(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect) Grant Afseth · Roundtable Sports Tue, November 3, 2026 at 9:08 PM UTC · 4 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kiah Stokes won her fourth WNBA championship on Oct. 31, when the Golden State Valkyries closed out a 68-63 Game 7 win over the Atlanta Dream at Chase Center. Stokes finished with 13 rebounds and two blocks and scored a late basket.
Golden State signed Stokes to a multi-year contract on April 13. Ohemaa Nyanin, the general manager who signed her, met with reporters Tuesday for her end-of-season interview.
Stokes arrived with three titles from her time with the Las Vegas Aces, and Nyanin said she never brought them up.
"When we signed Kiah, we were very direct with her about her role," Nyanin said. "What we thought she could do, how we develop our athletes, and how the role doesn't necessarily need to be what we have defined it today, but it could be something in the future, right? Let's grow together. Let's problem solve together. Let's see. Coach Natalie is very organized when she has her scouts and what she's looking for and what she's trying to do and trying, in terms of trying to win the game, and Kiah was open. Kiah having won three championships prior, you wouldn't have felt that, right? She didn't bring her championships in and show us and tell us how great she was and how she could help us and all of those things. She came as herself. And she came as an open book. She came as somebody who was willing to learn and grow and adapt to what we needed."
"And it was a very different story from the start of the season to where we are at the end of the season," Nyanin continued. "And she's fearless. There's a museum that I went to, I don't know, eight, 10 years ago, and there was an exhibit. And in the exhibit, you got to make T-shirts. And one of the T-shirts was 'Fear eats the soul.' And I think that Kiah is the epitome of not allowing for fear to eat her soul. She just embodies so much strength that I'm really grateful that she said yes to this and that she's getting all the shine because she worked really, really hard for it."
Stokes made the All-Defensive Second Team this season, along with Valkyries guard Veronica Burton.
In Game 5, Stokes had 13 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks in a 64-55 win that put Golden State ahead 3-2. She made three 3-pointers. The 13 points were a season high. Burton matched her with 13 points and eight rebounds, and fans chanted "MVP" while Stokes spoke on the floor afterward.
That game was her sixth straight with at least three blocks. The streak tied Lisa Leslie's 2003 run for the longest in a single WNBA postseason, according to The Associated Press.
Atlanta's Angel Reese shot 2-of-8 and scored seven points in Game 5.
Golden State had fallen behind 2-1 in the series. Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase started Tiffany Hayes and Kaila Charles in Game 4, a 67-62 win in Atlanta, and stayed with that lineup for Game 5.
Stokes was 33 when she signed. She entered this season averaging 3.3 points and 5.4 rebounds with 48.5% shooting across 10 WNBA seasons.
"Kiah is a strong defender and a great addition to our team," Nyanin explained in the team's April 13 announcement. "She has won three WNBA championships and was coached by Coach Nakase in Las Vegas, so she understands what we are building here and what it takes to win."
She joined the Aces in 2021. Nakase was a Las Vegas assistant for three of those seasons, and the two won titles together in 2022 and 2023. Stokes won her third title with the Aces in 2025.
The New York Liberty drafted Stokes 11th overall in 2015. She made the All-Rookie Team and the All-Defensive Second Team that season.
Before that, she won three NCAA championships at Connecticut and was named the American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2015.
Overseas, Stokes won a EuroLeague title with Fenerbahçe. She also won two Turkish Cups and four Turkish Super League titles with the club.
Golden State finished the regular season 32-12 and went 9-4 in the playoffs, closing out the seven-game Finals at home.
Rebekkah Brunson, who won five titles between 2005 and 2017, is the only player in WNBA history with more championships than Stokes.
Source: Sports
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