salaün and Aminata Gueye, could become World Cup gold medalists and WNBA champions in the same year. In 2022, the Aces’ A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray accomplished that feat in the same season.
Brionna Jones also was a member of that 2022 World Cup team, meaning she also could become a World Cup and WNBA champion if the Dream win it all.
A Dream triumph also would give every member of United States’ 2020 Olympic gold medal-winning 3×3 team a WNBA title to go with their gold, with Allisha Gray joining multi-time Aces champs Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum and 2021 Chicago Sky champion Stefanie Dolson.
EuroLeague x WNBA champs
Need more evidence that Kiah Stokes is a winner?
She’s also a two-time EuroLeague Women champion, a member of Fenerbahçe’s championship teams in 2023 and 2024. A potential fourth WNBA title would thus would stock Stokes with a total of nine major titles across her collegiate and professional career.
Gabby Williams also has claimed two EuroLeague Women titles with Fenerbahçe, although not overlapping with Stokes as she was part of the 2022 and 2026 title teams for the Turkish powerhouse.
For the Dream, Brionna Jones owns a EuroLeague Women title, earning Finals MVP honors as she helped lead USK Praha to an underdog title in 2025.
Athletes Unlimited x WNBA champs
Last year, the Aces’ NaLyssa Smith became the first Athletes Unlimited champion to become a WNBA champion.
With a Dream win, Allisha Gray would become the second. Gray won the AU crown in 2024.
First-ever WNBA champs
An assistant coach with the Aces when they won their 2022 and 2023 championships, Natalie Nakase became the first Asian-American coach to become a WNBA champion. If she leads the Valkyries all the way to the top, it will make her the first Asian American head coach to lead a team to a championships.
Several players also have the opportunity to become title-winning representatives for others from their backgrounds, heritages or home countries.
The first player of Taiwanese descent to win an NCAA national championship, Kaitlyn Chen could become the first Asian-American player to win a WNBA championship. On the Dream side, Te-Hina Paopao, who is of Samoan and Tokelauan descent, also could make AAPI history with a WNBA title.
The Dream’s Madina Okot, the first WNBA player from Kenya, could, in turn, make title-winning history for her home country. A Dream title also would make Sika Koné just the second WNBA player from Mali to become a WNBA champion; the first was Hamchétou Maïga-Ba, a member of the 2005 Monarchs.
Back to the Valkyries, Golden State’s first-ever draft pick, the still little-used Justē Jocytē, could become the first Lithuanian WNBA champion.