Background and career
Alfonso Clark "Trey" Burke III (born November 12, 1992) is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines where in the 2012–13 season, he earned National Player of the Year and led the 2012–13 Wolverines to the championship game of the 2013 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. Shortly after the tournament he declared his eligibility for the draft. As a freshman at Michigan, he earned the 2011–12 Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year award and was named to the 2011–12 All-Big Ten 2nd team. He led the 2011–12 team in points, assists, steals and blocked shots. As a sophomore, Burke was a consensus first team 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball All-American. He also earned Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year in 2013 and was a unanimous 2012–13 All-Big Ten 1st team selection. He also earned almost all the possible National Player of the Year awards (Wooden, AP, NABC, Naismith, Robertson and Sports Illustrated), as well as the Bob Cousy Award. As a sophomore, he led the Big Ten in assists and set the Michigan single-season assists record. Burke was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the ninth overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft and immediately traded to the Utah Jazz. As a rookie, he finished third in the NBA Rookie of the Year Award voting. After three seasons with the Jazz, Burke was traded to the Washington Wizards in July 2016. After a short stint with the Westchester Knicks of the NBA G League, he joined the New York Knicks in January 2018. In January 2019, Burke was traded to the Dallas Mavericks. In July of the same year, he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. Burke rejoined the Mavericks in July 2020.
Burke is the son of Ronda and Alfonso Clark "Benji" Burke ll. He has an older sister, Amber, and a younger sister, Amani. His parents met while Benji attended Northwest Missouri State University, where he played Division II basketball after spending time at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College. His mother had just completed her tenure at Ruskin High School. By the age of five, Burke's local youth basketball league had to change its rules so that he would not keep stealing the ball from the other team. As a result of his prowess, he was not allowed over half court when the other team had the ball. He became Jared Sullinger's best friend in fourth grade, but when his mother was transferred to Atlanta in sixth grade, they were separated. The reassignment only lasted one year, however. At the age of nine, Burke's father made him do everything with his left hand, including brushing his teeth and eating dinner, in order to develop his ambidexterity.
Satch Sullinger, father of forward Jared Sullinger, was the coach at Northland High School, while Burke's father was an assistant coach at Eastmoor Academy. Burke chose Northland because he felt he had a better chance to succeed due to their personnel. Burke gave a verbal commitment to Penn State in 2009 after receiving his first Big Ten Conference offer, but later changed his mind to Michigan. Burke made the high school varsity team as a freshman, but did not play much. Between his freshman and second years, his summer league team was defeated when Darian Cartharn scored 35 points against them. Cartharn had been trained by Anthony Rhodman, so Burke sought his tutelage. Burke became a regular client of Rhodman's despite his hectic scholastic, training and competition schedules. He trained regularly with Cartharn twice a day. Because he was a year younger, he was unable to compete with Sullinger in AAU competition, and Sullinger became an AAU teammate of point guard Aaron Craft. By the end of the summer Burke got his first scholarship offer, from Akron. The AAU duo of Sullinger and Craft eventually committed along with two other AAU teammates to Thad Matta's Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team, who also signed point guard Shannon Scott. As a sophomore, Burke made 5 of 6 free throws in overtime to help his team defeat Dublin Scioto High School by a 54–53 margin in a 2009 OHSAA Division I regional final. In the state championship game, he made one of two free throws to give Northland a 58–56 lead with 27.6 seconds left in what became a 60–58 win over Princeton High School. He also made the pass to set up the final game-winning points, although they were scored from the foul line by Sullinger. During the championship season, Burke averaged 10.7 points and 9.1 assists, and made only 1.7 turnovers per game. In his junior season, Burke, Sulllinger and another player, J. D. Weatherspoon, were dominant. That season they defeated both of the top two 2008–09-year-end teams (Oak Hill Academy and Findlay Prep). Northland was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation by ESPN HS before they fell in the 2010 OHSAA regional finals to Lincoln High School. They had also been ranked No. 1 by USA Today for several weeks, but they fell out of the top 10 with the season-ending loss. Before his senior season, Burke signed his National Letter of Intent with Michigan in the November signing period. Coming off a 23–1 season, after losing Sullinger and Weatherspoon to Ohio State, Northland entered Burke's senior season ranked No. 44 in the nation according to ESPN HS. Following a 26–2 season, the team finished No. 45 in the ESPN HS poll. During Burke's career, Northland was 97–5, including 57– 0 in City League games. Burke was a 2009 OHSAA Division I State Champion, a Parade All-American (2011, second team) and 2011 Associated Press Ohio Mr. Basketball. He was ranked as the 15th, 20th and 26th best high school point guard in the class of 2011 by ESPN.com, Scout.com and Rivals.com, respectively. Most elite level high school basketball players participate in the summer Amateur Athletic Union circuit as a complement to scholastic competition. Burke played in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national competitions with All-Ohio Red, coached by Benji Burke, his father. The team won the AAU U16 National Title in 2009 and finished as runner-up in the 2008 AAU U15 National tournament.
The 2010–11 Michigan Wolverines team lost 2010–11 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season assist leader, point guard Darius Morris, to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2011 NBA draft. This left Michigan with a vacant starting point guard position. Burke enrolled at Michigan weighing 172 pounds (78.0 kg).
Burke debuted in the season opener for the 2011–12 Wolverines against Ferris State on November 11 with 3 points in 18 minutes, but did not start until the second game against Towson on November 14 when he tallied 13 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. In the 3-game November 21–23 2011 Maui Invitational Tournament, the team defeated the No. 8 Memphis Tigers 73–61, lost to the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils 82–75, and defeated the 2011–12 Pac-12 season favorite UCLA Bruins 79–63, which helped the team finish in third place. Burke's 9 assists against Duke would hold as a season high. Burke was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week for his 36 points and 18 assists during the tournament on November 28. On December 10, 2011, Michigan defeated Oakland by a 90–80 margin. It was the highest point production by Michigan since beating Northern Michigan 97–50 on November 14, 2009, and it was Michigan's first game with three 20-point scorers (Tim Hardaway Jr., Burke and Evan Smotrycz) since December 11, 2002, when they played Bowling Green. For his season-high 20 points and season-high 9 assists, Burke earned his second Freshman of the Week honor on December 12. On December 29, against Penn State he posted 13 points, seven assists without a turnover and five rebounds, while on January 1, 2012, he added a career-high 27 points on 8-for-11 shooting with three rebounds and three assists against Minnesota to earn the conference recognition the following day. On January 2, Burke earned his first Big Ten Conference Player of the Week honor and his third Freshman of the Week recognition for his 40-point week in Michigan's two conference openers. He earned his fourth Freshman of the Week recognition on January 23 for his performances against Michigan State and Arkansas. On February 20, he earned his fifth Big Ten Freshman of the Week award for leading the team to its third victory over a top 10 team with 17 points and 5 assists against Ohio State. A week later, he earned his sixth Freshman of the Week award for his performances against Northwestern and Purdue. On March 1, Michigan won at Illinois for the first time since 1995. During the game (Michigan's 30th of the season), Burke broke Gary Grant's school freshman assists record set over the course of 30 games for the 1984–85 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team by pushing his total to 143 on that night. On March 5 he earned his third consecutive and seventh overall Freshman of the Week honor when he averaged 20 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in road wins against Illinois and Penn State that clinched a share of the 2011–12 Big Ten Conference regular season championship. Burke led all Big Ten freshman in scoring (edging Cody Zeller by a 15.8–15.5 margin or 5 points over the 18-game conference season) and assists per conference game. He concluded the season as the team leader in points, assists, blocks (not blocks per game) and steals. His three consecutive Big Ten Player of the Week awards to conclude the season coincided with the team winning 6 of its final 7 regular-season games. His efforts lead the team to a share of its first Big Ten Conference Championship since the 1985–86 team and the best Big Ten record (13–5) since the 1993–94 team.
In December 2011, he was named one of nearly 60 candidates for the Bob Cousy Award, which recognizes the Collegiate Point Guard of the Year. On January 4, Burke was named as one of the twenty Cousy Award Finalists along with fellow Big Ten point guards Aaron Craft and Jordan Taylor. He earned the 2011–12 Big Ten Freshman of the Year award from the Big Ten media (Cody Zeller earned the Big Ten coaches' award) and was named to the 2011–12 All-Big Ten 2nd team by the coaches and media as well as named unanimously to the 2011–12 Big Ten All-Freshman team. Burke and Zeller were named Co-Big Ten Freshmen of the Year by the Sporting News. He was selected by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association to its 10-man 2011–12 Men's All-District V (OH, IN, IL, MI, MN, WI) Team. Burke was a second team selection to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division I All‐District 7 team on March 14. CBSSports.com used a modified selection process that resulted in Burke being named a second team All-American and a first team Freshman All-American. The process derided the traditional basketball All-American process of naming the best players and was modelled on the All-Pro or NHL All-Star team formula of choosing the best players by position. Burke was named an honorable mention Associated Press All-American. Burke became Michigan's first Associated Press All-American honoree since Robert Traylor and Louis Bullock in 1998. He became the eighth Michigan freshman to earn team MVP.
