Brayden Burries and Jaden Bradley have become the Killer B's at Arizona, one of the leading backcourts in college basketball, seemingly better by the week.
But after Burries committed to play at Arizona last April, UA men's coach Tommy Lloyd quietly added another Burries a month later. That's when BJ Burries accepted a role as a graduate assistant coach for the Wildcats. He is Brayden's older brother.
Brayden Burries brother, Robert "BJ" Burries, has joined the Arizona men's basketball team as a graduate assistant coach.
A year ago, Robert "BJ" Burries Jr., was helping to coach the 30-2 Miami Lady Vandals to the Arizona Class 2A state basketball championship. Miami High School is just down the road from the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation and Globe High School, where BJ became something of a basketball legend from 2016-19.
Over those four seasons, BJ scored a still-standing state record 3,387 points. The only other players in state history to top 3,000 are ex-Arizona All-American Mike Bibby (3,102) at Shadow Mountain High School and ex-ASU player Corey Hawkins, 3,154, at Estrella Foothills High School.
After high school, BJ played two seasons at Mesa Community College and then graduated from NAU before returning to the Globe area to coach the Lady Vandals. He is studying to get an advanced degree in sports recreation at the UA.
Brayden is 4 or 5 inches taller than BJ, but otherwise they clearly look like brothers, part of the Killer B's. Check them out the next time you see the brothers standing together at McKale Center.
They have spent most of their lives apart. BJ and his mother, Kelly Reede, a Native American, moved to the San Carlos Apache Reservation with BJ's stepfather, James Reede, when BJ was 7. BJ's biological father, Bobby, remained in the greater Los Angeles area, where he was a basketball standout at Cal State-San Bernardino a generation ago.
If you're wondering how legit BJ's state record 3,387 points are, he scored 55 points against Flowing Wells High School in a November 2017 game against the Caballeros in Tucson.
BJ Burries passes up the court during a game at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix on July 15, 2017.
Until now, the most famous person from Globe connected to the UA athletic department is major-league pitcher Don Lee, who set the UA school record with 15 victories during his All-American season of 1956.
