Burns ready to battle old friends

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Dec. 18, 1998 | 9:49 a.m.

On Monday, Durango forward Jason Burns found himself the object of some serious taunting during his club's home game against Cheyenne.

A boisterous group of visiting Desert Shields fans made it their mission to try to rattle Burns, son of former UNLV forward Michael "Spiderman" Burns.

Some of their remarks were made in fun, others were in poor taste, laced with expletives about the 18-year-old senior's family and teammates.

Yet through it all, Burns remained good-natured, smiling at times and even blowing a kiss in his naysayers' direction during a timeout.

More importantly, the 6-5 forward kept his head in the game, scoring 26 points and pulling down eight rebounds, helping the Trailblazers stay close against the state's top-ranked club.

Last year, under the same circumstances, there's no telling what Burns' reaction might have been.

But after spending a summer at North Carolina's Mt. Zion Christian Academy -- a religious private school with one of the nation's best-known basketball programs -- Burns says he's a changed person.

"It got me thinking that I had to straighten out my act," said Burns, who lived with the school's pastor during his time in Durham. "I know I can't let things get me upset at my coach or my teammates anymore."

"It was a real growth experience for him," Durango coach Al LaRocque agreed. "He's 100 percent turned around. We're real proud of him for that."

Burns' basketball skills also underwent a change for the better during a summer spent practicing with a Mt. Zion lineup loaded with Division I prospects, and traveling with them to AAU tournaments around the country.

"He played with some of the best players in the country, and that can be a humbling experience," LaRocque said. "It made him focus on what kind of a player he wants to be."

This weekend, Burns will be reunited with his former Zion teammates and coaches when the Warriors arrive in Las Vegas for the 54-team Holiday Prep Classic.

Along with Cimarron-Memorial, Burns' Durango squad will be one of the event's two hosts. Mt. Zion, on the other hand, will begin play Saturday with a target squarely on its back after capturing the tournament's title the past two years.

"Our goal is to come out and try to three-peat, but the odds against doing that in Las Vegas have got to be pretty high," Mt. Zion coach Joel Hopkins said.

While this year's Warrior lineup won't feature any players in the league of Mt. Zion graduates Tracy McGrady (currently a member of the Toronto Raptors) or Corey Hightower (last year's Holiday Prep MVP), Hopkins has as much talent at his disposal as any high school coach in the country.

In fact, prep basketball guru Bob Gibbons has three of the team's seniors among his top 100: Kenyon Booker, a 6-9 center who has signed with Nebraska; Tim Lyles, a 6-0 point guard who transferred to the school from Baltimore's Dunbar High; and Marques Daniels, a 6-7 swingman.

With that trio leading the way, the Warriors are off to a 7-0 start this year, earning top-10 rankings in both USA Today and the National Prep Basketball Poll.

Still, with other nationally ranked programs like Virginia's Oak Hill Academy, Arizona's Mountain View and California's Mater Dei and Dominguez also in the mix, Hopkins remains cautious about his team's chances.

"You play in a tournament like this and you really don't know what to expect," Hopkins said. "There's a lot of talent out there."

While Burns will likely spend time with his former Zion teammates during the next week, a matchup between the Trailblazers and Warriors on the court is extremely unlikely, because both teams would have to reach the final for it to materialize.

Even so, Burns said he'd welcome the chance to show Hopkins & Co. how much he learned during his summer experience with them.

"We'd have to go pretty far to face them, but I'd like to do it," Burns said. "I had a really nice time when I was out there."