The Golden State Valkyries took Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday, 68-64. Gabby Williams scored 26 points, including six of the team's seven points in a closing run. That's the headline. But this series is also quietly making history in another way.

According to ESPN's Colin Udoh, this is the first WNBA Finals with three players and one executive with African connections, the most in any championship series since the league started in 1997. The old record was three, set in 2008. Here's who they are.

The Canadian who dunked at 15

Golden State forward Laeticia Amihere was born in Canada to Ghanaian parents. Back in 2017, at just 15, she became the first Canadian woman to dunk in a competitive game. Since then, she's won an NCAA title with South Carolina in 2022 and played for Canada at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.

The plot twist: Atlanta drafted her eighth overall in 2023, so she's now trying to beat her first WNBA team for a title. In Game 1, she gave the Valkyries 5 points, 5 rebounds, a steal and a block in 14 minutes off the bench. The WNBA's account posted her hustle tip-in through a crowd, then "had to run back" another of her plays.

The GM who built a two-year-old contender

Ohemaa Nyanin, who is Ghanaian-American, became the Valkyries' first-ever general manager in May 2024. That also made her the first WNBA executive of African origin. Under her, Golden State became the first expansion team to make the playoffs in its first season. In Year 2, it went 32-12, knocked out the defending champion Las Vegas Aces and made the Finals.

Atlanta's pair: a world MVP and a national hero

The Dream have Sika Kone of Mali, who was MVP of the 2021 FIBA Under-19 World Cup. That year, she led Mali to fourth place, the best finish ever by an African team at that tournament. If Atlanta wins, she'd follow a Malian trailblazer: Hamchetou Maiga-Ba won a WNBA title with Sacramento in 2005.

Then there's 6-foot-6 rookie center Madina Okot. She didn't start playing basketball until she was 16, after starting out in volleyball in Kenya. Atlanta took her 13th overall this year, making her the first Kenyan ever picked in the first round. She's such a big deal back home that Kenyan President William Ruto came to watch her play in September. Afterward, he met her on the court and chatted with her in Swahili.

Fun extra: Amihere and Okot both played at South Carolina, so there's a Gamecocks reunion happening too.

What's next

Game 2 is Monday at 6 p.m. MT in San Francisco, with the Valkyries up 1-0. Then the series moves to Atlanta's State Farm Arena for Game 3 on Wednesday at 6 p.m. MT and Game 4 on Saturday at 11 a.m. MT. "We were right there," Dream coach Karl Smesko said after Game 1. "That's why it hurts a little bit, but it also motivates us."