February 17, 2025
NBA All-Star weekend was a miss for WNBA, Valkyries
In just three months, the WNBA’s first expansion team in 17 years will tip-off at the Chase Center in San Francisco and it was not nearly as apparent as it could have been at NBA All-Star weekend
Say what you will about the mini-tournament format, whether the Rising Stars should have been part of the Sunday festivities, and whether Kevin Hart’s camera time was excessive.
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NBA All-Star weekend in the Bay Area was busy, literally bridging the Bay Area with events in San Francisco and Oakland. And it was star-studded.
It was also a missed opportunity for the NBA, the WNBA and the Golden State Valkyries.
In just three months, the WNBA’s first expansion team in 17 years will tip off at the Chase Center in San Francisco. That was not nearly as apparent as it could have been at NBA All-Star weekend.
The obvious omission was the lack of a robust WNBA presence at All-Star Saturday night events, where last year’s Stephen Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu 3-point shooting contest could not be replicated, even in Curry’s home gym and Ionescu’s hometown (well, close enough). NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he spoke to both Curry and Ionescu early in the week before Saturday’s event.
“Last year was so magical,” Silver said Saturday in his All-Star weekend press conference. “It started to feel forced.”
Silver had been public about wanting to see it happen again.
“I had said that I was very hopeful or said it was going to happen again,” Silver said. “It just got to the point where, I don’t know how to say it other than we just weren’t collectively feeling it.
“It just seemed like coming back here, as exciting as it might have been, that this just wasn’t the right time to do it.”
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It was a strange answer, considering both Curry and Ionescu’s ties to the Bay Area, the anticipation it was generating and the fact that the WNBA is about to land in the Bay Area.
The news that Caitlin Clark – who had been speculated to be part of a four-way competition with Curry, Ionescu and former Warrior Klay Thompson in what would surely have been the buzziest event of the weekend – would not be participating might have turned the vibes for Curry and Ionescu.
Putting a WNBA “team” in the skills competition could have been a great replacement.
But it was still a huge miss. As was most of the WNBA representation for the weekend.
WNBA players traveled from Miami, where they have been participating in Unrivaled, to take part in a 2×2 challenge in a tented court at the foot of San Francisco City Hall Saturday, just before the All-Star Saturday night events began. Three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson was a host of the event. But good luck getting there.
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It was an exceedingly busy weekend in San Francisco and Saturday was the apex, with All-Star activities coinciding with the annual Lunar New Year Parade, which annually draws hundreds of thousands of people into downtown. Public transportation was packed. Traffic was stacked.
New Valkyrie guard Tiffany Hayes got indoctrinated the hard way Saturday, stuck in traffic for more than an hour getting to the Chase Center from a public appearance three miles away. She arrived just in time for the final event of Saturday night – the dunk competition.
In the Warriors 10,000 square foot shop at Chase, All-Star and Warriors merchandise filled the racks and the shelves. At the back of the store, there was one small section dedicated to Valkyries gear with a total of six items – a few polo shirts, a new hoodie and a new Kayla Thornton jersey.
Asked if there was more Valkyries gear in the store, a worker responded, “That’s it. We are getting more stuff in next week.”
When all the people are gone.
WNBA players appeared at sponsor events throughout the weekend. The Valkyries debuted their new locker room space at Chase in photographs and a press release. There was no media tour for the dozens of reporters there to cover the All-Star events.
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A Valkyries “housewarming event” at Moscone Center – San Francisco’s main convention center – was well-received as players Kate Martin and Thornton made appearances and visitors participated in a scavenger hunt among other interactive activities. But that event was also set away from Chase, minimizing the Valkyries’ visibility next to the NBA events.
The Bay Area knows the Valkyries are coming. More than 20,000 people have paid for season ticket deposits. The team’s distinctive purple and black gear can be seen in all parts of the Bay Area. But there was an opportunity to show the rest of the country what is coming or to acknowledge the exploding popularity of the women’s game with a more intentional presence by the WNBA in the league’s annual midseason party.
There was some. There just wasn’t enough. A missed opportunity indeed.
Editor’s note (Feb. 18, 3:48 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this story misspelled Valkyrie forward Kayla Thornton’s name.
Written by Michelle Smith
Michelle Smith has covered women’s basketball nationally for more than three decades. A 2024 inductee into the U.S. Basketball Writer’s Hall of Fame, Smith has worked for ESPN.com, The Athletic, the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as Pac-12.com and WNBA.com. She is the 2017 recipient of the Jake Wade Media Award from the Collegiate Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) and was named the Mel Greenberg Media Award winner by the WBCA in 2019.
