The 2026 WNBA Finals open Saturday in San Francisco, and the series arrives with a milestone attached: three players and one executive with African connections, the most ever in a championship round dating to the league’s inaugural season in 1997. The Golden State Valkyries meet the Atlanta Dream with both clubs chasing a first WNBA title, while Golden State reaches the stage in only its second season.
The names behind that record are Ohemaa Nyanin and Laeticia Amihere for Golden State, and Sika Kone and Madina Okot for Atlanta. The four surpass the previous high of three set in 2008, when Olayinka Sanni and Morenike Atunrase were on opposing teams and Mike Ekanem was working as a strength and conditioning coach for San Antonio.
For Golden State, the milestone stretches beyond the roster. Nyanin was appointed the Valkyries’ inaugural general manager in May 2024 and became the first executive of African origin in the WNBA. She has already been part of a rapid rise that took Golden State from an expansion entry to the playoffs in 2025, then to a 32-12 regular season and a Finals berth after beating the defending champion Las Vegas Aces in the semifinals.
Amihere gives that rise a personal angle. Born in Canada to Ghanaian parents, she reached the Finals for the first time after a path that also included a 2022 NCAA championship with South Carolina, selection eighth overall by Atlanta in the 2023 draft, and appearances for Canada at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 and Paris in 2024. She is one of the clearest signs of how quickly the series has gathered global reach around a matchup that still ends with one plain fact: neither team has won it all yet.
That is the hard edge in all the celebration. Golden State has moved at a pace rare for any expansion franchise, becoming the first professional women’s sports team to top $100 million in annual revenue and drawing valuation estimates of about $1 billion in May 2026, while selling out all 44 regular-season home games across its first two seasons. Yet the title still has to be earned on the court, and Atlanta arrives with its own first championship within reach. The Finals begin Saturday, and the record is already set; now the series has to match it.
