Gabby Williams said Michael Jordan texted her the morning after the Valkyries won

The text from Jordan

Gabby Williams has been signed to the Jordan brand since 2023, which means she has had a commercial relationship with Michael Jordan for three years.

What she did not have until this week was a message from him about a championship.

Speaking at the Valkyries' end-of-season press conference, Williams said the text arrived the morning after Golden State won the title.

According to Yahoo Sports, she described it simply: Michael Jordan texted her that morning, and she thought it was awesome.

The line is unglamorous and specific, which is why it landed. Players describe championship reactions as a blur, and here was one with a timestamp.

The Finals ended on a Saturday night, according to ESPN, and the press conference came two days later, which is why the message was still fresh when she described it to reporters.

What Jordan told her

The substance of the message was short. Williams said Jordan told her to stay hungry.

Her reply was shorter: she told him she had never been hungrier.

That exchange is the kind of detail that explains why a brand relationship matters to an athlete beyond the money. Jordan has been the standard for competitive endurance in basketball for four decades.

It also fits the version of Williams that showed up in the Finals, where she played the best basketball of her career on the largest stage she had reached.

There is no indication the two have a close personal relationship, and Williams did not suggest one. The text is the story, not a friendship.

The exchange also says something about the season Williams just had. She was the Finals MVP on a team assembled from players other clubs had passed on, which is the kind of career a message like that is meant to acknowledge.

The Game 7 she had

The message was earned. Williams scored 30 points in Game 7, the first Game 7 in WNBA history, and 28 of them came in the second half.

Golden State beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 to win the franchise's first championship in its second season.

She was wearing a pair of Air Jordan 41 sneakers while doing it, which is either a coincidence or the best product placement the brand has had all year.

Williams averaged 19.6 points per game across the Finals, up from 14.0 during the regular season, and took home Finals MVP honors.

The jump in scoring in a seven-game series is the clearest evidence that she was not simply along for the ride.

The Jordan brand tie

Williams has been with the Jordan brand since 2023, a period that includes two seasons playing in Turkey with Fenerbahce before she signed with the Valkyries in 2026.

That itinerary is worth keeping in mind when reading the text message story. She spent years outside the league's spotlight and came back into it at 29.

A signature athlete winning a title is exactly the outcome a brand invests for, and Jordan's message reflects that. It is also, by Williams's account, a real one.

The distinction matters because athletes are frequently asked to describe sponsor relationships as personal ones. This one appears to be both.

For a brand, a signature athlete's value shows up in moments like a Game 7. For the athlete, it shows up in messages like the one Williams described, and both sides get what they paid for when the player wins.

For the Valkyries, the commercial upside is straightforward: their Finals MVP is now a champion with a global brand behind her.

A roster that will not repeat

Williams was also asked whether the title had sunk in, and her answer was the most honest thing said at the press conference.

She said no, that she was living in the moment, and that the group would never be exactly this again.

She added that she was trying to soak in the moment as long as she could with those people.

That is a player who understands how rosters work in a league with expansion drafts, free agency and a hard salary structure. The team that won is not the team that will defend.

It is also a warning to anyone planning to buy the Valkyries as a repeat champion: continuity is the thing they have least of.

What comes next

Golden State opens the 2027 season as the title favorite at BetMGM, which Williams will hear about all summer.

The injury questions that shape every roster will apply to a team that just played a seven-game Finals, and the Valkyries' depth will be tested again.

Williams enters free agency questions of her own eventually, and a Finals MVP on a champion changes the price.

For now, the story is smaller than all that: a player got a text from the person whose name is on her shoes, and it said keep going.

The Valkyries have not played since the Finals, so the offseason is the first real test of whether the culture Veronica Burton described survives a championship and the attention that comes with it.

The rest of the league will spend the offseason trying to work out how to stop her.