#120: Gabby Williams is authentically HER
Gabby Williams is one of the best players in the world on the court, but that's just her job. Who she is is how she shows up off of the court.
'I'll always be authentically me'
The call came in from Cathy Engelbert on a Wednesday morning. The Valkyries were ready to get in the air for a 14-day, four-game road trip.
When the phone rang, Engelbert was on one side of the video call, with Gabby Williams being on the other end.
She was being told that she was one of 10 players in the WNBA who was voted as a starter by her peers, the media, and fans.
While she was proud of herself, the answer that she gave was the one that we've come to expect from her.
She made it about her teammates and her team.
"Honestly, I'm happy for the franchise. I see it as a team accomplishment. I wouldn't have made it if we weren't winning games," Gabby told me. "If my teammates weren't lifting me up, the staff wasn't pouring into me. I know how historic it is, and so I think it's just a testament to like all the work that everyone is doing from top down to not just kind of get me here, but to get us here."
She played it down, but you could tell that she was excited to get the nod.
When I reached out to the Valkyries about chatting with Gabby the day before a game in Atlanta, they said "sure, do you want to chat about the All-Star nod?"
It wasn't what I had planned.
Because, well, as deserving as the nod is for Gabby, it's less of the All-Star basketball player that I wanted to chat with, and more of the All-Star person.
"The one thing about Gabby is that she's never wavered from who she is. She is herself, no matter what room she's in," said Oluwatosin (Tosi) Adeniyi-Miller. "It's crazy, because I'm like, 'you really are good at what you do.' She's like, 'yeah, yeah, I know,' but she's just Gabby, no matter where she is."
Tosi knows Gabby as well as anyone does. While at UConn, the two met as freshmen on the campus.
Gabby was a basketball player for the Huskies, and Tosi played volleyball for the school.
After a budding friendship over the first two years, they ended up becoming roommates during their junior and senior years in Storrs, Conn.
Fast-forward, nearly a decade after the two graduated from UConn in 2018, their bond still remains as tight as ever.
When it caught my eye was in 2024 when Gabby was with the Seattle Storm.
In September of that year, the Storm had a Kicks for Equality Night to highlight organizations and would then auction off the shoes. Despite playing in Seattle, Gabby decided to highlight Tosi's organization, Criado.
Before we get into how it came together, we need to talk about what Criado is.
Criado is the non-profit that Tosi co-founded, holding the Chief Operating Officer title now.
According to their website, Criado "is transforming the delivery and accessibility of health education for women and girls."
When I was chatting with Tosi about the organization, I was talking to her about the importance of education around maternal health, especially the risks that come from being a Black woman and knowing the risk factors ahead of time.
According to a 2023 CDC report, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. For a comparison, the rate was 14.5 for white women.
"You hit it on the head," Tosi said. "We're really trying to help women know about their bodies, because once they get pregnant, it's not too late, per se, but there's so much that goes on, and if you have a good baseline of knowledge of your body from the beginning, you can know warning signs, and you can know what's normal and what's good for your body.
"I think most people are like, 'oh my gosh, I didn't know that my body was so complex,' 'I didn't know that this was bad or that this was not normal.' That's usually the knowledge that we get after a lot of our programming, which we call "Body Talk."
Per their website, Body Talk is "Criado’s signature program focused on providing women with the knowledge and tools they need to take charge of their health. Through engaging, hands-on sessions, we cover essential topics like reproductive health, hormonal balance, heart health, and more. Body Talk bridges the gap in traditional health education, empowering women to understand and advocate for their well-being in a supportive community environment."
So, now that we know more about the organization, how did Gabby come to highlight them on her shoes?
"She [Gabby] said, 'Tosi, hey, we need to do something for good.' We talk all the time, so she knew what I had going on with women's wellness and maternal health," she explained. "She was like, 'Do you want me to shout out your org for you? Like, I want to. I love women's health and women's wellness, but I don't know too much about it. Would you be the person that I represent to help do that?' I said, 'Hell yeah, and this turned out so cool.'"
For Gabby, the choice was easy. It was her friend, yes, but it was a cause that meant so much to her and one that she was continuing to be educated on.
"She [Tosi] educated me so much on Black maternal health. I actually even read her thesis," Gabby said, with a laugh. "I asked her to send me her thesis, and she was actually interviewing doulas, and it's a topic that is not talked about enough. Any way that I can bring that to light, and I just love the idea of it being a grassroots nonprofit. I was happy that Seattle allowed me to use them."
The two worked together on the design of the shoes, but Tosi said she isn't sure who ended up winning the shoes in the auction.
"I sent her like a mood board of colors and the vibe, and I think there's a uterus on there, which is super awesome," Tosi said.
Williams said just by reading Tosi's thesis, she learned a lot from her former roommate around Black maternal health.
"One thing that I learned too from reading her thesis, which is so funny, I was like, send it to me, there's actually a lot of like qualitative things, and not just qualitative stats that really just come from having conversations with these women," she said. "There's a mental health aspect of it, as well, and how taxing it is for the nurses and the doulas, and as well as the patients."
It's one thing to talk about a topic. It's another thing to highlight an organization in the way that she did.
But for Gabby, it's not just a way to raise awareness for a night and then forget about it.
No, it's who she is as an advocate.
For years, Gabby has been at the forefront of equal pay for women within the WNBA, highlighting that there are other places that they can play where they make better money.
During the 2020 season, she took part in an ESPN project "Undefeated ESPN" to talk about the players – all 144 of them at the time – taking a knee at the court and not playing in protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake at the hands of police in Kenosha, Wisc.
She took part in a march in May 2020 in protest of the death of George Floyd by police officers.
She speaks out for what she believes in.
She is herself.
She is authentic.
She does it for the gays.
She is your favorite drag queen's favorite player.
She is Gabby Williams.
"I've always been very frank. Take it or leave it, you know?" Gabby said. "If I piss off a bigot, then that's a great day for me, you know? Like, I have no problem with that. I want the right people supporting me, and if what I speak about doesn't align with you, then that's fine. I don't want you to be a part of my fanbase or what we're striving for.
"I never feel like I'm alone. I always feel like I'm here because of other people, because of other communities, where people have supported me, so if I can give back and support in that way as well, then I think that's only necessary."
Another community that Gabby highlighted was women who want to freeze their eggs.
It's something that she did this offseason with Pinnacle Fertility.
"Freezing my eggs has given me a real sense of relief. Like one less 'unknown' when it comes to family planning," Gabby said in a piece on Pinnacle's website. "As a female athlete, there’s often an unspoken belief that you can’t have both a long, fulfilling career and start a family without compromise. This process helped relieve that pressure and reminded me that I don’t have to choose one path over the other. It gave me more confidence and flexibility in how I think about my future."
She said in the interview with Pinnacle that they were recommended to her by a few friends.
One of those friends that she spoke to about the experience is none other than Tosi.
"Gabby did reach out to me about that, yes. I'm the friend that my friends come to when they're like pregnancy questions, babies questions, or women's health questions," Tosi said. "So yeah, she called me and she was like, 'hey, I think I want to do this,' and I was like, 'yes, you should.' It's great. I'm so proud of her for sharing her journey, because I know it's so intimate."
Gabby said that she hopes to do future work with Criado in the future as she looks to continue to highlight the work that her college roommate is doing.
"I spoke about it with our community outreach team," Gabby said. "This is something I'm really passionate about. I spoke to them about Criado, and everything that I've learned, and that I'd love to continue to learn about it and help in any way that I can."
It's something that Tosi is thankful for.
She's thankful for Gabby highlighting the work that they both care about so much, but she's thankful for Gabby the person. Gabby her roommate. Gabby her friend.
"I never ask Gabby for anything. It's easy having a friend like Gabby to ask for things, but I don't ask her for anything, because that's not really our friendship," Tosi explained. "We're just who we are. Her wanting to do that meant the world to me, because this cause is so important in my heart, and what I do, and I believe wholeheartedly in it."
After the Valkyries defeated the Dream on July 4, I was wrapping up my post-game responsibilities with the press conferences and content that I had to produce. I was on my way out of the arena, when I spotted Tosi, her husband, and Gabby sitting together under the basket.
They all waved, said hello, and called me over.
It was just two friends catching up. Shooting the shit. Talking about their passions.
Two athletes. Two roommates. Two world-class stars just catching up.
Being authentically them.
"I'll always be authentically me. I'll always be myself, talk about issues, answer questions, and I'll answer them honestly, and that's just always who I've been," Gabby said. "It's who I'll continue to be, and I think I'm lucky that I'm allowed to be myself and still be successful because that's not always the case. "I'm just encouraging everyone to be authentic."
