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Take a step back and consider the arc of the Burtons\u2019 collective journey. Ron grew up poor in Ohio in the 1940s and \u201950s, living with his grandmother after his mom died when he was 12. One of Ron\u2019s junior high coaches told him he wasn\u2019t talented\u00a0\u2014 his nickname was \u201cNothing,\u201d as in no talent\u00a0\u2014 but he could improve by waking up early every morning to run several miles.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s what he did. Ron Burton eventually blossomed into a coveted prospect, sparked a run of success for Northwestern football and reached the pros. He also navigated the complicated racial climate of Boston (and the country) in the \u201960s, no easy task.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to 2026, with Burton\u2019s granddaughter playing a central role in one of the most compelling stories in the WNBA. It would have been difficult in the 1960s to imagine a women\u2019s professional basketball league, much less one with a franchise playing before a capacity crowd of 18,000 boisterous fans at every home game.<\/p>\n
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Veronica Burton has quickly become the Golden State Valkyries\u2019 on-court leader. \u201cOpportunity is an insane thing, and to be blessed with opportunity here is something I don\u2019t take lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s what the Valkyries do at Chase Center. And after struggling to find her footing in her first three years in the league, Veronica Burton, 25, now counts as Golden State\u2019s on-court leader\u00a0\u2014 extending her family legacy into a fresh frontier.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOpportunity is an insane thing, and to be blessed with opportunity here is something I don\u2019t take lightly,\u201d she said this month after practice in Oakland. \u201cI understand what my family and what my grandfather did to put me in a position to be here. That\u2019s something I\u2019m really grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three-year-old Veronica also craved opportunity.<\/p>\n
Steve Burton long ago started taking his kids on early-morning visits to the church gym, keeping alive his dad\u2019s motto of working while others slept. Kendall and Kayla launched shots. Austin threw around the football. Ginni was conflicted, because she knew her youngest child needed to sleep.
But Veronica really wanted to join her brother and sisters, so Ginni relented. Veronica came three days a week, and not to sit on the sideline.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a great handle at 3,\u201d Ginni said. \u201cShe was frustrated because she couldn\u2019t get it through her legs\u00a0\u2014 but the basketball was big and her legs were little.\u201d<\/p>\n
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![\"Veronica]()
<\/p>\n
Veronica Burton (bottom) once broke her arm when she was tackled by her brother Austin (top) while playing pickup football. Their older sisters Kendall (left) and Kayla (right) also are pictured.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Burton family<\/p>\n
Veronica deftly did two-ball dribbling drills as a kid, before Stephen Curry introduced the routine to a wider audience. She demanded Ginni remove the training wheels from her bike at age 3 or 4\u00a0\u2014 and off she went on a two-wheeler, happily and steadily.<\/p>\n
She also became the kid bounding onto the basketball court at halftime of her siblings\u2019 games, to hoist shots during the intermission. At age 8 or 9, she played in an otherwise all-boys youth basketball league\u00a0\u2014 and earned MVP honors.<\/p>\n
It requires no sixth sense to connect this preternatural athletic ability, and her keen mind for basketball, to the presence of Kendall, Kayla and Austin. Veronica not only tagged along, she studied her sisters and brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a birth order thing,\u201d Ginni said. \u201cIn life, Veronica is a note taker, an observer. She was always watching and understanding the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Or, as Steve said, \u201cShe had three people in front of her to learn from\u00a0\u2014 she saw their mistakes and their success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kendall is seven years older than Veronica, Kayla is five years older and Austin is 2\u00bd years older. So Veronica often hung out with her brother, even more often\u00a0when their sisters left home for college. She followed him around, whether playing catch or video games.<\/p>\n
Once, when Veronica was about 6, Austin tackled her too hard in a backyard football game and broke her arm. He met Veronica in the gap and showed no mercy, he laughingly recalled, though he felt terrible when the result left her in a cast from elbow to hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI almost wanted to make Veronica like a younger brother,\u201d Austin said. \u201cAny type of sporting event I was involved in, she was part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Valkyries guard Veronica Burton demonstrated her understanding of the game at a young age. Here, at 11, she draws up a play to show her youth-basketball teammates.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Burton family<\/p>\n
They attended each other\u2019s events at Newton South High outside Boston, including Austin leading cheers at girls basketball games. Still, his favorite highlight involves her playing football\u00a0\u2014 she once leaped high in a Powderpuff game to make a one-handed, Odell Beckham-style catch for an interception.<\/p>\n
Veronica traced one of her standout skills in basketball\u00a0\u2014 disruptive defense\u00a0\u2014 to Austin. She led the Big Ten in steals all four seasons at Northwestern, led the nation her final two years and earned second-team, all-defensive recognition last season from the WNBA. She also won the league\u2019s Most Improved Player award.<\/p>\n
Some of her defensive success, to hear Veronica tell it, comes from the hand-eye coordination and anticipation she developed playing with Austin and his friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just played every single sport with him,\u201d Veronica said. \u201cI also watched a ton of film growing up, so a feel for the game also allows me to kind of be in the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ron Burton cast a large shadow as a College Football Hall of Famer\u00a0\u2014 Veronica was named after Ron and wears No. 22 because that was his number with the Patriots. Steve Burton has a public profile, too, as longtime sports director at WBZ-TV in Boston.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But make no mistake: Ginni Burton also shaped Veronica in profound ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Steve]()
<\/p>\n
Steve and Ginni Burton\u2019s mailman had this trading card specially made\u00a0\u2014 showing Valkyries guard Veronica Burton (their daughter) on the left and her grandfather, former Patriots running back Ron Burton (Steve\u2019s dad), on the right.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Burton family<\/p>\n
Her swimming background offered a distinctive element to the family sporting tree. She swam back and forth, hours and hours day after day, staring only at the black stripe on the bottom of the pool.<\/p>\n
That requires mental fortitude, as Veronica and her siblings realize when reflecting on their mom\u2019s athletic career. Ginni is not the boastful type\u00a0\u2014 Austin and Veronica once stumbled upon a large collection of swimming trophies, gathering dust under a cloth, as they sorted through stuff in the basement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Austin called his mom \u201cthe best athlete in our family,\u201d partly because of her work ethic. Ginni competed in the 200-meter individual medley and 200 breaststroke, and also swam the 200 freestyle at the \u201984 trials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Veronica]()
<\/p>\n
Veronica Burton high fives teammates during introductions before the Golden State Valkyries played the Phoenix Mercury in the May 10 home opener at Chase Center in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
\u201cShe taught me a lot about how to get mentally tougher, how to approach the game and how to approach greatness\u00a0\u2014 because she really was great,\u201d Veronica said. \u201cI think it\u2019s really cool how she carries herself, the humility.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the Burton kids had no choice but to follow suit. They also received first-hand life lessons at the Ron Burton Training Village, where they spent most summers during their youth.<\/p>\n
Ron Burton wanted to give back in the wake of his challenging upbringing. He bought 300 acres in Hubbardston, Mass., in 1985, and built the training village.<\/p>\n
It originally focused only on sports but has since expanded to include SAT, STEM and aviation programs. The village now runs year-round and includes about 2,000 kids (mostly underserved) annually, age 11 and older. Steve and Ginni Burton, and his brothers and sisters, run the operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mission, according to the organization\u2019s website, is to \u201cequip young people with the skills, resources and attitude to make winning decisions in life. Our programs are designed to build the core values of love, peace, patience and humility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not explicitly stated but understood: That\u2019s how Ron Burton coped with racism during his life. He grew up on faith, Steve said, especially after his mom died. (Ron Burton died in 2003 at age 67.)<\/p>\n
![\"Veronica]()
<\/p>\n
Veronica Burton during Golden State Valkyries training camp in April in Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad\u2019s grandma was a gospel preacher, so he learned to love people \u2014 even his enemies,\u201d Steve said. \u201cHe said, \u2018How you deal with racism is love them anyway.\u2019 We said, \u2018What?\u2019 He said, \u2018Love them anyway. Be good to them.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why Veronica loves her team. We have a motto in our family: \u2018Spread the love, build people up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Not a bad legacy to chase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golden State Valkyries guard Veronica Burton answers media question following practice during training camp at the Valkyries Performance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[18739,101,103,102,104,106,105,127,113983,8859],"class_list":["post-324342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sports","tag-veronica-burton","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}