Cierra Burdick started playing basketball when she was 5 years old, and the sport never turned loose of her. Now 30 years old, Burdick is a bronze-medal winning Olympian who persevered for 10 years after graduating from Tennessee to carve out a professional career in the game she loves.
“Over the moon, thrilled that she got this unique opportunity, thrilled that she’s playing 3×3, it’s a perfect match for her skill set, for her basketball IQ, for her personality,” Lisa Burdick said in an interview with Knox TN Today shortly after returning from Paris this week.
Lisa Burdick traveled to France to watch her daughter play for the USA Basketball 3×3 Women’s National Team in the Paris Olympics. Cierra Burdick, who played at Tennessee from 2011-15 – she was a freshman on the late Pat Summitt’s final team in 2011-12 – will return to her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, by the end of the week.
“She’s still soaking up the whole Olympic experience,” said Lisa Burdick, who was still euphoric about the experience after an overseas plane trip. “Thrilled that it was in France, thrilled that she had friends and family cheering her on, thrilled that she’s a part of the USA Basketball family and has been for over 10 years, thrilled that her Tennessee family has been a huge part of this and have embraced the experience with her. I could go on and on. It was a multilayered amazing adventure for her.”
Dearica Hamby, Cierra Burdick, Haley Van Lith and Rhyne Howard smile during the medal ceremony. (USA Basketball)
I’m grateful,” Cierra Burdick said. “It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s all a part of sport. There are a lot of lessons that can be learned throughout the journey (and) experience. This is something I’ll be able to tell my family for years to come, and I think it’s something we can be proud of.”
Cierra Burdick has played USA Basketball 3×3 at various international events for 10 years, for professional teams overseas and had several stints in the WNBA since wearing the orange and white of Tennessee. She previously had played in France, which boosted her cheering section in Paris.
Lisa Burdick, her husband, son, aunt and two youngest cousins and their partners shared an Airbnb just 30 minutes away from the Place de la Concorde where the 3×3 games were played outside. The cheering section also included Cierra Burdick’s high school coach and her wife; a high school teammate who is one of Cierra Burdick’s best friends and her partner; the teammate’s mother; Cierra Burdick’s father, stepmother and half sister; and assorted friends who knew Cierra Burdick from when she played in France. The group had a knack for getting on television with the cameras right in front of them, and the cousins dressed as the Statue of Liberty, Uncle Sam and Rocky.
“She had a huge village,” Lisa Burdick said.
Lisa Burdick and Cierra Burdick.
The sport of 3×3 basketball – it’s played in the half court, at a frantic pace and is very physical with rare stoppages in play – is played year-round. Elite international teams assemble players who stay together for several years. Team USA, which consisted of Cierra Burdick, college player Haley Van Lith and WNBA players Rhyne Howard and Dearica Hamby, had eight days in training camp.
Team USA started the Olympics with three consecutive losses in pool play and then won five games in a row to reach the medal round, a seismic shift led by the leadership of Cierra Burdick.
“To pull it together that quickly and do what they did, I would have loved the fairy tale ending where they bounce back and win the gold but bronze is beautiful,” Lisa Burdick said. “It’s an incredible accomplishment for them.”
Team USA lost to Spain in the semifinals on Monday, and the foursome had to play a second game two hours later for the bronze medal. Team USA prevailed over Canada to earn a spot on the podium.
“It was beautiful,” Lisa Burdick said. “And I love that Canadian team. I’m a huge fan of them as human beings. They’re wonderful. They are hard to beat. That’s an incredibly strong team.”
During the medal ceremony, Cierra Burdick turned around and waved to her family. She was able to hug them after returning to the team hotel where the families of the players waited in the lobby.
Since her daughter had played professionally in France, Lisa Burdick had been to Paris before to visit her and take in the sights. Lisa Burdick did visit the Arc de Triomphe, and son CJ – Cierra’s brother and an artist – wanted to see The Louvre again for his birthday. He turned 20 years old and spent the summer in Japan and Vietnam before joining his family in Paris for his sister’s Olympic debut.
“Paris set the bar high,” Lisa Burdick said of the overall Olympic experience. “Everything was really fantastic.”
The bronze medal and Team USA jerseys – the family will have them framed – will travel back from Paris with Cierra Burdick through the same airport in North Carolina that she flew in and out of so much as a young girl while on the AAU basketball circuit so she could chase her college and professional dreams.
“She has never stopped playing basketball since she was five, and that’s not an exaggeration,” Lisa Burdick said. “She was one of the kids that bounced a basketball through the airport. She was that kid.”
Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press.