Orange County Prep Player of the Week : Dennis Burbank: Mix of Flash and Substance

It’s Dennis Burbank, dunking for the winning points for the NBA championship! Dennis Burbank, besieged by autograph seekers! Dennis Burbank, smiling after winning a $4 million arbitration case!

The Daydreams of Dennis Burbank--now playing in an algebra class near you.

Poor Dennis Burbank. Life at Valencia High School must seem mundane compared to the one he someday hopes to lead. Even after being named team captain, All-Orange League and Winter Formal King, Burbank, a 6-foot 5-inch senior center, continues to resort to attention-getting devices.

Take his bright red satin baseball cap. On game days, Burbank won’t go without it. The cap is an exact duplicate, he said, of one worn by his idol, Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers. Besides, it looks great with the dark sunglasses he wears.

Then there’s his customized Air Jordans, spray-painted blue and fluorescent yellow. He asked his teammates to paint their’s the same. They refused.

And there’s his love for public speaking. Whereas most students dread the thought of talking in front of a group, Burbank is first to volunteer. At a recent school assembly, he ran to the stage and performed an imaginary rock and roll concert.

Burbank has a private side. Namley, the autograph-signing day dreams, or his attraction to major-league arbitration cases. (Burbank, a three-year varsity pitcher at Valencia, said he hopes to play in the major leagues some day).

Also not well-known is Burbank’s pregame meal: frozen pancakes--about 12 of them--with boysenberry syrup and lots of butter served hot from the microwave oven.

The pancakes are no secret, really. It’s just that--unlike most of his actions--Burbank doesn’t make a point of letting everyone know.

“I like to stand out,” he said. “I like to be different. I don’t mind attention.”

Especially during basketball games. Friday, in a first-round, 3-A Southern Section playoff game against Kennedy, Burbank wore red, green, and blue Hawaiian-print boxer shorts under his regular game shorts.

“They looked pretty dumb,” teammate Chris Barr said. “They were hanging out about three or four inches below his uniform. He had to keep pulling them up during the game. Our coach didn’t even notice until the second quarter. Maybe he forgot his regular ones, (but) he liked the attention.”

And the results? Burbank, The Times’ Player of the Week, scored a career-high 29 points and had 16 rebounds in Valencia’s 53-46 victory over Kennedy. He shot 85% from the field. He will wear the shorts for the remaining games this season.

Burbank is averaging 17 points (19.6 in Orange League play) and 10.4 rebounds a game. He is shooting 56% from the field and 61% from the line.

Ray Rodriguez, Tiger coach, said Burbank tried to impress him from the time he transferred to Valencia from Hemet as a sophomore.

“It was the first day of summer and Dennis was about to go on vacation, but he wanted to come in once, I guess, to show me he could jump,” Rodriguez said. “So he ran in and slam dunked. He was only 6-feet then too.”

In the Gatorade Slam Dunk Contest at The Forum last month, Burbank placed 10th out of 800 contestants. He was the only high school player to make the top 10.

“I did the double-pump reverse, a 360 dunk and the walking in the air,” he said. “I do them sometimes at practice.”

Said Barr: “That (dunking) is all he does in practice. Sometimes it gets the coaches mad because that’s all he does. When we were sophomores, Dennis slam dunked during a game at Western. The (Western) coach called a timeout just so he could come over and shake Dennis’ hand. I think that started his (liking the attention). We don’t mind it, though. Everyone on the team likes him.”