How former UConn star Gabby Williams has played pivotal role for Storm this season
For the first time since 2022, WNBA fans will get to experience a full season of Gabby Williams.
The former UConn Husky signed with the Seattle Storm for the second half of last year, and she began playing after nearly leading France to an Olympic gold medal in Paris. In 2023, she missed the first half of the year with an injury, again joining the Storm for the end of the season.
So far in 2025, she has played seven games and is averaging career bests in points (14.0 ppg), steals (1.9), field goal percentage (48.8%), and three-point percentage (47.1%).
As a stocks (steals + blocks) connoisseur, Williams is no stranger to filling the stat sheet. That ability has never been more important to her team than it is now. The Storm are playing most of the year with only 10 active players, a product of Katie Lou Samuelson’s ACL injury and the WNBA’s impractical hard salary cap.
Though Williams is third on the team in scoring, she’s first in minutes (34.3) by a considerable margin. Now, she needs to be in it for the long haul. The Storm are 3-4 to start the year, but their last three losses have all come by seven or fewer points. In a season that will likely see teams bunched closely between third and ninth place, they stand a good shot at a return to the WNBA playoffs.
“I’m happy to have the chance to start building that chemistry that we already kind of started last summer, and just continue to build on that,” Williams said during Storm media day, via Bella Munson of The Next.
Even better for Seattle, Williams and her teammate, No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga, have both decided to skip this year’s EuroBasket tournament, keeping them stateside all summer.
“From the jump, I think it’ll allow me to be more of a leader as well, instead of just arriving and having to figure out my footing,” Williams said of playing the full season. “Instead, I get to be here.”
Though Williams had a rough first game, scoring four points and shooting 1-9 from the field, she has caught fire since. She followed that matchup with 17 points against the Dallas Wings and double-digit scoring performances in every game since.
It’s safe to say Williams is taking comfort in being back in familiar surroundings.
Storm coach Noelle Quinn has been with Seattle since 2016, first as a player and, since 2021, as head coach. That continuity, Williams believes, will allow her to help the younger players along even more.
“I know Noe[lle Quinn] well, I know the system well, I know the staff well, everyone,” she said.
“She’s just believed in me since Day 1, even through the harder times. I haven’t felt like she ever lost confidence in me or belief in me, and that’s allowed me to maybe get through some harder times,” Williams continued. “I also think just the way her brain works is kind of how my brain works. So it’s just very, very easy for me to work with her and to understand her. It’s very clear, whatever she asks of me, there’s never any miscommunication. And I think that’s why I always want to come back and play for her.”
But leadership is about more than being a veteran who knows the system. The way Williams plays has always been conducive to having a prominent spot on the team, regardless of her numbers. Known as a tireless worker and elite athlete, she made jaw-dropping plays during her time at UConn.
That continued into the WNBA and has continued in 2025. So has her fan favorite status.
“It’s why I came back,” she said after a game last year, with the Seattle crowd roaring in response.
Seattle’s next game is June 3rd against the Wings. It’ll air on ESPN, and as any UConn fan can tell you, Williams is appointment television.