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…
