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.

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* {{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