Amid tension of Game 7, Valkyries' Kaitlyn Chen wears hot dog costume

If there were any paralyzing nerves affecting the Golden State Valkyries heading into a historic do-or-die Game 7 for a WNBA championship, Kaitlyn Chen completely vaporized them with her pregame outfit: a hot-dog costume.

The second-year fan-favorite guard pulled up to the Chase Center with the one-piece frankfurter outfit, complete with mustard and relish, while walking to the locker room ahead of Saturday evening's matchup.

The post was also popular among Chen's peers. Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, two of her teammates at the University of Connecticut when they won a national title in 2025, shared the post on their Instagram pages with the captions, "Just perfect" with three heart eyes emojis, and, "She's not real" with three crying laughing emojis, respectively.

Advertisement

The video of Chen's costume quickly became the talk of the train among Valkyries fans who were taking public transportation to the arena. They showed the post to one another in excitement before breaking out into a "LET'S GO VALKS" chant, as they disembarked the T Third Street Muni line, one reporter told SFGATE.

Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase was not aware that Chen showed up in her Halloween-appropriate attire, and seemed caught off-guard when a reporter brought it up during the coach's pregame press conference. But after the brief surprise, Nakase smiled and spoke of how on-brand this was for the 24-year-old.

"Hey man, it's Kaitlyn being Kaitlyn," she told reporters. "I think the beauty of Kaitlyn Chen is that she's gonna find joy in every moment, and I think someone who can make fun of themselves - I think that's a rare thing, I really do. A lot of people get insecure, or they think about what other people think. Not Kaitlyn, and so you know just credit to her."

Nakase then added that this speaks to the fact that the best approach to a pivotal game like this is just to keep things as consistent as possible.

Advertisement

"You know, we have so many levels of personalities that they can be themselves," she added. "You got Kaitlyn trying to make everyone laugh. You got a [Tiffany] Hayes who stays, cool, calm and collected, and just ready to fight. So they can do whatever they want as long as when they get to that locker room, we talk about pregame, we lock into to our execution, our game plan, and then they get on. We gotta want to be the team that wants it more, and that's what matters."

As the press conference moved on to the next question, Nakase then quipped, "Sorry, just thinking about it now. Hot dog."

More Valkyries

- Valkyries booked rapper accused of rape to perform at a playoff halftime show
- Love and grief turned a sports skeptic into a lifelong Valkyries fan
- Unsung Kiah Stokes etches her name in Valkyries lore with epic Game 5 effort
- Protesters showed up at the WNBA Finals. Valkyries fans shut them down.

Advertisement

Full Valkyries coverage

For all of our Bay Area sports coverage, sign up for The Catch newsletter.

This article originally published at Amid tension of Game 7, Valkyries' Kaitlyn Chen wears hot dog costume.