Veronica Burton on Her Most Improved Player Award Season & Building the Valkyries Incredible Culture
Bird's Eye View with Sue BirdShow Notes
This week we welcome Veronica Burton of the Golden State Valkyries, the winner of the 2025 Most Improved Player Award!
Before the interview Sue chats with Tommy Alter about the WNBA semifinals and shares her thoughts on the Minnesota Lynx vs. Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces vs. Indiana Fever heading into Game 3s.
Then, Veronica joins and shares so much with us. She discusses all things Golden State Valkyries including what it was like joining an expansion team, Valhalla and the fanbase, making the playoffs in the organization’s inaugural year, and head coach Natalie Nakase. Veronica also shares lessons she learned during her college career and Northwestern and her first few seasons in the WNBA on the Connecticut Sun and Dallas Wings. She talks about what she thinks makes her a great defender, what went into her being able to achieve the Most Improved Player award, and lots more.
Link to vote for ‘Bird’s Eye View’ in the Signal Awards: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signal4_finalists_finalistnotification_092325&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2025/[…]sports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from Bird's Eye View with Sue Bird
Joining Sue for this week’s episode of Bird’s Eye View is Kara Lawson, head coach of Duke University Women’s Basketball and Team USA. Kara and Sue kick things off breaking down the first three games of the 2026 WNBA Finals between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream: from Angel Reese’s impact on winning to key adjustments the Valkyries need to make offensively.
On this episode of Bird’s Eye View with Sue Bird, we welcome Seattle Storm guard and newly minted 2026 WNBA All-Rookie Flau’jae Johnson.
This week on Bird’s Eye View, Sue is joined by Washington Mystics point guard Georgia Amoore. While Sue and Georgia break down game one of the WNBA semifinals, Georgia gets candid about what it was really like to face the Atlanta Dream during round one of the playoffs and explains why she thinks the Dream are on their way to winning it all. Sue and Georgia also assess whether the Las Vegas Aces can keep up with the tenacity and persistence of the Golden State Valkyries (and Ballhalla!) Georgia then opens up about how being “short” forced her to develop a game bigger than her size, overcoming a season-ending injury her rookie year, and why she wants to spend the offseason playing in Australia’s WNBL.
On this episode of Bird’s Eye View with Sue Bird, we welcome Portland Fire head coach Alex Sarama to recap round one of the WNBA playoffs.
The WNBA's 2026 Most Improved Player and Dallas Wings forward Jessica Shepard joins Bird’s Eye View this week. But first, Sue shares her selects for this year’s highly contested WNBA awards, including who should be named MVP among A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Mitchell, and, yes, rookie Olivia Miles.