Gabby Williams' rise to greatness: inside her case as the world's best all-around player
The numbers alone won't turn heads in a league stacked with scorers. But put her 2026 regular season next to a historic summer with the French national team, back-to-back EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year trophies and an explosive playoff run with Golden State, and the picture changes fast. This is a player impacting winning on both ends of the floor as much as anyone on the planet.
The long climb to the spotlight
Williams spent years doing the dirty work before the scoring numbers ever showed up. She averaged 7.3 points as a rookie in 2018, dipped to 5.5 in 2019, climbed back to 7.7 in 2020 and sat at 7.5 in 2022 — never once cracking double figures across those four seasons, per BeBasket's database. In 2023, her role shrank further: just 4.0 points over 21 games. All the while, she was building her game on a second continent, too, playing for Lattes Montpellier (BLMA) from 2020 to 2022, Sopron Basket from 2022 to 2025 and ASVEL from 2024 to 2026 — a full overseas career running in parallel with her WNBA seasons.
Then came the turn. In 2024, she flashed more playmaking, putting up 9.5 points and 3.4 assists over 13 games. She kept building in 2025, jumping to 11.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and a career-high 4.1 assists. This year, in her first season with Golden State after four years with the Seattle Storm, she blew past her own ceiling: 12.8 points a game, a new career high. It's the clearest growth curve of her career — years of quiet defensive value finally matched by real scoring punch.
France's captain delivers a historic run
Before the WNBA playoffs even tipped off, Williams had already written the signature chapter of her career. As tournament captain, she dragged France to its first-ever final at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026, a silver medal that broke new ground for Les Bleues. Her numbers: 18.7 points a game, third-best in the whole tournament, to go with 4.8 boards and 4 assists. Add 2.8 steals a night — the best mark of the competition — and the Best Defensive Player award was hers.
- Position : Small Forward
- Height : 180 cm
- Age : 30 y/o
- Nationality : France, United States
- Club : France (W)
Stats 2026-2027 / Coupe du Monde Féminine
| PTS | 18.7 | #1 |
|---|---|---|
| REB | 4.7 | #31 |
| AST | 3.3 | #21 |
The scoring binge wasn't a one-off. Williams dropped 22 points in France's 86-64 semifinal win, a game in which she reached 187 career points at the World Cup. Elite scoring volume and the competition's top defensive mark, in the same tournament. That two-way combination is exactly what fuels her case as the world's best all-around player.
A defensive résumé built over years, not weeks
This didn't start at the World Cup. Williams finished second in WNBA Defensive Player of the Year voting last season, and her 99 steals in 2025 rank as the second-most in a single season in league history. She backed that up overseas with back-to-back EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2025 and 2026 with Fenerbahce, where she's also a two-time EuroLeague champion (2022 and 2026) and was named Final Four MVP in 2022.
Her own head coach has described those instincts. "She's like a cat," Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. "Gabby locks in, in terms of film and personnel and game plan." It's the kind of praise that matches the numbers — insight into the instincts behind the steals, not just the stats themselves.
Her international résumé runs even deeper. The former UConn standout has suited up for France at the past two Olympics, taking home bronze in 2020 and silver in 2024. Her footprint stretches beyond the WNBA and EuroLeague, too: Williams signed a multiyear deal with Unrivaled in June, calling it a chance to compete "alongside some of the best players in the world" and help push the sport forward. No single line on the résumé — not the 99-steal season, not the EuroLeague hardware, not the Olympic medals — tells the whole story. Together, they spell out a player whose defensive impact has been recognized at every level she's played.
Golden State's bet is already cashing in
Golden State signed Williams as a free agent after her four seasons in Seattle, and the payoff has been immediate. She was named a 2026 All-Star starter — the first in Valkyries franchise history — and dropped 18 points in the All-Star Game on July 25. Then the playoffs hit, and her scoring exploded even further: 25.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.3 steals a game in the first round, followed by 20.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in the semifinals.
Last 5 games averages
| GP | MIN | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 31:51 | 23.2 | 5.2 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
Last 5 games
| Date | MIN | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | Game | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/10 | 28:32 | 16 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | W 77-87 @ VEG | WNBA |
| 08/10 | 29:41 | 20 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | W 83-81 vs VEG | WNBA |
| 04/10 | 33:34 | 25 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0 | W 71-60 vs VEG | WNBA |
| 03/10 | 30:36 | 19 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | W 77-73 vs DAL | WNBA |
| 01/10 | 36:54 | 36 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 0 | L 108-100 @ DAL | WNBA |
That surge hit its peak on October 4, 2026, when Williams went for a team-high 25 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists in Golden State's 71-60 Game 1 win over the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA semifinals. Valkyries owner Joe Lacob didn't hold back afterward.
"Print this: Gabby Williams is the best player in the world,"
he told ESPN. Lacob put it in the bluntest terms possible.
That surge has carried a 32-12 Golden State team into the WNBA Finals against an Atlanta Dream squad that finished 30-14. Whatever happens when the series tips off October 17, Williams has already answered the biggest question surrounding her game this year — not whether she can lock down at an elite level, but whether she can do that while carrying a heavier scoring load for a contender, too.
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