The Valkyries’ secret weapon is a ‘goofy’ Ivy League grad from SoCal

Four days before the Golden State Valkyries’ first WNBA Finals appearance, Kaitlyn Chen was already celebrating, not as a result of some brash overconfidence but out of habit.

Like the other Valks guards, she practiced situational layups and jump shots on a corner court inside the team’s Oakland practice facility on Tuesday. Chen then decided to add another element to the drills: a Pete Townshend-style air guitar strum after one of her teammates — Veronica Burton — hit a shot. The energy was infectious, quickly spreading from player to player on the floor and turning this on-court workout into a total party, with each player, regardless of their spot in the rotation, getting a bench mob celebration for their buckets.

For anyone else, this moment could have easily been a fun, spur-of-the-moment thing among teammates. But for Chen, its jovial catalyst, basketball has always been an expression of joy, a common refrain shared by those who have worked with her at all levels. Amid the ebbs and flows of her journey through the sport, the one constant has been how she approaches the game, whether it’s been on a team that began as just a backdrop for her education or one where she’s a key cog in a championship-bound machine.

Like almost every WNBA player, Chen earned a bevy of accolades in her youth days as she grew up in San Marino, a city just south of Pasadena. At Los Angeles County’s Flintridg Prep, she became the program’s all-time leading scorer, a four-time Prep League MVP and a three-time All-CIF selection. 

Another thing Chen did in high school was catch the attention of Princeton, where she was prepared to commit to playing as early as the spring before her senior year. However, what seemed like a no-doubter briefly turned into a couple of raised questions when the Tigers replaced the coach who recruited Chen with Carla Berube. The new coach, though, immediately got in contact with Chen, spent the summer watching her play AAU games and made enough of a connection for the player to officially commit in September. 

In a phone interview with SFGATE on Thursday, Berube shared that it was during those summer months that she first witnessed the basketball joy in person. It wasn’t until nearly a year afterward that she’d see it under her tutelage as COVID-19 restrictions canceled what would have been Chen’s freshman season. As the campus started to open up some more, Chen worked out alongside Princeton household names like Abby Meyers and Carlie Littlefield. They were tough, but it wasn’t enough to wipe away the spark Berube saw in Chen during those previous summer months.

“It was just a lot of two-on-two sessions, or one-on-one sessions, and from that point on, you knew how much she loved the game of basketball and loved being on the team,” Berube, who is now the head coach at Northwestern, told SFGATE. “… She brings joy when she’s on the bench, and this is on the sideline of practice, too. She’s always cheering for her teammates and wants them to be successful and wants to impact them in a way that maybe other teammates don’t.”

On her way to becoming a three-time Ivy League Tournament Most Outstanding Player, a two-time All-Ivy selection, an Ivy League Player of the Year and a reliable postseason hero, Chen’s joyful approach was a foundational part of her basketball experience. Her pregame introduction at one point involved a teammate lifting her up in the air in a direct reference to “The Lion King.” She would have lighthearted conversations with teammates during pauses of a game she was actively on the floor for. Berube recalls times during serious huddles where she would call for Chen’s attention, only for the guard to look over, smile and wave.

“The goofiness was almost every day,” she said with a laugh. “I mean, she does a good job of balancing it, knowing when to be goofy and then also when to lock in and be really focused. There’s no other word to describe her other than just really goofy and just fun to be around. I still feel that way. She hasn’t changed one bit.”

After her senior year, Chen still had one year of eligibility left because of the lost COVID season but had to transfer elsewhere to play because of Ivy League rules about graduate participation in sports. It was that very ability to “lock in” that led her to UConn, the most successful women’s basketball program in history. Her role went from star-of-the-show, dual-threat floor general in Princeton to experienced and intelligent distributor for stars like Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd. With the dream of competing for a national title, she happily accepted the shift. It was not only what the Huskies needed, as she helped them snap a nine-year championship drought — utterly unheard of in the Geno Auriemma era — but also allowed her to see that she could become a professional player.

Her journey in the WNBA began with an all-time feel-good moment. Chen, who was in the audience on draft night in 2025 to support her teammates, heard her name called 30th overall by the Valkyries, the league’s newest team. Over the four-week run from the draft to training camp and the preseason, fan adoration poured in for Chen, and her jersey became one of the most popular in the league. 

But it all came to a screeching halt when she checked the training schedule and saw the only thing on there for her was a meeting. She’d been cut, much to the chagrin of many of her new fans.

The Valkyries at least said they’d try to bring her back sometime in 2025. That’s when she got to work and began training until the team made good on what it had told her. It seemed like her return would just be a temporary measure, as she was a hardship signing while multiple Golden State players traveled overseas to compete in EuroBasket. But when the roster adjustments happened after the international tournament, Chen remained on the squad. As if to solidify that she was fully on the team, Chen was included in the pregame hype video, just three weeks after her debut.

Even with the debut, Chen needed to lock in one more time. The Valks signed her to a non-guaranteed training camp contract, meaning she once again had to try out for the team that drafted her. This time, cracking the roster would be even tougher. Her hard work, which included special sessions with coach Natalie Nakase alongside Veronica Burton, paid off. She earned her spot on the team, where her on-court skills flourished for a debilitating defensive roster on its way to the finals, and her off-court goofiness flourished as well.

“She can hang out with any single person on this team and bring out the goofy side in them,” Burton told ESPN’s Andscape. “… I think the world needs to see more of Kaitlyn Chen.”

Now, Chen is Golden State’s go-to bench guard and spark plug, capable of an offensive explosion — especially from 3-point range, where she’s made 43% of her shots in the 2026 regular season and playoffs (34-of-79). She’s also a tough, steady presence on defense. But when the world sees Chen on the WNBA’s biggest stage over the next two weeks, they won’t just see a major role player in this championship-hungry squad, or someone who has worked her tail off at every rung of the ladder she needed to climb to get here. They’ll also see basketball joy personified, which has stayed through the ups and downs of her journey.

“There are obviously some bad days and some good days,” Chen said Tuesday. “Some days where you love it more, some days when you don’t. But I feel like I’ve been blessed to play with teammates that I love, and that’s ultimately what makes basketball so fun for me. It’s playing with people that I love and enjoy playing with.”