WNBA Finals MVP Gabby Williams on Game 7, Trans Athletes, and Her Cat, Halle Berry

“Print this,” said Joe Lacob, the billionaire owner of the Golden State Valkyries, at the start of the team’s playoff run. “Gabby Williams is the best player in the world."It was one of the coldest quotes in recent sports memory. But at the time, Williams, the 30-year-old French-American wing, hadn’t yet won a WNBA Championship, much less been named Finals MVP. And, truth be told, no one expected this from the Valkyries, an expansion franchise in only its second year of existence, and one without a single All-WNBA selection on its roster.No matter. After defeating the Atlanta Dream in a winner-takes-all Game 7 (the first in WNBA history) this past weekend, the Valkyries brought their first ever WNBA Trophy back to the Bay. And it was largely because of Williams, who lived up to Lacob’s promise by executing the most memorable second-half takeover in WNBA Finals history.Here’s how it went down: With three minutes left in the third, the Valks trailing by six, Williams called for the ball, went between-the-legs, and took a step back jumper from beyond the perimeter. She followed that up moments later with a catch-and-shoot three in Angel Reese’s grill. The following possession, Williams freed herself up from a double team, then sprinted out past the three-point line for a money ball.Williams’ back-to-back-to-back triples broke Atlanta and gave life to “Ballhalla,” San Francisco’s fortress of 18,064 violet-clad, women’s basketball fanatics. After trailing for most of the game, Golden State snatched the lead and didn’t look back. Williams finished with 28 points in the second half (a WNBA post-season record) on her way to a game-high 30. When it came time to name the Finals MVP, there was little question about which player on an otherwise balanced roster had been most crucial to the Valkyries’ fairytale fun.Watching Williams, you might not have guessed that, when she’s not hooping, she simply wants to cuddle with her cat and binge-watch anime. Just before the Valks’ championship parade, GQ got to know this smooth assassin a bit more intimately.Congratulations on your championship. The Valkyries really brought everybody together. And you did it. You, specifically.I appreciate that. Thank you.I went back to read a rookie diary entry you wrote in 2018 for ESPN.Wow.You might not remember this, but you mentioned getting a new cat. Lo and behold, this cat is now taking photos next to the WNBA trophy. What has it been like to celebrate with your cat, Halle Berry, who has been by your side since you entered the league?No matter what, when I was overseas, as soon as I came home, I would tell HB how my game went. It's the first thing I do. I walk in the door, “Oh, HB, we lost today. I played so bad.” Or “Oh, HB, we won. And this happened.” First thing I do [after winning the WNBA Finals], “HB, we freaking won. Can you believe it?” And she was like, “Can you feed me?”With pro athletes, I always hear about dogs, but I don't really see as many cats. Why cats for you?I love animals, and I do have two family dogs who I absolutely love. But a cat is just like, they have boundaries. Dogs are kind of dumb and just they'll love whoever walks in the door. Once you earn a cat's love, there's no better feeling than that. I'll want to cuddle with HB and she's like, “No, not now.” But when she wants to cuddle, it's like, Oh. And she's definitely a Velcro cat. She sleeps right here [next to my face] and there's just no better feeling.You have to earn their trust and their love. One of the things I appreciate about watching you, as a fan of basketball, is that you have this really calm, bookish demeanor and energy, but then you can just go into killer mode. What happened in Game 7, to make that switch from the first half to the second half? It was night and day. What fueled that for you? Was it the crowd, your teammates, your coaches, Angel Reese?The coaches knew that Atlanta had been putting a lot of tension on me defensively all series and it was causing me to… It was really tough to find my rhythm. So Nat [head coach Natalie Nakase] was just like, “Let the game come to you. Stay patient. The game will open up.” She's like, “Just wait till the game opens up.” At Halftime, V [Veronica Burton] looked at me, she was like, “What do you need?” And I was like, “I'm good. I'm going to get going. I got it.” She's like, “Okay, I got you.” So V was a really big one in helping me out of that locker room because she just looked at me just like, “I trust you.” And that was huge just to see that in her eyes. And then [assistant coach] Sugar Rodgers, who I've leaned on all season, she was like, “Go off.”And you did.She's like, “I'm waiting for you to go off.” And I was like, “I got you.” KP [assistant coach Kasib Powell] and [assistant coach] Landon [Tatum], both of them were like, “We got the first play for you. Get going, open it up, and the rest is yours." Having that trust after seeing how that first half went and everyone just going like, even with 20 minutes left in the last game of our season, that's not as much of a testament to me, but a testament to the trust that we have as a team.I've re-watched the second half so many times. You guys are down the whole game, basically, and you call for the ball. DeWanna Bonner switches onto you. You go between the legs, step back and splash, and the crowd goes crazy. And then you do that a few times in a row. What was the feeling like when you hit that first three?When I hit that shot, I wasn't thinking about it in the game, but as soon as I hit it and I heard the crowd pop, I was like, “Yeah, they've been waiting for this.” I could tell that the fans were like, “Finally, Gabby. Dang.” But in the most positive way ever. So I saw one go through, and I didn't realize until I came home hours after the game, and then I finally opened social media after the party and stuff, and I was like, “Oh, those three’s were three possessions in a row.” I didn't realize that in the moment.I've been in deficits before where you come back and all you can think about is stop, score, stop, score. You're not thinking about what happened in the last possession. So I swear, I didn't realize that it was literally three possessions in a row until I came home and watched something I was tagged in. And I was like, “That's kind of crazy.”At least for Bay Area sports fans, I can only compare it to watching Steph Curry go off.Thank you.I heard you have a tattoo of Levi Ackerman from Attack on Titan. He’s such a specific type of soldier and leader. Do you feel like Levi’s characteristics translate into your game and mindset on the court?Hell yeah!What do you like about him?I love how he's just so aloof. I think that's what everyone loves about him. My partner has never seen Attack on Titan. I'm like, “There's no way.” So we're actually watching all of it. Well, I'm rewatching it. She's watching it for the first time. I'm like, “This is exactly the show I need to be watching right now during this final series.” So yeah, I channeled Levi. The night before the Finals game, she just started season three, and it's the scene when you first see Kenny [the Ripper] and the famous [scene of Levi] yelling “Kenny” [in battle]. I felt like I needed that.You’ve played in so many places, from Turkey and France to Seattle, Chicago and LA. Then you come to the Bay. You've always been All-Star level, but this is the next version of you. What is it about the Bay Area, with its fans, its culture, and your connection to this place, where you played AAU, that has made it so special at this point in your career?It's so fulfilling to play for something so much bigger than yourself. I think it's very easy as an athlete to get caught up in personal accolades, check boxes in your career. But I mean, I can compare it to the national team where there’s just a whole different kind of pressure that I love when you're putting a country on your shoulders.I could feel that here where I'm like, I don't want to let this community down. And seeing that these fans show up from our first game of preseason before anyone knew we would be good, or maybe they did. I didn't want to let them down. I wanted them to celebrate. I wanted my AAU coach to freaking celebrate. I want him to say that he has an ex-player who's a champion. My family, they've been taking flights back and forth to Atlanta, to Vegas. They've been driving up from Reno every day, and I'm like, I want to give this back to them for doing all of this for me.And you’ve been embraced for being yourself here. You’ve spoken out in defense of queer and trans communities. I know you've received a lot of hate for that. Where does that sense of compassion and care come from, and why is that an important part of you as a person?I never want to compromise my character for my career. I just don't want to compromise my character. At the end of the day, I’m dribbling a basketball while someone is fighting for their lives. And obviously, I’m part of the queer community. Of course, I’m very close to a lot of trans people, and they’re humans. We’re all just human, whether you agree with me or not.At the end of the day, we all just deserve to have a chance. So it's a no-brainer. I just speak my mind. I speak how I feel. I'm not going to try to be, I guess, media-trained. If I'm saying something and it pisses you off and you want me to compromise my character so you can consume my media better, don't consume anything. Don't watch me play. If it bothers you that much that I care about human lives or whatever it is, that's fine. If I pissed off a bigot, great.The WNBA will have a new commissioner next season. What are you looking for from them as a star player? What would you like to see in a new commissioner and over the next few years in this league?I just hope there's more player relations. What I mean by that is, I wish we had a commissioner who would come and speak to us, have dinner with us, ask us what our experiences are personally, know us on a human level. I think that can go a long way. Obviously, the business of the W is growing exponentially, but it's more than a business, too. We used to be a family, and I'm hoping this next commissioner takes the time to hear us out on our experiences in the league and not just the numbers.