OAKLAND — On the night of the WNBA draft, Kaitlyn Chen sat inside The Shed arts center in New York City expecting nothing more than to cheer on her UConn teammates as they were called to the podium.
Little did Chen know that by the end of the night, she would hear her own name called.
To Chen’s surprise, the Golden State Valkyries selected her 30th overall in the third round.
As her name flashed on screens all over the auditorium, Chen was mobbed by her UConn teammates. UConn star and the draft’s top overall draft pick Paige Bueckers made a beeline to Chen, stopping an autograph session to congratulate her college teammate.
(R-L) Kaitlyn Chen poses for a photo with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert after being selected with the 30th pick in the third round by the Golden State Valkyries during the 2025 WNBA Draft at The Shed on April 14, 2025 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
The moment was the perfect encapsulation of the type of player Chen is.
“It was pretty incredible, especially to be able to experience that with my teammates there with me made it that much better,” Chen told the Bay Area News Group.
While getting drafted is a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment, Chen’s spot on the Valkyries’ roster is not guaranteed.
The 5-foot-9 point guard – the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted into the WNBA – is facing an uphill battle to make it out of training camp with a roster spot. In the last five drafts, there have been 60 third-round selections, and of that group, only 16 have played in a WNBA game. The Valkyries current roster has a number of veteran guards that Chen would need to beat out to make the team.
If she does, it probably won’t be hard to see why.
“She makes the right play at the right time, without any selfish motives,” said Doc Scheppler, Chen’s shooting coach and the longtime girls basketball coach at Pinewood High School in Los Altos Hills. “She’s just a winning basketball player. I think basketball purists would understand exactly what I mean by that. She makes winning plays.”
Golden State Valkyries’ Kaitlyn Chen (2) passes a ball during training camp held at the Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
A daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Chen gravitated toward basketball early as a young girl growing up in Southern California. Lakers games were always on TV in the Chen household, which inspired Kaitlyn to start playing in the fourth grade.
Kevin Kiyomura and his cousin, Jayme Kiyomura-Chan – basketball coaches at Chen’s high school alma mater Flintridge Prep – first caught a glimpse of Chen when she was in middle school. The San Marino native wasn’t a basketball prodigy coming into high school, but the two coaches could tell right away that she was going to be special.
“We both heard a buzz about Kaitlyn and everyone was telling us we needed to go check her out,” Kiyomura-Chan said. “We went to go watch her play club ball and we were just blown away. Me and Kevin kind of just looked at each other like, ‘Oh my gosh. She’s special.’ And she was only like 13 or 14 years old.”
At Flintridge Prep, Chen went on to become the most decorated basketball player in the school’s history.
She holds records for most career points (2,009), rebounds (922) and assists (421), and was named the Pasadena Star-News player of the year in her junior and senior seasons.
In high school, Chen showed off her unselfish style. Despite being an elite three-level scorer, Chen wanted to make sure her teammates were involved – sometimes to a fault.
“We had to beg her to shoot the basketball. She was that selfless,” Kiyomura-Chan said.
Kaitlyn Chen (C) #1 of Flintridge Prep drives to the basket giant Providence in the first half of a prep basketball game at Flintridge Prep on Tuesday, January 28, 2020. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Chen was rated a four-star recruit by ESPN and committed to Princeton over offers from Cal and North Carolina. Her freshman season was canceled because of the pandemic, but she quickly established herself as a prolific scorer and playmaker once play resumed.
In three seasons at Princeton, Chen averaged 14.2 points and four assists per game and led the Tigers to three consecutive Ivy League Tournament championships. Because Ivy League schools do not allow graduate students to play, Chen transferred to UConn for her final season of eligibility.
But while transferring to a blueblood program meant a chance at a national championship, Chen knew she’d have to make sacrifices.
The Huskies already had a plethora of scoring between Bueckers, KK Arnold and Azzi Fudd. What they needed was a true point guard, someone they could rely on to be a complementary piece to a championship-ready roster.
Chen fit that role perfectly.
Though nearly all of her stats from Princeton were cut in half, Chen shot 3-pointers at a 35.3% clip and started on UConn’s run to the national championship.
“Kaitlyn Chen is the kind of player that every really, really good team has,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma told reporters before the Big East Tournament. “When you come from a program like Princeton … where they depended on her a lot, you might have come out of Princeton and go some place where you have the exact same role. And when she came here, she knew it was going to be a little bit different. But it’s exactly the role that we need.”
SPOKANE, WASHINGTON – MARCH 31: Kaitlyn Chen #20, Paige Bueckers #5 and Aubrey Griffin #44 of the UConn Huskies celebrate after defeating the USC Trojans 78-64 in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at Spokane Arena on March 31, 2025 in Spokane, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
After the college season ended, Chen took a week off and then went back to work, reuniting with her Bay Area shooting coach along the way.
Chen met Scheppler last summer to fine tune her spot-up shooting before going to UConn. Given that the two bonded over a shared sense of work ethic, Chen went back to train with Scheppler before the Valkyries started training camp.
Scheppler, who has worked with Palo Alto High product and former NBA star Jeremy Lin, has appreciated the way Chen has taken to coaching.
“She wants to get it. There’s no ego,” Scheppler said. “Average players want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached. Great players want the truth. She wants the truth.”
Since the Valkyries opened training camp last weekend, Chen’s defensive intensity and willingness to facilitate has impressed coach Natalie Nakase.
“She’s so feisty,” Nakase said. “She’s high IQ. She knows how to play the right way. She has been great.”
Golden State Valkyries’ Kaitlyn Chen (2) shoots a ball during training camp held at the Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Even if Chen doesn’t make the 12-player team, her journey to reach this point figures to serve as an inspiration for other Asian American players.
Chen is a popular presence on social media, with nearly 70,000 followers on Instagram.
Related Articles
Golden State Valkyries: Five storylines to watch as training camp begins
Valkyries to open training camp without first-round pick Justė Jocytė
Valkyries sign French guard Migna Touré to training camp deal
Where’s Justė Jocytė? Status of Valkyries’ top draft pick still unknown
Why the Valkyries selected Justė Jocytė with their first-ever draft pick
“I think the amazing thing, and what I think that’s going to resonate in our Asian American community, is that Kaitlyn looks like everybody else,” Kiyomura said. “She’s not 6-6. She’s not freakish looking or super athletic. To most of these kids growing up, they should be able to look at her and see themselves in Kaitlyn and that should keep inspiring them to try to move forward.”
Chen relishes what her impact as a college champion and WNBA draft pick means, both to herself and her community.
“As an Asian American athlete growing up, there weren’t a lot of people to sort of like to watch and look up to playing in the WNBA,” Chen said. “So for me to be able to be that for other younger Asian American athletes, I feel like it’s pretty special and it means a lot to me.”
Golden State Valkyries’ Kaitlyn Chen (2) walks with Golden State Valkyries’ Kate Martin (20) during training camp held at the Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)