Kate Martin Reacts to Veronica Burton Winning WNBA Award

As the WNBA regular season has officially come to a close and the playoffs are set to begin, it’s about that time when the league and various media establishments around the country select the recipients of a list of postseason awards.

While fans across the league wait for the official WNBA award announcements, the Associated Press revealed the winners of their leaguewide awards on Friday. One of those winners was one of Balhalla’s own, as Veronica Burton was awarded the AP Most Improved Player Award.

Burton’s selection in the AP vote presents promising prospects for her chances of winning the official league award. On an ESPN panel consisting of the network’s four most prominent WNBA experts, all four selected Burton as their choice for the Most Improved Player Award.

Burton also received some support from her Golden State Valkyries teammates, namely Kate Martin, who posted an Instagram story in support of her teammate’s award selection. Martin shared the Valkyries’ post with a supportive caption.

“Ahhhh!!!! Amazing!!!!,” Martin wrote.

Burton had a breakout season in her first year with the Valkyries, averaging career-highs with 11.9 points, 6.6 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game. Burton was an irreplaceable part of the Valkryries’ rotation that performed well enough to make the playoffs, as she started all 44 games and averaged 29.4 minutes per game in those contests.

Before this season, Burton’s previous career-highs were 3.1 points, 1.9 assists and 1.6 rebounds. She spent her first two seasons (2022, 2023) in the league with the Dallas Wings and made 31 appearances for the Connecticut Sun in 2024. The Sun left Burton unprotected in December’s expansion draft, allowing the Valkyries to select an, at the time, unheralded player.

Burton and the Valkyries have since led the most successful inaugural season for an expansion franchise in WNBA history, setting the first-year wins record while becoming the first expansion team to make the playoffs.

The Valkyries, having earned the No. 8 seed in the WNBA playoffs, will face off with the No. 1 seed Lynx and MVP candidate Napheesa Collier, who won a franchise record 34 games this season. Game 1 is set to tip off at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on Sunday, kickstarting a quadruple-header of WNBA playoff coverage on the ESPN family of networks. The Lynx are currently 12.5-point favorites on Sunday.

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