Christian Burns (basketball)

Last updated
Christian Burns
Christian Burns.jpg
No. 23Vanoli Cremona
Position Power forward / center
League LBA
Personal information
Born (1985-09-04) September 4, 1985 (age 39)
Trenton, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican / Italian
Listed height2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)
Listed weight110 kg (243 lb)
Career information
High school Hamilton (Hamilton, New Jersey)
College
NBA draft 2007: undrafted
Playing career2007–present
Career history
2007–2008 AZS Koszalin
2008–2009 FC Porto
2009–2010 ratiopharm Ulm
2010–2011 Ferro-ZNTU Zaporozhye
2011–2012 Elitzur Netanya
2012–2013 Sutor Montegranaro
2013–2014 Enisey Krasnoyarsk
2014–2015 ČEZ Nymburk
2015–2016 Al Wasl SC
2016–2017 Germani Basket Brescia
2017–2018 Red October Cantù
2018–2020 Olimpia Milano
2020–2025 Germani Brescia
2022Napoli Basket
2024–present Vanoli Cremona
Career highlights
  • 2007 Division II National Player of the Year
  • 2007 NBA combine Portsmouth
  • 2007 Went undrafted in 2007 NBA draft
  • 2007 Signed first professional contract July 2007.
  • 2009 First team all Portugal top league
  • 2010 First team all Germany top league
  • 2011 MVP of Ukraine top league
  • 2011 Was going to sign first NBA contract with Portland Trailblazers but NBA lock-out occurred
  • 2012 Signed first contract in Italy's top league (Serie A)
  • 2013 First team all Italy (Sutor Montegranaro)
  • 2014 Signed contract in Russia (Enisey)
  • 2015 Won national championship Czech Nymburk
  • 2016 Signed contract in Dubai
  • 2016-17 Brescia (Serie A) LBA
  • 2017-2020 Plays for Italian National Team
  • 2017-18 Cantù (Serie A) LBA
  • 2018-2020 Signs contract 2-year contract with Armani Olimpia Milano
  • 2018 won Super Cup with Armani Olimpia Milano
  • 2020-2022 Signs 2-year contract with Brescia Italian league Serie A LBA and Eurocup
  • Bought on loan from Napoli Basket after 2021 season for playoffs of 2021 Serie A2
  • Won national championship with Napoli Basket 2021
  • Finals MVP with Napoli Basket
  • 2022-2024 Signs 2-year extension with Brescia (Serie A) LBA
  • 2023 Won F8 Coppa Italia
Stats at Basketball Reference   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Christian Charles Burns (born September 4, 1985) is an American-Italian professional basketball player for Vanoli Cremona of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), top league of Italia. He also represents the Italian national team.

Contents

Early career

Between his sophomore and senior year, Burns grew from 5'11" to 6’7“. [1] After having played soccer and basketball, he focused on basketball in his senior year, averaging 19.8 points, 15.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks a game [2] for Hamilton High School West in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, while taking home County Player of the Year and Third-Team All-State (by the Associated Press) honors. [3]

College career

He started his college career at Quinnipiac, where he spent his freshman and sophomore year. He made 48 appearances for the Bobcats, averaging 3.5 points and 2.9 boards a contest. Burns transferred to NCAA Division 2 school Philadelphia University for his junior year and made an impact right away, scoring 16.7 points, grabbing 9.8 rebounds and blocking 2.2 shots per game in 2005–06. He earned Daktronics NCAA Division II National Player of the Year, ECAC Division II Player of the Year, Herb Good Small College Player of the Year and CACC Player of the Year honors his senior season (2006–07) among many other accolades, when putting up averages of 21.7 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per contest.

Professional career

Coming out of college in 2007, he joined the Philadelphia 76ers' summer league roster, but eventually did not make the final roster. [4] Burns then launched his overseas career, signing with AZS Koszalin from Poland. In the following years, he played for teams in a number of different countries including Portugal, Germany, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, Russia, Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates. [5] In the 2010–11 campaign, when playing for Ferro-ZNTU Zaporozhye, he was named the Eurobasket.com All-Ukrainian Superleague Player of the Year. [6] He made the Eurobasket.com All-Italian SerieA 1st Team in 2013. [7] He then played NBA Summer League with Memphis Grizzlies and went on to win the 2015 Czech national championship with CEZ Nymburk. [8]

Burns obtained Italian citizenship in 2016. [9] In 2017, he represented the Italian men's national team at the European Championships. [10]

On June 20, 2018, the president of Olimpia Milano, Livio Proli, said the club reached an agreement with Burns for 2018–19 season in the Italian LBA and also the EuroLeague. [11] On June 28, 2018, Burns officially signed a deal with Milano where he won the Super Cup. [12] In May 2019, he tested positive for the banned substance Clostebol Metabolita. [13] In July 2019, he was cleared by Italy's national anti-doping tribunal. [14]

On July 4, 2020, he returned to Basket Brescia Leonessa. [15] That season Brescia missed the Serie A playoffs and Burns was bought on loan by Napoli Basket for the remainder of the playoffs where they won the Championship and achieved promotions to Serie A. Burns was named the final MVP. [16] [17]

Upon his return to Brescia the following season (2021-22), Brescia set the club record for most wins a row in Serie A. [18] The following season, Burns won the Final 8 Trophy with Brescia. [19]

In 2022, he signed a two-year extension with Germani Brescia of the Italian Serie A (LBA), [20] where he went on to win the Coppa Italia in 2023. He later signed a two-year contract with Pallacanestro Cantù for the 2023–2025 seasons, before being bought out in 2025 by Vanoli Cremona, his current Serie A team. [21] [22]

The Basketball Tournament (TBT) (2016–present)

In the summers of 2016 and 2017, Burns played in The Basketball Tournament on ESPN for the Broad Street Brawlers. He competed for the $2 million prize, and for the Brawlers, he averaged 18 points per game in 2017. Burns helped the Brawlers reach the second round, but lost to Team Colorado 111–95. [23]

Career statistics

Domestic Leagues

YearTeamLeagueGPMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG
2007–08 Flag of Poland.svg Koszalin Polish Basketball League 3019.051.2%28.0%68.4%4.20.30.90.28.9
2008–09 Flag of Portugal (official).svg Porto Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol 3432.646.2%19.1%71.9%6.71.32.21.217.7
2009–10 Flag of Germany.svg ratiopharm Ulm Basketball Bundesliga 3427.746.0%28.2%65.6%6.31.21.30.417.7
2010–11 Flag of Ukraine.svg Zaporizhya Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague 5730.651.9%25.8%71.3%7.91.31.50.516.1
2011–12 Flag of Israel.svg Elitzur Netanya Israeli Basketball Premier League 930.140.9%33.3%87.5%7.42.41.40.414.3
2012–13 Flag of Italy.svg Sutor Montegranaro Serie A 3026.752.5%40.7%77.5%7.00.71.20.214.9
2013–14 Flag of Russia.svg Enisey VTB United League 2028.248.7%41.3%73.7%5.31.21.20.414.6
2014–15 Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Nymburk National Basketball League 2215.755.0%18.2%76.0%4.10.92.20.49.5
VTB United League 2124.043.0%30.8%72.9%5.60.80.80.510.6
2015–16 Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg Al WaslUnited Arab Emiratesno data available
2016–17 Flag of Italy.svg Germani Basket Brescia Serie A 2523.145.2%30.0%66.2%6.61.01.30.311.4
2017–18 Flag of Italy.svg Red October Cantù Serie A 3130.550.4%27.6%64.2%10.01.31.30.214.2
2018–19 Flag of Italy.svg AX Armani Exchange Milano Serie A 3613.557.1%26.3%66.7%3.40.30.70.34.7

European Competitions

YearTeamGPGSMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPGPIR
2010–11 FIBA EuroChallenge Flag of Ukraine.svg Zaporizhya 2237.548.3%25.0%75.0%7.01.52.00.516.0n/a
2014–15 Eurocup Basketball Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Nymburk 131224.347.0%30.8%78.6%4.71.11.30.511.811.2
2014–15 EuroChallenge Flag of Italy.svg AX Armani Exchange Milano 1403.140.0%0.0%100%0.80.10.00.11.00.6

National team

YearTournamentNational TeamGPGSMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG
2017 EuroBasket Flag of Italy.svg Italy 408.842.9%50.0%100%1.50.80.50.32.3
Legend
  GPGames played  GS Games started MPG Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage 3P%  3-point field-goal percentage FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game APG  Assists per game SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game PPG Points per game PIR  Performance index rating
 Bold Career high

References

  1. Dickinson, Nathan (2016-08-30). "West alum Burns living his hoop dream in Europe - MercerSpace.com". MercerSpace.com. Archived from the original on 2016-11-12. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  2. "Burns still dreams of NBA" . Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  3. "Hamilton star could be surprise of NBA draft" . Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  4. "Hamilton native vents after being cut by Sixers". Archived from the original on 2017-12-25. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  5. "Christian Burns Basketball Player Profile, Germani Basket Brescia, Philadelphia, News, Serie A stats, Career, Games Logs, Best, Awards – eurobasket". www.eurobasket.com. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  6. "Ukrainian Basketball, Teams, Scores, Stats, News, Standings – eurobasket". www.eurobasket.com. Archived from the original on November 25, 2012. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  7. "SERIE-A_2012-2013 Basketball League ITALY – eurobasket". www.eurobasket.com. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  8. "NBL_2014-2015 Basketball League CZECH-REPUBLIC – eurobasket". www.eurobasket.com. Archived from the original on November 23, 2015. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  9. "Christian Burns gets Italian passport". Sportando. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  10. "Christian BURNS at the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 – FIBA.basketball". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 2017-09-02.
  11. "Olimpia Milano agreed to terms with Nedovic and Burns, president Livio Proli says". sportando.basketball. June 20, 2018. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  12. "Christian Burns signs with Olimpia Milano". sportando.basketball. June 28, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. "Doping, positivo Christian Burns dell'Olimpia Milano". MilanoToday (in Italian). Retrieved 2019-11-08.
  14. "Basket, l'ala dell'Olimpia Christian Burns assolto dall'accusa di doping". MilanoToday (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  15. "Big news come true: bentornato a Brescia, Christian Burns" (in Italian). basketbrescialeonessa.it. 4 July 2020. Archived from the original on 4 July 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  16. "E' ufficiale: arriva Christian Burns" (in Italian). napolibasket.it. 14 May 2021.
  17. Carchia, Emiliano (2021-05-14). "Christian Burns joins Napoli for Serie A2 playoffs - Sportando". Sportando. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  18. "Brescia - Basketball - BetsAPI". betsapi.com. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  19. Marini, Marco (2023-02-19). "Final Eight: Brescia is ecstatic, beats Virtus and wins the Italian Cup, the report cards". Backdoorpodcast.com | Podcast e news su Nba, Eurolega e Basket Serie A. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
  20. "Unfinished business: Brescia's GM speaks on next season's goals and EuroCup experience". basketnews.com. Retrieved 2025-06-23.
  21. "Cantù says goodbye and thanks Christian Burns". Sportal.eu. 2025-02-04. Retrieved 2025-06-23.
  22. "Season 24/25: Christian Burns". vanolibasket.it (in Italian). February 28, 2025. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
  23. "Bracket | The Basketball Tournament". www.thetournament.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-14. Retrieved 2018-02-17.