This is the year Gabby Williams discovered she’s THAT girl

The moment that is fuelling Gabby Williams to her best season yet is small but mighty.

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series from SB Nation profiling the 2025 WNBA All-Star teams. Today, let’s get to know Gabby Williams.

It’s a one-possession game for an Olympic Gold Medal, and your shot is deemed a 2-pointer because your toe is on the line.

That’ll do something to you.

It’s done something to Gabby Williams this season, that’s for sure.

The athletic, Swiss-Army knife, do-it-all UConn alum has never done anything the traditional way. Despite being born in the USA, she represents France internationally. She’s prioritized playing overseas many times in her career, even when it’s affected her WNBA eligibility. She’s vocal about the discrepancies between the WNBA and other leagues she has played in. She’s been a huge part of the development of France’s international team and their success. Williams came into the 2025 WNBA season already an icon of the sport — NCAA Champion, Olympic Silver Medalist, to name a few — but she’s turned it up this summer. As a result, she’s earned her first career All-Star game nomination.

Season seven is not when players typically make their first All-Star Game.

But as we said, Gabby Williams doesn’t do things traditionally.

Maybe that toe on the line to essentially cost her team victory over Team USA was the push she needed to reach the next level. She knows that she could very well be an Olympic Gold Medalist. She knows it was her play that pushed the United States to its limits, that almost caused a decades-long Olympic dynasty to come crashing down, and now she’s doing the same thing to her WNBA opponents.

Williams is averaging a career-high 13.6 points per game for the Seattle Storm, where she re-signed this season after stating she would not want to play anywhere else in the current WNBA. Her previous career-high was averaging 10.3 PPG in 2024, but she only played in 12 games after the Olympics. Her previous career-best for a year where she has played more than 20 games is 7.7 points per game, which she achieved during her last season in Chicago, 2020, in the bubble.

This season has also seen her average career-highs for field goals (makes and attempts), minutes, games started, three-point percentage, defensive rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. She’s not only leading the 13-9 Seattle Storm in steals per game, she’s also leading the entire league in that category.

Beyond the box score, Williams truly looks like one of the most athletic players in the WNBA. Her 5’11 frame is not the tallest on the court, but she makes up for it with a 6’2 wingspan. An example of her athleticism: Williams went to Olympic trials as a teenager for High Jump, eventually deciding to focus on basketball instead of track and field. So she could have been among the best in the world in at least two sports, but doubt her further potential at your own peril.

With that athleticism, she can outrun most other players, and because she is physically strong, she can defend players who are taller than her. All of that comes together to form a defensive-minded beast on the court, and someone who surely will be in the running for Defensive Player of the Year in a few months. She seems like a lock already for a place on the WNBA’s All-Defense team. She could even be a frontrunner for the Most Improved Award.

She plays a brand of basketball that’s gritty, yet foundational. The kind of hoops coaches want to teach to kids — defense that leads into offense, active feet and hands, the ability to efficiently get to the hoop, and a solid shot.

The Storm were doubted this year, especially after trading Jewell Loyd away to the Las Vegas Aces. Yet, here they are at 13-9, at 4th place in a very competitive WNBA top-5, and Williams is a huge part of that success. She confidently takes shots when the other team’s defense is occupied guarding Skylar Diggins or Nneka Ogwumike. She’s their defensive anchor, their stealing machine, their brute force, and their Energizer Bunny. Her versatility makes her a pain for other teams to scout for, because so much of their energy needs to go into slowing her down.

So what happened this season to light a fire in Gabby Williams? IT’S THE TOE. It’s when you come so close to the mountain-top and the smallest thing ruins it. The heartbreak fuels an angry passion and determination to get there again, and have the story end right this time. Williams is the underdog facing the prizefighter, the movie hero who deserves to succeed after she was counted out. She proved she is one of the greatest players alive in Paris, and she’s reminding the world again with her play in Seattle.

What does the future hold for Gabby Williams? Another shot at Olympic Gold, hopefully. Yet, that seems like a small chapter in her story that will likely include success at every level, on multiple continents. She has the potential to win Defensive Player of the Year Awards, All-WNBA awards, more All-Star nods, Championships, and more. If we are just entering the peak of Williams, it’s about to be a fun ride for anyone who enjoys watching her play.

Surely if Williams could go back in time, she’d scoot her foot back a little bit, make that three-point shot in Paris, and not lose by one point to Team USA. Unfortunately, you can’t control life like that. All you can control is the way you react to life’s hardest moments. For Gabby Williams, that meant pushing herself to be better, and she’ll get to celebrate the fruits of that labor as a first-time All-Star in Indianapolis.