Rayan Rupert Talks Sister Iliana Being Drafted by Golden State Valkyries
The WNBA's newest expansion team took Rupert's sister, who played for the French national team in this summer's Paris Olympics.
On Friday morning, Rayan Rupert got a phone call from his older sister, Iliana, telling him the news that would be made public in a few hours: she was one of the 11 players the Golden State Valkyries planned to select in that day’s WNBA expansion draft.
Iliana was a first-round pick of the Las Vegas Aces in 2021 and has played in the WNBA for two seasons, for the Aces in 2022 and for the Atlanta Dream in 2023. She skipped the 2024 WNBA season, along with every other player on the French women’s national team, to focus on preparing for the Paris Olympics last summer.
Now, she may be back stateside—and not too far from her younger brother.
“It’s a new experience for her,” Rayan said after Trail Blazers practice on Saturday. “My mom especially was happy about it. San Francisco is very close to Portland.”
The Ruperts are basketball royalty in France. Rayan and Iliana’s father, Thierry, played professionally in their home country for almost two decades, including for the national team. He died of a heart attack in 2013 at the age of 35, when Rayan was nine. Both siblings wore his number, 12, in France (Rayan switched this season from 72 to 21, the inverse of 12, because the Blazers haven’t given that number out in the years since LaMarcus Aldridge left).
Growing up, Iliana was the prodigy, and that helped Rayan get noticed, too.
“My sister was pretty famous in the basketball world in France,” Rayan says. “She was very good at a very young age. So every time I went somewhere, people were like, ‘Oh, you’re the son of Thierry Rupert and the sister of Iliana. OK.’”
Rayan did not play for the French men’s national team this summer, but he was in Paris to watch his sister. Both France’s men’s and women’s basketball teams won the silver medal in the Olympics, while the United States took gold in both competitions. Iliana averaged 7.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in the tournament.
A 6-foot-4 center, Iliana has had a decorated career overseas but hasn’t had a huge role on either of her two WNBA teams. She’s currently playing for the Turkish club Çukurova—that’s where she was when she learned the Valkyries had selected her rights.
Growing up, especially after their father’s passing, Iliana was his on-court role model.
“She taught me a lot about basketball,” Rayan said. “She’s a center, so she taught me about post-ups or how to set a screen.”
When the Blazers drafted him in the summer of 2023, having a sister who had already played professionally in the United States proved to be helpful, too.
“It was,” Rayan said. “More for off the court—the culture and people, stuff like that. The WNBA and NBA are pretty similar—it’s a business and you can be traded.”
It still remains to be seen whether Iliana plays for the Valkyries next season or stays overseas. It helps that she already has a relationship with Golden State’s newly hired head coach, Natalie Nakase, who was an assistant with the Aces during the season she spent there.
The two Rupert siblings also have yet to see each other play a game in person in the NBA or WNBA. Iliana visited Portland shortly after Rayan was drafted to help him get settled, but was back playing in Europe by the time his rookie season started. But if she does come over, they may get to actually attend each other’s games. Both of them being on the west coast will help with that—and even more so in 2026, when Portland’s new WNBA expansion team plays its first season.
“I hope she can have more playing time with Golden State,” Rayan said. “We’re very excited about it.”