Pro Hoops

Q&A: Ross Burns - Catching Up with the former UMass guard & SLAM diarist

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:48 -0400

Back in the day, Ross Burns was named the ’95 New England Class A Player of the Year after a stellar senior season of high school. Instead of going to a smaller college and becoming an All-American, Burns chose to become a walk-on at UMass and be a part of the best team in school history. With that decision, Burns got to watch and learn from Coach Calipari and go up against one of the best backcourts in the country everyday at practice, soaking up all the basketball knowledge he could handle. During UMass’ Final Four run headed by Marcus Camby and Coach Cal, Ross kept a diary for SLAM that gave an inside look at the team and was eventually published in SLAM 12 (the diary can be read in its entirety here).

After college, Ross didn’t give up his love for the game and continues to make an impact on players of all ages. After coaching on the DI level for years, the former Minuteman joined the vaunted Pro Hoops NYC training group and is working with and coaching players from high school all the way up to the NBA. Ross is also making a difference in the New York community with the “Drill and Play” program which gives underprivileged kids a chance to get off the streets and learn how to play the game the right way.

Catch up on all of Ross’ moves in the basketball world below.

SLAM: How did the you get involved with SLAM during your freshman year at UMass?

Ross Burns: There was a writer for SLAM on campus and I think he was doing an internship or some sort of job with the basketball program helping out with academics. He’d always be in there when we were having our study hall and he approached me one day and said, “Hey, I’d love to get some insight from you. Would you do a diary with me?” And I said, Cool let’s do it.

SLAM: Did you have fun with it? You guys were probably expecting to go all the way, right?

RB: Yeah, we kinda got the short end of the stick in the NCAA Tournament. The whole year, UMass and Kentucky were 1-2 but we wound up being on the same side of the bracket in the Final Four which ended up being pretty anti-climactic. We had beaten Kentucky convincingly earlier in the season up in Michigan and we had a long history with Kentucky since Pitino was a UMass grad and helped get Coach Cal the job at Massachusetts. We also felt like we were the best team in the country, we started off 26-0 and beat Tim Duncan and Wake and Allen Iverson and all those guys, so we felt like we had already proven ourselves. To come up short at the end of the season was very disappointing.

SLAM: Do you guys still get together from time to time?

RB: Yeah, when I stopped playing I started coaching and coached DI for seven years and would always see Coach Cal in Memphis and I saw him, Bruiser and all the assistants in New York after he won the National Championship. We all still stay in contact with each other and everyone knows where everybody else is. We haven’t gotten together as often as we’d like but we’re still very involved in the program especially now that Derek Kellogg is the head coach. He played for Coach Cal and is doing a great job of bringing back all the old players.

SLAM: Speaking of Coach Cal, how big of an influence did he have on your decision to get involved in coaching and training?

RB: He played a huge part in it because he was such a great motivator and always found a way to inspire guys to work hard and improve their game. When we were freshmen, I remember Coach Cal would have something called “Pro Days”. It’s a long season and you’d get your winter run in January and February and you’re constantly with the team doing scouting and preparing for games. Cal would always designate a day to work with us one-on-one as individuals. I talked to my friends on other teams and they weren’t doing anything like that. He was always pushing guys to work on their game and find ways to improve and that’s one thing I always respected and took from him. He’s all about his players and he always pushes them to get better.

SLAM: He’s constantly in the news for more negative than positive it seems. Do you think all the criticisms are a little unjustified?

RB: Yeah, I think he gets a bad rap since he’s fiery and won’t back down from anyone or any type of challenge. He’s had great success doing what all the other coaches wish they could do. He attracts the top talent and he’s found a way to motivate them. You watch the all-access shows and he’s talking his talk but what he says, he really believes. The stuff he’s telling his recruits, he backs it up. He’s not just giving them lip service, he really prepares you and I think the kids respect that. I think he’s changing the game, coaches are going to recruit differently because of him. They’re not going to always like it but they’ll have to adjust.

SLAM: When you watch him now, do you think his style has changed compared to when you played for him?

RB: Oh, it’s totally different. The thing I always respected about him is he doesn’t coach in his style all the time, he adjusts to his players. When we were at UMass and had Marcus Camby and he would block every shot and our offense would run through the post. We were a half court team and led the nation in defensive field-goal percentage. We would press the first five minutes of every game to create an aggressive mentality and everybody thought we were a pressing team but we were just doing that to get going, then we would sit back in the half court and play our game. Then you see him at Memphis where he had more of a guard-oriented, dribble and drive offense. This year he’s got a bunch of big guys and he’ll play differently, he’s constantly adjusting to his personnel.

SLAM: You’re currently doing work with Pro Hoops NYC. How did you get involved with them and what’s the overall goal?

RB: Pro Hoops was started by a guy named Jay Hernandez who played at Hofstra and professionally in Puerto Rico. Jay is a great trainer, he’s been in a lot of the Under Armour ads training with Kemba Walker. He’s working with a lot of pros and he’s finally getting his due now, he’s been doing this for a long time and he’s getting the exposure he deserves. Jay is from Long Island and I was coaching at Fordham and we were doing these camps for college players over the summer. We ran one at Fordham and I was thinking about getting out of coaching and he told me they had an opportunity to work with Pro Hoops so I joined them. Things started going really well and it took off from there.

I’ve always enjoyed working with players, that was always my thing, I was a gym rat so it was a natural job for me. As far as the goals of the company, we’re a basketball training company, that’s what we do. We’re programmed for individual workouts for different levels of play. We’re expanding and continue to hire the right trainers and lead the industry in what we do.

SLAM: You’ve worked with Kevin Love, Joakim Noah, the aforementioned Walker. Why do they come to you instead of other trainers?

RB: We’ve always done our business by referrals. I think guys find a comfort level with you and know they can trust you and help them get better. You do a good job with a few people and they spread the word. I don’t think it’s a secret, if you do a good job and people trust you, you’ll keep getting clients.

SLAM: You also work with a lot of college and high school kids. Do you have a preference in who you work with? Do you prefer them to the pros or vice versa?

RB: I love the balance throughout the year, you get to be on different sides of the sport. The perspective you get working with a young player or a high school player or professional player, it’s all very similar because you’re helping them work on different skills. Mentally I think you can have a bigger impact with the younger guys since they’re coming up and you can help mold them in that sense. I enjoy working with everyone because of the different perspectives. It feels great to help a young kid who wants to make the varsity team or go to college and having them work on the necessary skills.

SLAM: I was reading that you teamed up with the NYPD PAL and the County District Office for the “Drill and Play” program, what was the inspiration behind the partnership and the program?

RB: A guy who works in the DA’s office approached me about doing programs for the DA. It really came from them saying they’re committed to not only prosecuting the people that are breaking the law but also helping kids by giving them the opportunity to do something besides getting in trouble. The idea is to provide kids with an outstanding training program that they might not be able to afford so they can get the same chance as kids who can afford it. He approached me and we started with one gym and it went really well. Then we had that gym for two nights and opened another gym and another and now we’re at four gyms and hoping to open a few more throughout the city. We’re also looking at expanding outside of New York as well.

SLAM: When you first got wind of this project and the program, did you expect it to take off like this?

RB: I really wasn’t sure. These programs are tough. If something doesn’t go well and if the numbers aren’t right, it’s so easy to close up shop and head in another direction. I know Harlem is in need of things like this. I know kids want to get better. At the same time, you’re dealing with 40-50 kids at a time and you have to get trainers who are up to the task. If things don’t go well the first few times, everything can change quickly. The kids were great and came in from the beginning wanting to get better. They came in with eyes and arms open saying they really wanted to prove their game and those are the kids who make this whole thing possible. They trusted us and that was huge.

SLAM: Would you say this is something you’ve taken the most pride in over the course of your career?

RB: I don’t know, that’s a tough question. I loved coaching and working with those kids and recruiting. You get a lot back from this because you really see kids who may not play basketball in college but they want an opportunity and for someone to believe in them. We have a great staff of trainers that really take the time to work with the kids and connect with them on a weekly level year round and it’s a very rewarding program in that sense. We start them young so we have a big chance to make an impact and help them as opposed to some programs that only take the most talented player. This program gives kids who come in and pay attention to us an opportunity to play, learn the game and get better. We definitely have a reward that’s bigger than programs that are happy with winning 20-games and going their separate ways when the season is over. With the “Drill and Play” program, you’re building relationships with these kids and hopefully bettering their lives.

NY Post Girls Basketball Recruiting Notebook: Marymount's Dugan, CK's Raaf Pick College Destinations

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 01:21 -0400

A tip from a family friend helped shape Abby Dugan’s basketball life. The Marymount star forward, then a freshman, was told to check out trainer Ross Burns, who just began giving sessions at Dalton in Manhattan, and his Pro Hoops Organization. She was immediately hooked and worked with Burns, now a renowned trainer, for the next four years. He has trained NBA stars like Ben Gordon, Mike Dunleavy, Kevin Love and Joakim Noah, was a member of the coach John Calipari’s 1995-96 Final Four team at UMass and has held multiple college coaching jobs. “He’s helped me with so many things, not just the basketball skills, but he’s been a good mentor for me,” said Dugan, who got to meet David Lee and Noah. They worked on expanding the 6-foot-1 forward’s mid-range game and added an assortment of post moves. Burns said he saw right way that Dugan was serious about improving and lauded her work ethic and hunger. She will play college basketball next season at Division III Gettysburg, picking the Pennsylvania school over Trinity College, Bowdoin College, Connecticut College, Salve Regina University and Roger Williams University. “They saw she is a good rebounder and they saw she has some size to her,” Burns said. … “We are going to see how much that helps at the next level when she steps out and makes some of those shots.” Dugan liked Gettysburg for its balance of athletics and academics, particularly its organization management studies major. She wants to work for the Knicks or in the NBA in general down the road. When she visited in January, she found the coaching staff welcoming and the girls excited for the future of the program. She was trying to stay somewhat close to home anyway. The Bullets went 12-13 overall and 10-10 in the Centennial Conference under head coach Mike Kirkpatrick. “They enjoy what they do,” Dugan said. “They said they have a good balance of everything at Gettysburg.” She was named Marymount’s captain for her final season and led the team in scoring with an average of 16 points per game and also averaged 12 rebounds and four blocked shots per contest. Dugan was twice named to the AAIS All-League team. Marymount beat NYCAL regular season champion Columbia Prep at Horace Mann’s Peg Duggan tournament. “I tried to impart a little advice to them,” Dugan said of her younger team. “This is how we do things on varsity. … Towards the end of the season they really got it. I think I left them in good hands.”

NBA Pre-Draft Training 2012: Tim Burns with Meyers Leonard

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 02:30 -0400

NBA prep

The Meyers Leonard NBA project is well under way.

The Illini sophomore — he’s finishing classes this semester — has been working out at Ubben with trainers from Pro Hoops, an outfit based in Manhattan. Trainer Tim Burns, who played on George Mason’s 2006 Final Four team, worked with Leonard all of last week.

Pro Hoops has trained players from Kemba Walker to Joakim Noah to Illini great Deron Williams. Leonard’s individual workouts are scheduled to continue until semester’s end, when he will travel to Long Island to continue his predraft training.

In the meantime, NBA personnel are doing their background work. One scout from an Eastern Conference franchise called a News-Gazette reporter with a series of non-basketball questions. Who’s in his posse? Does he party? Is he married?

Teams view potential first-round picks as a million-dollar investment and leave no stone unturned. The same figures to be true in predraft interviews.

“He’s sort of an enigma,” the scout said. “He’s got that great size. He’s really athletic. His upside is off the charts. But nobody knows for sure. He’s got a lot of room to be a good player. Is he willing to work hard to get there? That’s what we want to know.”

Leonard’s freshman-to-sophomore leap was impressive. His numbers improved across the board.

Still, the Illini’s disappointing season left some questions for their NBA prospect, as well.

“The times I saw him he never got the ball. That was frustrating to watch. You could tell he got frustrated,” the scout said.

The scout said Leonard right now is projected to go in the middle of the first round. He noted, however, that Leonard is a “classic” example of a prospect whose stock could rise after teams witness the 7-foot-1 center’s athleticism in predraft workouts.

“Saturday Nite Lights” a slam dunk with Harlem teens DA offers free Pro-Hoops training to keep kids safe

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:42 -0400

Manhattan DA Cy Vance is hoping to make uptown streets safer one jumpshot at a time.

Harlem teen hoopsters are getting a shot at strutting their stuff on the hardwood court alongside cops, DEA agents and assistant DA’s. Dubbed “Saturday Night Lights” for turning on the lights at a previously closed gym on Manhattan Avenue and W. 119th St., the new basketball training program is open to neighborhood kids aged 12-16.

The program is run by the Police Athletic League and Ross Burns, the director of Pro Hoops NYC, a company that trains NBA players, college athletes and rich folks who want to “train like the pros.”

“If you put a really good basketball trainer in front of a group of kids who like to play, they respond. The Pro Hoops trainers are superstars. The kids love it,” sad Vance. “I think this is one of the ways modern law enforcement can create something fun that will actually help make the community safer.”

Basketball leagues for underserved youth is not a new idea. But one thing makes “Saturday Night Lights” unique: The $10,000 it costs to run the two month program comes from assets seized from drug busts.

“What the DA is doing is amazing,” said Fernando Rivera, whose 6’5 son, Andrew, is a 10th grader at Bread and Roses High School in Harlem. “It’s a beacon for my son and all the kids to keep them distracted from the streets. And it’s a perfect way to use this type of money.”

Playing alongside the kids and helping to coach is ADA John Irwin, deputy chief of Manhattan’s trial division and former homicide prosecutor.

Irwin, who played at Georgetown in his college days, said it was well worth giving up his Saturday nights “to be pro- active with an age group we deal with day in and day out as victims and victimizers.

“The vast majority are great kids and just craving something constructive to do,” said Irwin. “So much of the violence we see uptown is so senseless -‘I live here on this block and you live there, so F-you.’ One of the goals is to get kids who would normally on the street be suspicious or antagonistic to eachother to get to know each other playing ball.”

There are plans in the works to start a similar program in Washington Heights for baseball.

The basketball training camp has been so been so popular, it was expanded this weekend to two nights - Friday and Saturday- so 160 kids can participate.

Harlem 10th grader Cameron Bowen loves the program so much, he stays for both sessions, running and dribbling for a gruelling four hours straight.

“It keeps me motivated for basketball cause I really want to make it to the NBA,” said the 5’9 guard, who lives a few blocks from the gym. “I love how they teach us how to dribble, to shoot the correct way, and really motivate us to play ball. And that we are not bad kids.”

If the Saturday night program didn’t exist, Bowen said, “I’d probably just stand outside talking to friends and doing nothing, or be in the house playing video games or on Facebook bored.”

Preparing For The NBA Draft With Sylven Landesberg

Tue, 18 May 2010 17:00 -0400

But Landesberg is not the only one looking to make the jump. The NBA recently announced that over 100 players filed as early entry candidates for the 2010 NBA Draft, making his chances that much harder. But unfazed by the competition, Landesberg continues to prepare. Working with trainer Jay Hernandez – who has also worked with guys such as Ben Gordon, Jameer Nelson, Raja Bell, Sundiata Gaines and Wally Szczerbiak – his game has never been better.

“I started working with Sylven for the first time last summer,” says Hernandez. “I’ve put a program in place where he has all the specialties that he needs from the standpoint of a sports nutritionist, strength and conditioning and core Pilates work. We try and put everything in place for him, and we go basketball-wise about two and a half hours a day.”

Wanting to see what an NBA Draft prospect’s workout looks like, we headed to the Boys & Girls Club in Locust Valley, N.Y. to see Landesberg and Hernandez putting in work. You can watch Sylven’s workout come to life below in a DimeTV exclusive, and catch the training session step-by-step in Dime #57 (out soon).

Coaching Pro's & Joes

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:55 -0400

Ross Burns Teaches What He Knows and That’s A Lot

By Adam Sivits

It’s a Friday night in Manhattan and the streets are emptier than usual. The light drizzle cascading down, turning the sidewalks into thousands of tiny glistening puddles, drives everyone inside.

In other words, Ross Burns thinks the weather is just fine.

“I was always a gym rat,” he says with a gleam in his eye, sitting hunched over in a chair looking like he wants to dribble between his legs just because he can, “I was always on the court working on my game. I love working with players.”

Burns walked on at UMass in 1995 as the Minuteman went to the Final Four. After graduating he worked on staffs at Wagner, Youngstown State and Fordham University before founding Pro Hoops in Manhattan with his younger brother Tim, who played on the George Mason squad that made a miracle run to the 2006 Final Four.

“Tim was always working out with me,” Burns says. “I always had him on the road, at camps at a young age. He was my little field test.”

Apparently the brothers passed with flying colors.

According to Burns, Pro Hoops had just a handful of players as a little as nine months ago, but great results and positive word of mouth multiplied that tenfold.

“You don’t really get that advanced stuff anywhere else,” fourteen-year-old Henry Lowe says. “I’m ten times better than I was since been working with [Burns]. He teaches you really ankle-breaking moves that no one else really knows.”

That’s evident as Burns takes a small group of boys between the ages of thirteen and fifteen and shows them how to take a few hard dribbles into the lane and “rip” the ball, or pull it back across the body to the other hand to side step a defender. It’s a move that most won’t master until high school at the earliest, and some pro’s never did.

“You come in the gym, it’s you and a coach,” Burns says. “You can get better, polish up your skill sets, and if you want to take it to the next level and get in some group work, you can do that.”

Even though the Burns brothers work with college players, and have with NBA players such as Ben Gordon, Jameer Nelson and Speedy Claxton, they will take both boys and girls ages ten and up and work with them on their fundamentals in various locations throughout Manhattan.

“We really try to give the players a lot of control when they work out,” Burns says. “We try to survey the players on what they want to get better at, [and] incorporate that into their workout.”

It’s a specific method carefully culled and picked from many mentors throughout the years.

“I played for John Calipari [Kentucky Head Coach], and he was awesome,” Burns says of the former UMass coach who nearly took Memphis to the National Title last year. “We had, I think six head coaches on our staff [at UMass], and I got to learn from all those guys every day. The coaching tree really branched out.”

Luckily, all any good tree really needs is a little rain.

Training Means the World to Standout Landesburg

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:54 -0400

By Zach Berman Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, November 9, 2009

This past offseason, Sylven Landesberg could have tried out for the USA Basketball under-19 team for the summer’s world championship. He could have gone to Israel to play on the United States’s Maccabiah Games team. He even could have represented his mother’s native Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean championships.

The Virginia guard who was named the 2008-09 ACC rookie of the year spurned all those offers. Instead, he did what helped him earn accolades in one of the nation’s finest conferences, opportunities on national teams and even discussions as an NBA prospect: Landesberg returned to his home in New York, sweating through the skill-training sessions that his father emphasized during Landesberg’s youth.

“I’ve been doing this my whole life,” Landesberg said. “A lot of people were saying I got to play [on Team] USA, I got to go Israel. And when I turned it down, a lot of people were upset with the USA team. I’m going to hear things. But I’ve been doing this for a while, and I like the way it’s turned out.”

Bypassing international opportunities was not a popular route, but it was one that befits Landesberg. He did not spend high school summers traveling the AAU circuit with the same frequency as other players, which limited his exposure until late in his high school career.

First-year Virginia Coach Tony Bennett played for USA Basketball while he attended Wisconsin-Green Bay and encouraged Landesberg to try out.

“But at the time, [Landesberg] was very committed to his individual summer workout, and I left the decision to him,” Bennett said. “I said if you want to do it, I want to support you because I think it’s good. But if it doesn’t work, that’s up to you. I want him to feel as comfortable as he can.”

The motivation for Landesberg’s decision was to improve areas of weakness with specific trainers in New York. Landesberg’s father, Steve Landesberg, hired skill coaches throughout Sylven’s youth to work on each fundamental of basketball. And because summer is the best chance to improve, Steve worried about down time when Sylven was not participating in games.

“He had a lot of good opportunities to go and play around, but playing around is the same to me as fooling around,” Steve said. “Because when they’re not playing, they’re fooling around and not getting anything done. And I knew if he came back here, I would make sure that what has to be done, gets done.”

Sylven Landesberg worked with trainers from Pro Hoops on Long Island, including Jay Hernandez and Ross Burns, who have trained a number of NBA players and spent time this summer with Maryland juniors Adrian Bowie, Cliff Tucker and Dino Gregory. Landesberg also worked with trainer Milton Lee, and participated in Lee’s scrimmages at the New York Athletic Club with NBA players.

Hernandez specifically helped Landesberg refine a jump shot that was a problem late last season. Landesberg shot 31.4 percent from three-point range, and opponents started to play off him because he was lethal driving to the basket but pedestrian from the outside.

After hoisting what he estimated as more than 1,000 shots per day and working with Hernandez to make mechanical adjustments with his form, Landesberg said he is more comfortable with his range.

Hernandez used a computer program to measure the trajectory on each shot. Now, Landesberg considers three-point shooting part of his repertoire.

“One thing that remains consistent after you work on shooting mechanics is that the arc remains the same every time,” Hernandez said. “We put Sylven on the machine, and at the start, his arc was a little up-and-down. After using it consistently, we figured out, ‘Okay, this is going to be the optimal arc for you.’ “

Bennett’s challenge to Landesberg does not include a word about scoring. In any conversation about Landesberg, Bennett recites the same speech – and it’s one Landesberg hears each day in practice.

“Like it or not, when you’re one of the best players on the team – even though he’s a sophomore – you’re going to be looked to lead,” Bennett said. “The challenge I’ve really given to Sylven is, you’re a good player, you’ve had good individual accolades, now I want to challenge you that the good players I’ve been around, they impact the game by elevating the play of their teammates. I really want him to embrace that.”

Virginia’s athletic department has not understated Landesberg’s value to the program. He’s the player featured in the team’s promotional campaign. Landesberg narrates a commercial in which he says he appreciates the individual awards, but he’ll measure his success by whether the team wins. Landesberg is the only non-senior featured on the team’s media guide, and he was the team’s lone representative at the ACC’s annual preseason media day.

“Certainly, he works so hard on his individual game,” Bennett said. “But a kid as a sophomore being the marked man in the conference? That will be a challenge.”