James B. Burns (September 21, 1945 – December 11, 2020) was an American lawyer who served as the inspector general for the
Illinois Secretary of State
The Secretary of State of Illinois is one of the six elected executive state offices of the government of Illinois, and one of the 47 secretaries of states in the United States. The Illinois Secretary of State keeps the state records, laws, libr ...
. He was also a professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
player in the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
(NBA) and
American Basketball Association (ABA).
A native of
McLeansboro, Illinois
McLeansboro () is a city in Hamilton County, Illinois, Hamilton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,675 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The estimated population as of 2018 was 2,773. It is the county seat of Hamilto ...
, Burns was an all-state player who led McLeansboro High School to a fourth-place finish in the 1962 State Championship Tournament. He then played collegiately for
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
, 1964–67, where he led the team in scoring all three seasons, was both All-American and Academic All-American in 1967, was All-Big Ten and Academic All-Big Ten in 1966 and '67, and is still Northwestern's 12th all-time scorer, 3rd in scoring average, 10th in both field goals and free throws made, and 6th in points in a game (40). He was inducted into the Northwestern Athletics Hall of Fame in 1992.
He was selected by the
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January ...
in the fourth round (34th pick overall) of the
1967 NBA Draft. He played only three games with the Bulls during the 1967–68 season where he teamed with fellow McLeansboro native
Jerry Sloan
Gerald Eugene Sloan (March 28, 1942 – May 22, 2020) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) before beginning a 30-year coaching career, 23 of which were spent ...
. Burns also played for the
Dallas Chaparrals
The Dallas Chaparrals were a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA). The team moved to San Antonio, Texas for the 1973–74 season and were renamed the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs joined the National Basketball Association ...
(1967–68) in the
ABA for 33 games.
Following his short professional basketball career, Burns returned to Northwestern, earning his law degree. While in private practice, he was also active in
Democratic politics, running unsuccessfully for
Lieutenant Governor of Illinois in
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
. In 1992, he was appointed the
U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (in case citations, N.D. Ill.) is the federal United States district court, trial-level court with jurisdiction over the northern counties of Illinois.
Appeals from the Nor ...
. He replaced
Fred Foreman in the position. His investigations of and prosecutions for political corruption gained him public recognition and popularity. It has also been claimed that those same things antagonized many powerful Democrats, so that his
1998 campaign for governor was not strongly supported. Despite his popularity and the Republicans' admission that he was the candidate they most feared, Burns finished a distant fourth of six candidates.
In April 2000, Illinois Secretary of State
Jesse White appointed Burns as his inspector general, a position he held until his death.
Burns died on December 11, 2020, at the age of 75.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Jim
1945 births
2020 deaths
20th-century American lawyers
21st-century American lawyers
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from Illinois
Candidates in the 1992 United States elections
Candidates in the 1998 United States elections
Chicago Bulls draft picks
Chicago Bulls players
Dallas Chaparrals players
Illinois Democrats
Illinois lawyers
People from McLeansboro, Illinois
Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball players
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni
Shooting guards
United States Attorneys for the Northern District of Illinois