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Kayla Thornton’s dream season has come to a crushing and abrupt end.
The Valkyries forward underwent season-ending surgery to the right knee Friday in San Francisco after suffering an injury during practice this week.
The nine-year veteran led all Golden State players with 14 points and seven rebounds per game during the first half of the season and was named an All-Star for the first time in her WNBA career.
Thornton came off the bench for Team Clark in last week’s All-Star Game and scored 15 points in 25 minutes while serving as the Valkyries’ lone representative at the game in Indianapolis.
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Coach Natalie Nakase has relied on the veteran Thornton to lead the upstart Valkyries to an impressive start, and her injury delivers a brutal blow to Golden State’s playoff hopes.
With Thornton out, the Valkyries are likely to give newcomer Iliana Rupert an extended opportunity to contribute in the frontcourt. Rupert was an expansion draft selection who spent the first half of the season playing overseas for the French national team at EuroBasket.
Rupert joined the Valkryies last week, and following Thornton’s injury, she’ll be counted on to provide immediate contributions for a squad that’s suddenly short on experienced depth.
Thornton was one of the highest-profile players the Valkyries selected in the WNBA expansion draft last December. General manager Ohemaa Nyanin took Thornton away from the reigning WNBA champion New York Liberty, who left the forward unprotected to keep a deep core of players intact.
Thornton received her championship ring when she traveled with the Valkyries to face the Liberty in May in Brooklyn.
A college star at the University of Texas at El Paso, Thornton played for the Washington Mystics and Dallas Wings before joining the Liberty in the 2023 season. She averaged double figures once in her career — scoring 10.4 points per game in 2019 with the Wings — before becoming the clear-cut leader of the Valkyries’ offense.
Thornton dropped at least 18 points in seven games, all Valkyries wins, this season. Her absence leaves a massive void for a team that has struggled to win whenever she has struggled to score.
With Thornton out, Rupert isn’t the only young Valkyries player who will be asked to make up for the loss. Rookie Janelle Salaün showed promise before an extended stint playing alongside Rupert for France at EuroBasket, while Laeticia Amihere, 24, has ranked among the team’s most aggressive rebounders when she’s been on the floor this season.
Nakase can also turn to Temi Fagbenle, 32, and forward Monique Billings, 29. But Rupert, Salaün, and Amihere are the types of young players who can emerge as building blocks for the future over the second half of a season that will look significantly different without the Valkyries’ leading scorer.