Former Blue Devil Chris Burgess Gets A Surprising New Gig

One of the nicer and more misunderstood guys to pass through Duke is Chris Burgess. He left after his sophomore year, apparently after some pressure from a family member who thought he should be more of a star at Duke than he was.

He went to Utah where he had an injury-riddled two years under the late Rick Majerus and then had an itinerant pro career, playing all over the world but never the NBA.

His recruitment was intense though as he was seen as the #1 player in his class and it came down to BYU - Burgess is Mormon - or Duke. When he chose Duke, BYU coach Roger Reid said he “let down nine million Mormons,” which was a terrible thing to say to a high school kid.

Well life has come full circle for Burgess, who is now a BYU assistant, having moved with his boss, Mark Pope, from Utah Valley to BYU.

Presumably everyone has moved on and no one cares what happened last century. For Burgess personally though it must be an interesting move.

On the one hand, there are the negative emotions surrounding the Reid controversy but on the other he is a Mormon and there is no more Mormon coaching job in the world than one at BYU.

As we say, he’s a sincerely nice fellow and we wish him nothing but the best in this new phase of his career. It would be an interesting twist if someday Pope moved on and Burgess pleased nine million Mormons by taking the job.