NC State big man DJ Burns was the breakout star of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. However, that nearly never happened.

The center was one of the most dominant players in the country during March Madness. But following a loss to Purdue in the Final Four, the center revealed that he was actually fairly close to walking away from the game that he loved.

Burns, who was one of the top recruits from his state coming out of high school, originally committed to play basketball at Tennessee in the SEC. He took his redshirt season there before eventually transferring to a mid-major at Winthrop in the Big South.

RELATED: 7 photos of DJ Burns over the years, from Tennessee to NC State

Postgame with DJ Burns pic.twitter.com/NqorA7M2T5

— Chip Alexander (@ice_chip) April 7, 2024

Following the loss to Purdue, however, Burns explained that he nearly stopped playing basketball after that freshman season:

“Most of this team is made up of transfers who are getting second and third chances to try to fix things and we all came together … I didn’t know if I was going to continue basketball when I left Tennessee. That was just a little personal battle I had with myself. Shout out to all the coaches who helped me through that process and figuring that out.”

Fortunately, he decided to stick with the sport and had tremendous success.

After three seasons at Winthrop (highlighted by winning Big South Freshman of the Year in 2020 and Big South Player of the Year in 2022), Burns entered the transfer portal again and got another opportunity at NC State.

This year, while at NC State, he was able to win ACC Tournament MVP and NCAA Tournament South Region Most Outstanding Player. He also earned a lot of new fans in the process.