College basketball fans love to fall in love. Every spring, America looks not just for a Cinderella team that may make a run in the NCAA Tournament but for individual heroes to join the pantheon of March Madness greats. These are almost never the players who hear their names called early in the NBA Draft. Most of them, in fact, never get to play in the NBA at all. But they are beloved anyway, for what they did during one or two (or five or six) single-elimination games in college. The American fan also loves a player with an unusual physique, whether tall, short, thin, or portly. Something about the spectacle of an athlete who doesn’t look like an athlete has always captivated us. We’ve seen enough stars built like Greek gods.
And the breakout star of this year’s men’s tournament, DJ Burns, isn’t exactly Apollo (Creed or the god). Burns is listed at 6ft 9in and 275lbs, and is cuddly rather than sculpted (for context, the powerfully built LeBron James is the same height but 25lbs lighter). Not that it’s affected Burns’s play: he is a key cog for the Final Four-bound North Carolina State Wolfpack. As NC State have made their run as a No 11 seed, Burns has become the tournament’s hottest name. He has all the makings of a cult hero. More than that, he is two wins away from what would be one of the most shocking championship runs in US sports history.
Burns is inescapable because NC State are on fire and he is a team leader. From his power forward spot, Burns averages 13 points (second on the Wolfpack), 4.1 rebounds (third), and 2.8 assists (second), making him perhaps the team’s best all-round player. A month ago, the Wolfpack were an extremely long shot even to make the tournament, as they languished in the middle of the Atlantic Coast Conference and could only make the field with a surprising title run in the conference tournament. They did just that, beating three recent national championship programs – Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina – to claim an automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
The Wolfpack have since won four consecutive games, setting up a national semi-final meeting with No 1 seed Purdue on Saturday in Arizona. To add to the fun, their last win was yet another one over Duke, their neighborhood rival (along with North Carolina) in the state’s Research Triangle. The run calls to mind the school’s stunning journey to the championship in 1983 under beloved coach Jim Valvano. Burns has been the face of this run.
But that doesn’t fully explain why Burns is such a big deal. After all, he is arguably not even the best DJ on NC State’s roster (leading scorer DJ Horne may have a better claim to that title.) At the moment, the biggest stars in college basketball are in the women’s game. There’s been a vacuum of star power at the top of the men’s game, and Burns has had the right stuff to fill it this month.
He has not only won the nation’s hearts and minds because of his unusual build and delightful skill around the basket, but also because of his infectious personality. Burns’ charisma and approachability make it hard not to root for him. Fans don’t just admire his game, they want to be Burns’ friend. NBA stars stop their days to watch him play. And major companies want to sign brand deals with him, all because Burns is not just a good player, but loads of fun.
Burns is a throwback player. He is not one of those modern big men who likes to run the court and step out for three-pointers, of which Burns has attempted just five all season. Instead, he sets up around the basket and carefully moves his enormous frame in ways that flummox defenders. Nikola Jokic, the two-time NBA MVP and the current gold standard for offensive ability near the rim, found himself transfixed by Burns last weekend. “He’s amazing. He’s amazing,” Jokic said as he strolled into a press conference. “I think he’s so skilled, especially lefty.” That’s quite a compliment, seeing as Jokic is known for his general indifference to basketball when he’s not playing. But when Burns is on court, even Jokic has been unable to look away.
The same goes for the rest of us. Watching Burns carve teams up has been a treat. The college game has had several extraordinarily tall stars in recent years, whether 7ft 6in Central Florida center Tacko Fall or National Player of the Year Zach Edey of Purdue, who is 7ft 4in. Burns lacks that kind of outlier height. He is not the only 6ft 9in guy in the tournament, but he is exceptional for how he carries his weight so lightly. Burns wants the ball in the post, and once he gets it, he is prepared to either back the defender down or shake him loose with crafty fakery. The internet has taken to calling him Gen Z-Bo, a nod to the large and energetic Memphis Grizzlies legend Zach “Z-Bo” Randolph.
Burns is not widely considered an NBA prospect, though his performance in this tournament may change that. (He just scored 29 points against a Duke team loaded with talent, after all.) But his size and athleticism have enraptured some in the NFL, who would like to see Burns take a crack at protecting quarterbacks on the offensive line, even if the 23-year-old flatly shot down the prospect on Thursday in Glendale.
Burns playing pro football seems an even bigger long shot than NC State’s tournament run, but it’s easy to figure out why people look at him and imagine so many possibilities. Burns is a unique athlete given his build, but he also has the sort of personality that makes him easy to root for. He is not afraid to dap himself up if a teammate forgets to high-five him or to loudly taunt Duke fans as the seconds tick down on an NC State win. He has signed a litany of endorsement deals during the tournament as companies, running the gamut from athletic apparel to fried chicken to male grooming to tax software, aim to capitalize on his likability.
With the Final Four looming, Burns’ college career (and this moment of intense fame) nears its end. That career has spanned three schools – Burns began at Tennessee and transferred after one season to Winthrop. He was a star for three seasons at the smaller school in his South Carolina hometown. And for the past two years, he has been pivotal for NC State and their coach, Kevin Keatts. Burns has been a college basketball player for six years and played in games in five of those seasons, taking advantage of new, liberalized eligibility rules. He is a new kind of college athlete in ways that go beyond his commercial involvement. And for at least one more game, and maybe two, fans won’t be able to stop watching.
