Cierra Burdick might not be a WNBA player, but she played for Pat Summitt and has a long history with 3x3 basketball.
For the Paris Olympics this summer, For The Win is helping you get to know some of the star Olympians competing on the world’s biggest stage. We’re highlighting 15 Team USA athletes in the 15 days leading up to the Opening Ceremony. Up next is Cierra Burdick.
When the U.S. announced its 3×3 women’s basketball team for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, the headliners that grabbed attention were the young stars. Initially part of the team were fifth-year college player Hailey Van Lith – who recently transferred from LSU to TCU – WNBA rookie Cameron Brink and 24-year-old WNBA All-Star Rhyne Howard, who is making her Olympic debut. Since the initial announcement, Brink has been replaced by her LA Sparks teammate Dearica Hamby.
Rounding out the squad is Cierra Burdick – a 30-year-old product of the University of Tennessee who hasn’t been on a WNBA roster in three years.
But Burdick shouldn’t be overlooked. The competition to make this roster was fierce and she’s on this team – which is aiming to defend its gold medal from the 2021 Olympics – for a reason.
Let’s get to know her.
Nov 15, 2012; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Lady Volunteers forward Cierra Burdick (11) brings the ball up court against the Rice Owls at Thompson Boling Arena. Tennessee won by a score of 101 to 48. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-US PRESSWIRE
A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Burdick was a McDonald’s All-American out of Butler High School. She was lured just across the Smoky Mountains to Knoxville, where she was a freshman on the final team that the late, great Pat Summitt coached.
She played 13.5 minutes per game on that 2011-12 Tennessee team, which made it all the way to the Elite Eight.
The 2021 games in Tokyo were the first time that there were no Lady Vols playing for USA basketball in Olympic competition – although Kara Lawson was the coach of the 3×3 team that year. Still, Burdick’s selection puts a Summitt-coached player back in the games, an honor she’s proud to carry.
She told the Knoxville News-Sentinel:
“I’ve got some big time guardian angels that have been looking out for me, and I’m a proud Lady Vol… I took a lot of lessons from Pat, and it’s easy to just carry those with me every single day.”
Mar 28, 2015; Spokane, WA, USA; Tennessee Lady Volunteers forward Cierra Burdick (11) reacts after a Gonzaga Bulldogs turnover during the second half in the semifinals of the Spokane regional of the women’s 2015 NCAA Tournament at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The Lady Volunteers won 73-69. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-USA TODAY Sports
The 6-foot-2 do-it-all guard/forward was never really a star at Tennessee, but she was a starter, a very good college player. She helped the Lady Vols stay atop the Southeastern Conference after Holly Warlick took over when Summitt retired after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
With Burdick on the court in Warlick’s first three seasons at the helm, Tennessee won two regular-season SEC titles, one SEC Tournament crown and went back to the Elite Eight in 2013 and 2015. As a senior in 2015 – after averaging 11 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.7 rebounds per game while shooting 37.1 percent from 3-point land – Burdick was an All-SEC selection and an honorable mention All-American.
In the 2015 WNBA Draft, the LA Sparks took Burdick in the second round with the 14th overall pick. But she never played for the Sparks and was waived about a month after signing her rookie contract.
And so began Burdick’s tumultuous journey through the WNBA. Between 2015 and 2021, Burdick played in 56 games for six different teams and was waived or released five different times. For one reason or another, she just couldn’t stick to a roster – although she was on the Seattle Storm squad that won the Commissioner’s Cup in 2021.
Before landing with the Storm near the end of the 2021 season on a series of short-term contracts, Burdick was waived by the Minnesota Lynx after just six days – and this was after she was told she would be with the team for four-to-six weeks.
It soured her on the WNBA experience, she told the Knoxville News-Sentinel:
“… And then you’re cut in the Minneapolis Airport at baggage claim after a week – I was completely humiliated, demoralized, disappointed and I honestly was done with the W after that experience.”
However, getting cut by Minnesota allowed Burdick to sign with Seattle, which then opened the door for her to spend more time playing 3×3 hoops.
She’s been playing 3×3 basketball since 2014. That summer, between her junior and senior seasons at Tennessee, she was part of the U.S. squad that won the gold medal at the FIBA World Cup in Russia.
Right away, Burdick figured out it was a version of basketball that best fit her skillset, telling The Charlotte Observer:
“I love the fact that you actually don’t have a coach during the game, that you kind of have to coach yourselves, so all adjustments are being made on your own… Just the versatility that you need to be able to play 3×3, you gotta be able to defend everybody, and then offensively, you gotta be able to do a little bit of everything. So that’s always kind of been my game. I’m not great at any one specific skill, except for maybe rebounding, but I can do a little bit of everything. And that definitely helps in the 3×3 game.”
In 2023, Burdick suited up for Team USA again, helping the Americans win gold at the FIBA World Cup in Vienna, Austria and the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. This Olympics will mark the third time Burdick and Van Lith have been 3×3 teammates in a major tournament, as they both played in the 2022 and 2023 World Cups.
The U.S. women’s 3×3 team begins pool play on Tuesday, July 30 against Germany. Tip-off is at 11:30 a.m. ET. The Americans will take the court again the next day, taking on Azerbaijan at 3:30 ET. Both games will air on Peacock.
