"Pookster" - Paige Bueckers, Kate Martin & others hype Valkyries $204,253 guard's season photo dump after making history with playoffs spot

Kaitlyn Chen and the Golden State Valkyries completed their astounding debut season in the WNBA by securing a playoff spot. The Valkyries finished the regular season as the eighth seed with a 23-21 record in just their first year as a franchise in the league.

With their historic playoff spot, Chen, who earns $204,253 in her current contract, posted snaps throughout the 2025 WNBA season, which included some of her highlights with the Valkyries.

"the boys are having a blast 😎," she captioned

The post garnered numerous reactions from WNBA stars, including Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers and Chen's teammate in Golden State, Kate Martin. Both Bueckers and Martin were seen in the eight-photo post.

"Pookster 🥰," Bueckers wrote.

"CANNONBALL," Martin said.

Other teammates, Tiffany Hayes and Veronica Burton, also commented on Chen's post.

"😍😍😍me when Kaitlyn tags me in a pic.. 🫩🫩🫩me when i see the pic," Burton said.

"The booyyysss!!! 🔥🔥," Hayes said.

Chen appeared in 24 games for the Valkyries, averaging 2.0 points and 1.0 assists per game. The Valkyries entered the league last offseason, building their roster through an expansion draft. The team hovered in the middle of the standings for most of the season before sliding to the eighth seed.

Kaitlyn Chen gets real on playing with the Valkyries

Kaitlyn Chen grew up in San Marino, California, just near the Golden State area, making it easy for her to acclimate to the team.

In an interview last July 31 with Princeton Alumni Weekly, Chen got candid about playing in her hometown and how seamless it was to fit in with the Valkyries.

“Honestly, being home was sort of nice,” Chen said. “It sort of gave me time to reset and then to regroup after the crazy spring we had.”

“We do a really good job of keeping [things] simple. Everyone sort of just knows their role, and we just all play to our strengths," she added.

Chen added that her rookie year has been a process of adjusting and improving her game.

“It’s been a lot of fun so far. [I’m] just continuing to get used to everything, adjusting every day," she said.

The Valkyries will be playing the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx in the first round of the WNBA playoffs. The Lynx finished with a league-best 34-10 record in the regular season.

About the author

Rob Andrew Lo is an NBA and WNBA journalist at Sportskeeda with over three years of experience in the field. Rob studied journalism at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines and his love for sports made this an obvious career to pursue.

Rob's favorite team is the Oklahoma City Thunder. He grew up watching Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant and his admiration for them left not only a lasting impression but solidified his fandom.

When not working, Rob loves to play basketball. If he isn't watching or writing about basketball, he can probably be found watching pro wrestling.

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Edited by Rob Andrew Lo