WNBA: Kennedy Burke emerging as X factor for New York Liberty

If you didn’t follow Kennedy Burke’s career at UCLA, you may not have noticed her getting drafted No. 22 overall in the 2019 WNBA Draft or averaging 4.4 points in 13.6 minutes for an Indiana Fever team that missed the playoffs that year.

Your first introduction to her may have been as someone who ruffled the feathers of the legendary Sue Bird in the 2020 Wubble.

It was really then-Fever head coach Marianne Stanley who complained about Bird sitting out a game between the Seattle Storm and Fever, accusing the Storm (11-1 entering the contest) of only resting Bird, who was nursing a lingering knee injury, because of the ease with which they thought they would defeat Indiana (4-7 going in). But Burke was central to the controversy because she led the Fever with 23 points in the upset win over Seattle and, based on her own postgame comments, seemed to be in agreement with Stanley. Burke declared:

Basically (Coach) was saying she didn’t want Sue Bird to sit. She wanted the whole team. It was kind of like a slap in the face (to Coach). She was saying if you’re gonna give us (your best), you can’t leave out one. Because we were ready regardless. … It showed. We only had eight, but everyone showed up.

Bird responded by saying:

I thought (those comments) were kind of funny. I think they forgot they were gonna have to see me in the lunch line and have to see me in the elevator. So it was kind of funny. You know, I’ve never based my decision on my body on another team, especially not Indiana. So, it is what it is. Luckily we get to play them on Tuesday.

Regardless of who you side with in this little controversy, it’s important to note that Burke is, in all seriousness, a class act and would actually fall into Bird’s good graces as a teammate on the Storm the very next season.

When the teams met again in the Wubble, it was five days after the first meeting and the Storm, again without Bird, won by 13. They would, of course, go on to win the championship that year. For Indiana, the loss was the second of an eventual eight-game losing streak that contributed to a dismal 6-16 final record, which would be followed by last-place finishes the next two years.

Burke wasn’t a part of those next two seasons in Indiana; as mentioned, she played for Seattle in 2021. But it certainly wasn’t as a co-star to Bird, as she averaged just 2.9 points in 7.7 minutes per game. She wasn’t much of a factor for the Washington Mystics in 2022 either, and was out of the league for the 2023 season. Despite overseas exploits that included being named France’s Ligue Féminine de Basketball MVP in 2023 and 2024, she was a WNBA afterthought. In 2024, she returned to the WNBA and became a champion with the New York Liberty, but only contributed 3.4 points per game in 12.1 minutes.

Yet, going back to the Wubble, something about playing against Seattle clicked for Burke, as she recorded her second-highest scoring output of the season in the second matchup between the two teams, finishing with 17 points. In two contests against the eventual champion Storm, we got a sneak preview of the player who would one day become more than just that player who had a mini-beef with Bird.

In 2025, Burke is that player, currently leading the WNBA in 3-point shooting efficiency at 57.5 percent.

And that’s with the 12th-most makes in the league (19). Most of her field goals have come on 3s this year, and she’s shooting so well from out there that her overall field goal percentage of 54.4 is fourth in the league—that’s a number that contends with those put up by players who make a living scoring right at the basket.

Burke is averaging a career-best 9.2 points per game in a career-high 21.4 minutes. That’s not too far above her next-best season, which was that Wubble season (7.2 points in 18.3 minutes), but the way she’s doing it—with the sixth-highest playing time and fourth-highest scoring on the best team in the league in the Liberty, with über efficiency and after the trials and tribulations of struggling to make it in the league ever since the Wubble—makes it a big deal.

It’s actually a really big deal when you consider her 3-point shooting numbers during her four years at UCLA and first five in the W. Over that span, she was 167-for-552 (30.3 percent) from distance. That’s a halfway decent percentage, but it was only on 0.6 makes per contest. Before this season, she was only known as a 3-point shooter overseas, where she went 128-for-318 (40.3 percent) over three seasons (Spain/France) with 1.9 makes per outing.

Those numbers now translating to the most competitive league in the world means that Burke’s hard work is finally paying off. In all likelihood, she just needed extended playing time and more of a green light to shoot a high volume. This is her first time getting those things in the W since her 3-point prowess took off overseas. Sometimes, it’s hard to be efficient when you’re not shooting enough to get into a rhythm.

After bouncing around the W as an end-of-rotation player, Burke is finally a key contributor for a championship contender. She’s getting her due attention, and has become one of the Liberty’s X factors. Her 0-of-3 performance from downtown in Saturday’s loss to the Fever lowered her still-stellar 3-point percentage. Expect her to bounce back. She may not shoot 60 percent from long range on the season, but she’s got a shot at competing with the league’s best for the 3-point efficiency crown.

All stats are through Saturday, June 14, 2025.