How Veronica Burton went from role player to Valkyries’ Most Improved hopeful
SAN FRANCISCO — Nothing encapsulated the Veronica Burton experience more than the night she turned Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum’s visit to Ballhalla into a living nightmare.
For four quarters, Burton matched Plum – four-time All-Star and two-time WNBA champion point guard – step for step as the crafty veteran struggled to shake free to the rim. When Plum didn’t have the ball, the Valkyries point guard was in her airspace, practically breathing on her shoulders and cutting off every passing lane before it ever came open.
On the other end, Burton’s bully-ball style punished the smaller Plum, who is an inch shorter and 10 pounds lighter, at the rim on nearly every drive to the basket.
All of the punishment Burton dished came to a head late in the fourth quarter. With the Valkyries dominating the game in eventual 72-59 win, Plum was assessed a flagrant 1 foul for tripping Burton to the ground as she tried to beat Plum to the basket with a crossover dribble.
Burton had strong words for Plum while she was on the ground. It sparked a mini scuffle between both teams. The play was indicative of what Burton does best – agitate, disrupt and make opposing stars uncomfortable.
“She has that Steph Curry, Draymond Green work ethic,” said Joe McKeown, Burton’s college coach at Northwestern. “She is as tough as anybody in the league right now.”
While Burton has captured the love of Valkyries fans for her hard-nosed mentality, the 25-year-old Massachusetts native’s journey to becoming one of the expansion team’s best players wasn’t linear.
The 5-foot-9 point guard spent her first three seasons in a reserve role after getting drafted in the first round in 2022. She was waived by the Dallas Wings before the start of last season and couldn’t get consistent minutes with the Connecticut Sun before getting selected by the Valkyries in December’s expansion draft.
Burton has set career highs in points (11.3), rebounds (4.3) and assists (5.1) while being the only player to start every game for Golden State. She is one of the leading candidates for the Most Improved Player award.
“It’s a credit to how she approaches every day,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. “So I got to give her credit because she sacrifices. She sacrifices time with her friends, time with her family. She’s taking care of her body. We’re very lucky to have someone to just kind of pour everything into being the point guard for us.”
Burton’s competitive fire was forged from birth as she comes from a long line of college and professional athletes.
Her father, Steve Burton, was a quarterback at Northwestern and her mother was a competitive swimmer at the prestigious Chicago school. Both of her sisters played college basketball and her brother was a quarterback at Purdue. Burton’s grandfather, Ron Burton, was a college football hall of famer at Northwestern and former running back for the New England Patriots.
“I think my competitiveness is everything, that’s just how I grew up,” Burton told the Bay Area News Group. “I think my work ethic especially was instilled in me at a young age, just from all the athletes in my family. And that mentality just has formed me into the person and player I am, so I would credit a lot to my family for that.”
Throughout her basketball career, no one needed to remind Burton that she needed to have an intense drive to make it to the pros. In fact, she would work so hard that coaches routinely had to save her from herself.
On numerous occasions, McKeown and assistant coach Tangela Smith, had to lock the gym doors or hide the basketballs just to get Burton to go home.
“There would be times where Tangela would look at me and be like, ‘Coach we got to shut her down and get her out of the gym,’ McKeown told the Bay Area News Group. “One day we pinned her in the corner and said, ‘Veronica you got to leave. Go home.’ And she would always tell us ‘Just 100 more shots,’ but I had to get her out of there.
“Whatever it took to be a great, great player, she had that drive and that extra motivation. But we were worried she was just gonna wear herself out. So every now and then, we just have to shut her down. And she probably snuck into the rec center and shot that night or something anyway.”
While she had a hard time finding her way through the league, Burton was always known to not back down from even the biggest challenges. She gained a reputation as a defensive stopper, willing to put her body on the line for loose balls and rebounds.
Through the Valkyries’ first weeks of the season, there was some uncertainty around who would be the starting point guard with players like Julie Vanloo, Tiffany Hayes and Carla Leite on the roster. But Burton quickly squashed any talk of a positional competition after a historic first few weeks.
In the Valkyries’ win over the Las Vegas Aces on June 7, Burton recorded the highest single-game plus-minus rating with a +40. A few games later, Burton drew the assignment of guarding Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark and held her to 11 points on 3-for-14 shooting and 0-for-7 from the 3-point line.
Burton has always been hyper focused on making sure she does whatever it takes to help her team win, but her turnaround from an end of the bench player to solid starting point guard has caught the attention of the rest of the league. Against the Washington Mystics last week, she joined Walnut Creek native Sabrina Ionescu and Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier as the only players to record a 30 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in a game while shooting 75% from the field.
“It is fascinating what happens to players when they’re put in the right positions,” CBS Bay Area analyst Zen Keita said. “This science experiment is perfect for her to elevate as this star guard for the Valkyries.”
Burton, who is a restricted free agent after this season, is likely to draw interest from the Valkyries and other teams this offseason. Whether she stays with the Valkyries or not, Burton has proved she is more than the high-energy, defensive specialist she was in past seasons.
“Opportunity is a big thing, and it’s a big factor in this league and I’ve been grateful to have an opportunity to play and compete,” Burton said. “I’ve had a coaching staff and teammates that instill a lot of confidence in me and that goes a long way in terms of success on court, and so just a lot of work and repetition. But also just opportunity and trust as well.”