Monique Billings returned to San Francisco this week as a member of the Indiana Fever and spent the day before her first game back retracing the places that marked her lone season with the Golden State Valkyries.
Billings left the Bay Area in free agency after last year’s inaugural Valkyries season and signed a two-year, $1.6 million contract with the Fever this past offseason. Ahead of the teams’ first meeting, she stopped at familiar spots across the Bay and made time for a quick visit to Chase Center, where the violet court prompted an unmistakable reaction.
Seeing the arena again, Billings said she felt a rush of homesickness — a small, audible, "Aw, I miss it" — and called the Valkyries’ first year something she will carry with her. Being one of the founding twelve players, she said, gave her memories she would not lose: the camaraderie, the routines and the sense of building something new in the city.
On a lighter note, Billings bumped into former teammate and staffer Natalie Nakase at a nail salon Billings had recommended the previous season. Billings told Nakase she had told her about the salon and teased that she was glad to see Nakase taking time for herself, a bit of self-care the veteran had encouraged.
Nakase said it was special to run into Billings before the matchup and noted a side of Billings teammates may not always have seen. According to Nakase, Billings supplied a kind of leadership that wasn’t always obvious in the box score: she loved her teammates deeply and acted as their protector, a steadying presence through the rookie season.
Those personal notes explain why Billings’ return felt like more than an ordinary away game. The Fever arrived in the Bay Area a couple of days early, and Billings used the window to visit the haunts that anchored her time with the Valkyries. Her stop at Chase Center and the run-in with Nakase framed the contrast of being an alum who is now, in every practical sense, an opponent.
The tension in that contrast is straightforward: Billings was part of the Valkyries’ first-ever WNBA season and helped establish the team’s culture, but she departed in free agency and will now wear Indiana’s uniform against the club she helped found. That split — between loyalty to a place and the professional choices that move a career forward — is the story beneath the friendly greetings and the nostalgia.
Still, Billings made clear the emotional ties remain intact. She spoke about the inaugural season as something that gave her "such great times" and said being part of that first Valkyries roster was really special. She closed her day in the Bay by acknowledging how much she valued the experience and how that feeling endures: a sense of gratitude that, she said, will never go away.
