PITTSBURGH — DJ Burns Jr. is at it again. The toothy gregarious giant at North Carolina State was swarmed by reporters near his locker the day before a game against Oakland in the second round of the NCAA tournament. He marveled at how incredible the stage he had just stepped onto was. “That’s the beauty of March Madness,” he said. “If there’s something interesting, they’re going to find it this time of year.” In other words, it’s a time when previously undiscovered stars and compelling storylines are introduced to a national audience. So what was it about Burns that made America, a year or so after Raleigh, North Carolina, fall in love with him this month?
“I would definitely say my size is 100% the reason. I think if I was a skinny guy and did this at 240, it wouldn’t be noticed at all,” said the 6-foot-9, more than 300-pound Burns said, no matter what the official roster says. He patted his belly. “Even though we’re getting away from this – and we’re getting away from it now – it feels good to be different and make it work. I wouldn’t say I’m leaning toward it, but I think it’s cool. It gives me An avenue. It gave me a platform that most people don’t have because I’m unique.”
Burns does something that few guys like him can do, not that there are many NFL forward-type guys even trying to play basketball. From the baseline spin to the silky-smooth southpaw to the dime he drops out of double and triple teams to the softest touch you can get from a big man. “He’s like a polar bear,” N.C. State strength coach Pat Murphy said. “And a ballet dancer.” In other words, a dancing bear. A talking bear. Burns has a mouth, and he’s not afraid to use it.
In the ACC Tournament, after the Wolfpack stunned Duke in front of a raucous crowd: “We knew what it meant. They weren’t really rooting for us, so we kept going. Thank you, though. They were there for Duke.” There’s a difference in cheering without winning.”
After Oakland fans jeered at Burns during pregame warmups Saturday night — some mocking his weight — he paused, stared into the screaming crowd, and grinned. “Go on,” he told them. “The fat-shaming only made him more motivated,” said his mother, Takla. “Tell them thank you. When you call him Whopper, when you put him down, when you’re ugly, you’re just cheering him on.”
He brought something to the fans almost every time he scored against the Golden Grizzlies.He put a finger to his lips Shhh! He ran back to the defense, tilting his head to the side so they could see his smile. He played 42 minutes, finishing with 24 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. When Burns ended the game in overtime, one of the hecklers exclaimed: “This great mother – is going to beat Us.” Again.
Audiences love DJ Burns Jr. 😤 @PackMensBball pic.twitter.com/ItFP3gg1la
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 22, 2024
Under Burns, NC State won seven playoff games in 12 days, went from NIT champion to ACC Tournament champion and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in nearly a decade. The Wolfpack will face South Region No. 2 seed Marquette University on Friday in Dallas. Burns is the ACC Tournament MVP, averaging 16.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists and shooting 65% from the field in these seven wins. He’s 23 years old, has been in college for six years – previously at Tennessee and Winthrop – and played 162 games, but Burns saved the best basketball of his life for last.
This surge is especially meaningful to those who had some kind of intervention with him two months ago.
“It’s awesome to watch,” Murphy said. “This kid put in the work. Now, he was shaken and needed some tugging, pushing, prodding. In late January he was so depressed that he started hitting a wall and going into a panic. This fear turned him into a minimalist for a time . But then we had that meeting and things turned around. We sat him down and told him what needed to be done and how much we needed him, and he thanked us. He said, “I need this. “Because he knows it.”
North Carolina State assistant Kareem Richardson can’t sleep. It was sometime in the early morning hours of Jan. 28, following a loss to Syracuse that marked the only time all season that head coach Kevin Keats didn’t start Burns. The big man made just 5 of 14 shots in that game. He and his team are busy at work.
“As we all know, he’s not where he needs to be, where he needs to be,” Richardson said. “I just sat up in bed that night and said, ‘What the hell, man. We’ve got to try to get him to take more responsibility.’ The next morning, we made a plan. “
With input from the program’s academic staff, nutritionists, strength coaches, training staff and coaches, along with assistance from his parents, DJ’s team outlined exactly what they thought they could do to get Peak DJ in time for the postseason. The first step is to get the biggest people on campus to stop sleeping on bean bag chairs.
“He was moving and trying to do everything on his own, but he wasn’t getting a good rest,” Takla said. “I remember one of the coaches called me and said, ‘Ms. Burns, what’s going on with DJ?’ The collective said, ‘We need him all.’ DJ sees this as a challenge. “I still have work to do,” he said. “Since then, a lot of people have helped him and he’s been working. We went down there and bought him a bed and made sure we did our part. It was a whole team effort.”
They instituted a rigorous plan that included additional physical training and weight lifting, more strenuous basketball-specific training, and a stricter diet. Richardson sent a text message in the morning confirming Burns’ arrival, and the nutritionist took him straight from exercise to healthy meal choices for the day. “But to his credit, he accepted it,” Richardson said. “None of this is going to work if he doesn’t buy into it.” Murphy said that when Burns previously tried to do it on his own, he would starve himself all day long, followed by late-night hunger pangs and cravings for junk food. “Attacked him”. “He’s a superstar in Raleigh, right? So he’ll go wherever he wants, be the life of the party, and he’ll eat.”
DJ Burns Jr. emerged as a fan favorite during the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. (Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
But give Burns a challenge and he’ll rise to the challenge. During his redshirt season at Tennessee in 2018-19, the former four-star recruit transformed his body during the Volunteers’ much-vaunted “weight loss camp,” losing more than 30 pounds and dropping to 240 pounds the following.
“It’s a testament to his hard work. It’s a tough process,” Tennessee strength coach Garrett Medenwald said. “With DJ, we’ve always known his talent, his scoring ability and his footwork. It’s been interesting to hear his thought process and how he’s grown (since he left), not only from a basketball perspective, but from a basketball standpoint as well. From a mature perspective.”
Burns, the Big South’s 2020 Freshman of the Year and Winthrop’s 2022 Player of the Year, recently bought a necklace with a charm depicting the sudden appearance of sunlight behind storm clouds. He wears it everywhere now, even during games.
“Just a reminder,” he said, “even if it’s raining, you can still enjoy the sunshine…and understand that you don’t always need to feel good to get work done. The crazy thing is, once I started this program, I had Can’t score for a while. It’s like, ‘Damn, why am I doing all this just to get worse?’ But you have to be consistent.”
In fact, things got worse before they got better. In the first two games after launching “Operation Feel Burns”, Burns made only 5 of 13 shots and scored a total of 12 points. There are other drops. In the last game in February and the first game in March, he scored a total of six points against Florida State and North Carolina, respectively. The Wolfpack ended the regular season losing seven of 11 games and looked exhausted.
Then, as time passes, when the next failure will be the last, a full-blown breakthrough occurs. “That’s the miracle you want,” Burns calls it.
“I always told him, ‘DJ, be the guy Keats recruited,'” his mother said. “The staff would tell him, ‘DJ, we’re not going anywhere without you.'” But he was what I call an overcomer. He might go through lows, down times, but he’s very reflective and resilient. Once he assesses his situation, he always comes back in better shape. Well, what you’re seeing now is Kevin Keats recruiting. Finally, praise God. “
Burns scored 27 points in a loss to Duke late in the regular season, 19 points in the ACC semifinals against Virginia, 20 points in the championship game against North Carolina, and 20 points in the NCAA first round. A 16-point performance in a win over Texas Tech was arguably his best game of the season in the second round against Oakland. He’s also an aspiring rapper and last year recorded a song about himself, “Beast Boy.”
His teammates nodded in agreement with the nickname.
“I go against him every day in practice,” small forward Ben Middlebrooks said. “I can feel the pain those guys felt when the other team went up against him. When he gets going, there’s no one in the country who can stop him.”
“Just undefendable,” junior guard Jayden Taylor added. “I’ve never seen a man so tall, with so many skills. Ever.”
“The best big man in the country,” senior guard Casey Moser said. “If you hate DJs, I don’t know, there’s something wrong with you. How could you hate that man? He’s awesome.”
Burns learned a thing or two on the long and winding road to becoming a March favorite. First of all, if you’re 6-foot-9, 300 pounds or so, spinning around on a basketball court, people are going to talk about you. But more importantly, he said, listen more than you talk and work hard when no one is watching.
“The work that really makes you better,” he said, “is the work you do yourself.”
Sometimes, what you tell yourself is actually more important. See, even the guy who came up with the plan wasn’t sure it actually changed Burns’ body. He probably wouldn’t have been able to play 42 fresh minutes in a high-stakes basketball game two months ago, but the bigger payday happened between his ears.
“You did some extra work, saved some money, and now you feel like you can withdraw some money when you need to,” Richardson said. “Now he thinks he deserves it. When you get the job done, you’re ready to reap the rewards.”
(Top photo: Mark Goldman/Associated Press)
