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Olympics Star Gabby Williams Makes Highly-Anticipated Return to WNBA

Former Seattle Storm standout and Olympics superstar Gabby Williams is returning to the WNBA.

Grant Young

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

It has been announced on Tuesday that Team France Olympics star Gabby Williams will be making her highly-anticipated return to the WNBA.

Williams has signed with the Seattle Storm for the rest of the 2024 regular season. This is interesting, considering that Seattle was the most recent team Williams played with before she elected to play overseas after the 2023 WNBA season.

Williams (who played college basketball at UConn and was selected with the No. 4 overall pick of the 2018 WNBA Draft by the Chicago Sky) was recently named the Best Defensive Player and selected to the All-Star Five at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

She averaged 15.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 2.8 steals in six games for France, and was integral to them nearly defeating Team USA in the gold medal match before coming up just short and securing silver medals instead.

“I’m so excited to be joining the Storm for the rest of the season,” said Williams, per a Storm press release on Tuesday. “I feel more than ready to finally return to Seattle. I’ve missed the organization, my teammates and the fans so much. I absolutely can’t wait to come back and finish the season strong.”

Williams appeared in 10 games with the Storm in 2023 after missing most of the season due to injury. She averaged 8.4 points, 3.8 assists, 3.6 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and solidified herself as one of the best perimeter defenders in all of women's basketball.

Williams shot down a recent recruiting pitch from Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese to re-join the Sky after the Olympics ended, and instead alluded to teaming up with Reese in the new Unrivaled 3x3 women's basketball league.

It remains to be seen whether Williams will indeed appear at Unrivaled's inaugural season, which starts in January.

The Storm released Kiana Williams in order to make room for Gabby Williams on the roster.

Williams is expected to join the Storm next week and will be wearing the same No. 5 jersey she wore in Seattle last season. 

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Grant Young

GRANT YOUNG

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.

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