NC State Legend DJ Burns is Playing in the The Basketball Tournament this Summer

NC State legend DJ Burns is playing in the The Basketball Tournament this summer for Team Challenge ALS.

DJ BURNS IS PLAYING IN TBT 🚨

& Team Challenge ALS is BACK

DJ is gonna be a FORCE this summer in the paint 👀https://t.co/wxAaBgEf5k pic.twitter.com/ShUzdvD107

— TBT (@thetournament) June 18, 2025

If you’re not familiar, the TBT is an open-invitation, single-elimination tournament played every summer since 2014. The winning team currently takes home $1 million.

Burns is teaming up with Antavion Collum (McNeese), Joirdon Nicholas (Montana, Stephen F. Austin, Texas Southern), Luis Rodriguez (Ole Miss), Marcus Weathers (SMU), and Michael Weathers (Miami, Oklahoma State, Texas Southern, SMU).

The TBT features some unique rules:

• 9-minute quarters
• Players are allowed 6 fouls
• On the 5th and subsequent non-shooting fouls, the fouled player gets two free throws
• Elam Ending Rules:
• At the first dead ball under 4 minutes in the 4th quarter, a target score is set and the game clock is turned off
  • The first team to reach the target score wins
  • The target score is calculated by adding 8 points to the leading team’s total
  • Example: If the leading team has 70 points, the first team to 78 wins—regardless of how long it takes

Burns spent two years at NC State, leading the Wolfpack to their first ACC Men’s Basketball Championship since 1987 and their first Final Four appearance since 1983. He was named ACC Tournament MVP and the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA South Region.

DJ averaged 12.7 points per game while shooting 54.4% during his two seasons in Raleigh.

He just wrapped up his first professional season in South Korea with the Sono Skygunners.