Williams on Seattle return: 'This feels like home' (2024)

SEATTLE -- Three days after re-signing with the Seattle Storm and less than two weeks after winning a silver medal for host France at the Paris Olympics, Gabby Williams went through her first practice with the Storm Friday and held a news conference with Seattle media afterward.

Although Williams spoke to other teams as an unrestricted free agent after the Olympics, there was never any question in her mind she would re-sign with the Storm if she decided to play in the WNBA this season.

"It's been a conversation [for] a whole year now," Williams said. "The deciding factor was as long as I felt healthy mentally and physically, I would finish the season with Seattle. Physically, I feel healthy. I feel good. I took about a week mentally after the Olympics.

"I've been in conversations with [head coach] Noey [Quinn] and [GM] Talisa [Rhea] and [co-owner] Lisa [Brummel] all summer, just keeping them updated how I feel. We all decided we would talk about it after the Olympics."

WNBA teams including the Storm were apprised by the league that Williams would be eligible to sign after the Olympics because her offseason playing commitments concluded by May 1, in accordance with the league's prioritization clause that Williams has vocally criticized. (Despite her prominence in the discussion, Williams has yet to have her availability affected by prioritization in the two years the rule has been in place.)

Using a series of seven-day contracts for guard Kiana Williams (no relation), the last of which expired on Sunday, Seattle was able to keep a roster spot open and create enough cap space to sign Williams for the rest of the season on Tuesday.

Williams returns to a different roster than the one she played 10 games with in 2023 before a season-ending stress fracture in her left foot. Last offseason, the Storm signed veteran All-Stars Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike, going from the lottery to the top half of the WNBA standings. Seattle is currently fourth, a half-game ahead of the Las Vegas Aces for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

"This feels like home," Williams said. "It's a system I'm familiar with, a staff I'm familiar with, players I'm familiar with. But it does feel very different. Today was fun. I had fun at practice today just playing with such intelligent players and good people. I love the culture we have here."

Despite the changes to the roster, Williams sees her role as similar to the past two years.

"Noey's just said she's going to use me to plug holes that we have," Williams said. "If we need help at backup point guard one day, it's me playing at the 3 one day, she said just be that kind of Swiss Army knife -- she's calling it the French Army knife. Just kind of be that adaptable player for us. That's what I like to do and it's what I've always done here."

A starter in all 36 games during 2022, her first season in Seattle, Williams averaged 7.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game while earning All-Defensive second team honors. In 10 games during 2023, including eight starts, Williams upped her scoring to 8.4 points per game and handed out a career-high 3.8 assists per game.

Quinn wasn't revealing yet Friday whether she plans to use Williams as a starter, which would likely move second-year forward Jordan Horston back to the bench during a breakthrough campaign, or have Williams supplement the team's depth. The Storm's 15.0 points per game by reserves ranks ninth in the league, according to WNBA advanced stats.

Even though Williams joked that she didn't think it was possible to arrive later than last year -- when she joined the Storm in July, just before the midpoint of the 40-game WNBA schedule -- she feels comfortable with a system that fits her game well.

"I love the way that we read and react [on offense]," Williams said. "I like playing a high-intelligence game, maybe being able to break the play sometime because there's a read somewhere. I feel like that's what Seattle is known for is just that offensive fluidity. On defense, we're going to keep getting better, keep getting more athletic. I love to play with that kind of pace too."

Certainly, that's how France played during the Olympics, going 5-0 ahead of a showdown against the heavily favored Team USA, winners of 60 consecutive games and the past seven gold medals entering their matchup in the final. Williams capped an outstanding run that saw her garner All-Star Five honors and Best Defensive Player of the Olympics with 19 points and seven rebounds in the final.

Despite giving the USA its toughest test in Olympic play in more than three decades, France fell short when Williams' jumper down three at the buzzer came with a foot on the line, giving the U.S. a 67-66 win.

"We've been building up to it for three years," Williams said of the Olympics. "It wasn't exactly what we wanted -- the dream was to get the gold -- but I think what we did made a lot of people proud. I didn't even really realize until a few days after the game what impact it had on the country and the people.

"That was an amazing experience. It was an amazing feeling to have my family there. All of my family from Paris and the States were there, so just to share that moment with my loved ones was amazing."

Fearful that French fans would blame her for not sending the game to overtime, Williams was instead recognized more often after the game, getting nothing but love.

"Every single person that came up to me," Williams said, "every comment that I saw was, 'Thank you for that game.' I don't know how to say it in English, but 'You made us vibrate.' The fans have just been so supportive in France and it means a lot that we were able to touch so many people. Everyone saw how hard we worked and that's what really touches me."

Now, Williams is hoping to have the same kind of impact in Seattle.