Kate Martin's Girlfriend Takes Fans Behind the Scenes of First Valkyries Interview
The women's basketball world has been waiting for the Golden State Valkyries WNBA Expansion Draft for months now so they could finally discern which players would be rostered on the league's 13th franchise.
While news that former Iowa Hawkeyes and Las Vegas Aces standout Kate Martin getting selected by the Valkyries was leaked before the actual Expansion Draft was broadcast, fans were still extremely excited for Martin when the news became official.
Soon after ESPN's broadcast of the actual Expansion Draft player announcements ended, Martin was interviewed by the analysts, where she asserted that "[Golden State Valkyries head] Coach Nakase is somebody you're going to want to run through a brick wall for."
"I'm very thankful for the Aces and everything I got to learn there, but I'm really excited for this new beginning and to build something from the ground up."
— espnW (@espnW) December 7, 2024
—Kate Martin on being selected by the Valkyries from the Aces 💜 pic.twitter.com/r7i3Z73llt
Since only Martin's face and a blank wall behind her were shown on her virtual interview screen, it was impossible to tell where she was, and who was with her.
But minutes after the interview aired, Martin's girlfriend Claire Gransee posted a TikTok that showed she was in the same room with Martin during the interview while also watching her girlfriend live on TV.
X user @aclassyteaparty reposted Gransee's video with the caption, "please 😭".
please 😭 pic.twitter.com/MZG5tQCnrA
— ٰ (@aclassyteaparty) December 7, 2024
Martin's relationship with Gransee has been one of the most wholesome developments around the WNBA recently. We know that Gransee (who, like Martin, also attended the University of Iowa) currently works in Boston. While the San Francisco Bay Area is about as far from Boston as it can get in America, it's not much farther than Las Vegas, where Martin was before this Expansion Draft.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.