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WNBA Names Valkyries Star Veronica Burton the 2025 Most Improved Player

She drastically improved her stat line from last season when she played for the Sun.

Madison Williams

Valkyries guard Veronica Burton was named the WNBA's Most Improved Player.
Valkyries guard Veronica Burton was named the WNBA's Most Improved Player. / Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images
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The WNBA announced on Monday that Valkyries star Veronica Burton was named the league's Most Improved Player of the 2025 season.

Burton has helped lead Golden State to the playoffs in their inaugural season, a WNBA first.

Burton was coming off a rough 2024 season with the Connecticut Sun when she only started one game and averaged 3.1 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists. This season with the Valkyries, Burton started in all 44 games she competed in and increased all her averages from the year prior: 11.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.1 steals. The WNBA noted that Burton is the first player in league history to increase her averages by "at least five points, two rebounds and two assists" between two seasons.

Now Burton is competing in the playoffs with the Valkyries. The guard has competed in the playoffs in all four years of her career so far (she started her career on the Wings in 2022). Golden State lost Game 1 of the first round to the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday.

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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.

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