Eric Burks

Eric Burks
Player information
birthday	22nd February 1972 (age 48)
place of birth	Atlanta , Georgia , United States
size	192 cm
position	Point guard
college	Charleston Southern
Clubs as active
1990–1992 Clemson Tigers ( NCAA ) 1993–1995 CSU Buccaneers (NCAA) 1996–1999 London Leopards 1999–2000 Milton Keynes Lions 2000–2001 London Towers 2001–2002 Thames Valley Tigers 2002 SLUC Nancy 2002 Edimes Pavia 2002 Leicester Riders 2003 Edimes Pavia 2005 Halcones de Guamúchil 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000

Eric Burks (born February 22, 1972 in Atlanta , Georgia ) is a former American - British basketball player . After completing his studies, Burks first played as a professional in the British Basketball League (BBL), where he was named " Most Valuable Player " (MVP) in 1998. Burks later became a British citizen and tried to gain a foothold as a professional in mainland Europe. After failing to do this, he returned to his home country. In 2005 he was briefly active for a professional Mexican team.

Career

Burks began studying at Clemson University in South Carolina , which is adjacent to his native state of Georgia. From 1990 to 1992 he played for the college team Tigers in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) of the NCAA , first in his first season as a freshman in the starting lineup , from which he was then ousted as a sophomore in his second college season. Then Burks changed universities and went to Charleston Southern University in the same US state, whose university team Buccaneers plays in the Big South Conference , which is much weaker than the ACC in basketball . After Burks had suspended a year of championship games according to the rules of the NCAA after his change of university, he was able to win the Big South championship tournament with the Buccaneers in the final season of his college career in 1995, where he himself was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final tournament . This was not enough for the Buccaneers to participate in the national NCAA finals or for Burks as a recommendation for the NBA draft . Burks was inducted into the “Athletic Hall of Fame” ( German  Hall of Fame of Sports ) at his university in 2006.

After graduating in 1996, Burks turned professional in the British Basketball League (BBL), where he was signed by the London Leopards . This team fought bitter duels with their local rivals London Towers, with the Leopards prevailing in the semi-finals of the "National Cup" and finally winning the title, while the Towers had the upper hand in the quarter-finals of the BBL Trophy League Cup and were able to win the competition. The Leopards moved into the play-offs as the main round first with Burks' compatriot and teammate John White as MVP of the season in which they were inferior to the main round second Towers in the final by just one point. The following season they went again as the main round first with Burks as MVP in the play-offs, but in which they lost the following two home games in the first round after the opening win at the Manchester Giants . During the summer break, Burks tried his hand at the NBA club Miami Heat and returned to the Leopards after this attempt failed, despite offers from more lucrative European leagues. In the 1998/99 season, however, as eighth of the main round, they just reached the play-offs of the BBL, in which they were eliminated in the first round. Then, Burks' trainer, agent and mentor Billy Mims left the Leopards.

Burks moved in 1999 within the BBL to the Lions from Milton Keynes , who like the Leopards a year earlier just reached the play-offs and were eliminated in the first round. He then played for the London Towers, which were also represented internationally in the newly introduced ULEB Euroleague 2000/01 , where they were able to avoid the last place in the table in the preliminary round with a win in ten games thanks to the better direct comparison against the Opel Skyliners . In the play-offs of the championship they were eliminated in the semifinals. In the 2001/02 season Burks played for the Thames Valley Tigers from Guildford , which, however, had the fourth worst record of all teams in the end and missed the play-offs. At the end of the season he moved to SLUC from Nancy in the French LNB Pro A , which had recently won the last edition of the Korać Cup European club competition . In four missions for the main round eight of the French league, Burks could not prevent their first round in the play-offs for the French championship against defending champion EB Pau-Orthez . In the 2002/03 season Burks got a contract with Edimes from Pavia in the second Italian league Legadue . In late November the contract was signed and Burks returned to the BBL with Billy Mims, who coached the Leicester Riders . Two years earlier, Mims had won the BBL play-offs with the Riders in 2001. In the 2002/03 season, the Riders were beaten at the bottom of the table and should only win three of 40 games at the end of the season. Burks made six more games for the Riders before the Italian second division team signed him again in early January 2003. Pavia reached the play-offs for promotion in sixth place with a balanced point balance, in which they were defeated in the first round to the later promoted Pallacanestro Messina . Subsequently, Burks was only active in 2005 with a Mexican team from Guamúchil .

Web links

• BURKS, ERIC - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB ( English )
• Fact File: Eric Burks - Profile on the Britball.com archive pages (Author: Mark Woods, English, 2001)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Burks' body length is reported very differently. In the Clemson Tigers' all-time lineup in 1990 he was listed as a “freshman” at 6 feet and 3 inches , a year later he was said to have been only 6 feet and an inch tall as a “sophomore”. Latinbasket.com aka Eurobasket.com last led him at 6 feet and 4 inches, while the Legadue player profile led him at 195 cm, the equivalent of 6 feet and 5 inches.
2. ↑ On his player profile at Legadue , his year of birth is given as 1971.
3. ↑ Men's Basketball Guide 12–13: All-Time Lineups. (PDF (68.7 MB)) Clemson University , October 18, 2012, p. 150 , accessed on July 5, 2013 (English). 
4. ↑ Four To Enter CSU Athletic Hall of Fame on October 27. (No longer available online.) Charleston Southern University , September 20, 2006, archived from the original on December 14, 2010 ; accessed on July 5, 2013 (English, media info). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ 1997–98 BBL Championship & Playoffs. British Basketball League , accessed July 5, 2013 (season summary). 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Mark Woods: Mims staying firmly upbeat. Britball.com, 1998, accessed July 5, 2013 . 
7. ↑ Eric BURKS Basketball 2001–2002 game by game stats. ProBallers.com, accessed July 5, 2013 (Burks' 2001/02 season for Nancy). 
8. ↑ Historical Stats: 2002-03 BBL Stats. (PDF (32 KB)) (No longer available online.) British Basketball League , January 4, 2013, formerly in the original ; accessed on July 5, 2013 (English, individual seasonal statistics).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
9. ↑ Legaduebasket: Eric Burks. Legadue , accessed on July 5, 2013 (Italian, player profile). 
10. ↑ Eric Burk's Player Profile. Latinbasket.com, accessed July 5, 2013 (English, player profile).