Gregory "Toine" Burks (born 1980) is an American former professional basketball player who spent his eight-year career playing for various teams in Germany between 2003 and 2011. He is , weighs approximately 160 pounds and played the

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

position.

Career

Growing up in

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...

, Burks attended

Flint Northern High School Flint Northern High School was a public secondary school located in Flint, Michigan. The original building "#1" was built in 1928 and demolished in the 1980s, after being the home of the Flint Academy. It was one of the high schools in the Flint ...

and starred on the basketball team. He was a little younger than local area star

Mateen Cleaves Mateen Ahmad Cleaves (born September 7, 1977) is a retired American basketball player. He played parts of six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was an All-American college player for Michigan State, where he led the Sparta ...

but he grew up observing Cleaves' game and modeled his own after it. By the time he graduated high school in 1998, Burks only weighed 135 pounds, but his skills were good enough to land him on the team at

Prairie View A&M University Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU or PV) is a public historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas. Founded in 1876, it is one of Texas's two land-grant universities and the second oldest public institution of higher learnin ...

, where during his five-year career he averaged 17.1 points, 4.2 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 117 games played. He spent one season redshirting due to injury. During his junior and senior seasons, Burks was a First Team All-

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...

(SWAC) player, and in 2002–03 he was tabbed the SWAC Player of the Year. After graduating in 2003, Burks spent the next 7 seasons playing for various clubs in Germany. He officially retired in February 2011, and as of the 2012–13 season he is a boys' basketball coach at Flint Southwestern High School. He also mentors students and players as they develop. Burks was inducted into the Prairie View A&M University Hall of Fame in February 2012.

References

# # # # {{DEFAULTSORT:Burks, Gregory 1980 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Germany Basketball players from Flint, Michigan High school basketball coaches in Michigan Point guards Prairie View A&M Panthers basketball players American men's basketball players