“I’m just gutted for her,” said Lindsay Myers, one of the team’s many die-hard fans. While Myers resides in Sacramento, she and her wife are proud season ticket holders and frequently travel to San Francisco to watch the Valkyries play. “[Thornton] is having a career season. … For that season to be cut short, it’s really heartbreaking.”
It’s been an incredible season for Thornton. In addition to playing a career-high 30 minutes per game, she was named an All-Star earlier this month for the first time in her nine-year WNBA career. It’s also the first time that Thornton has been in a starting lineup, a “leadership role” that Myers said the forward has flourished in.
Myers said she’s worried about the Valkyries’ chances of getting to the playoffs with Thornton off the court. While she has faith in the team’s grit, she said it’s going to be a lot harder as the players deal with unexpected changes to their roster and the loss of a key player.
“You’re at a point where you want your team to start really gelling, and that takes leadership and relationships and time,” Myers said. “But these women must have all gone in 100% to go as hard as they’ve gone. … We just have to trust them to keep doing that.”
Since their introduction as the league’s newest team in nearly 20 years, the Valkyries have had an intense season both on and off the court. They sold out 11 home games at the Chase Center and have the ninth-best record in the WNBA at 10–12. They play against Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings at “Ballhalla” on Friday.
