September 12 :: 2007

By RANDY CRUZ

MR.FREEZE HAS HIS REFRIGERATED “ICE SUIT” that grants him superhuman strength and durability, making himself one of Batman’s toughest villains. Most of Mr. Freeze's crimes tend to involve freezing everyone and everything he runs into. If he drove Batman crazy in the comics, Steve Burtt, Jr. has driven New York City insane. Freeze’s freezing actions are due to him firing a beam that freeze’s any target within its range, which is something Burtt, Jr. can relate to. His left handed jump shot, which you can refer to as his “ice gun”, has shot misery into possibly every defender in the Gotham scene, and people can attest to 2007 being a very chilly summer for the opposition. But for Burtt, Jr., having the “heart of ice” on the court has made him into a more complex, fearful character than ever before.

Fresh off the plane from Greece, Burtt, Jr., 23, is back home in New York City, ready to give his hometown something new to crave and talk about for the Fall and Winter, and boy did he give the fans something to talk about for the next couple of months. With his ice gun, he has frozen some of the city’s top tournament records, which includes breaking the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic single game scoring record with a 68 point outburst on June 20th, breaking James “Pookie” Wilson’s EBC record of 63 points. Burtt, Jr. was only seven points away from breaking the Rucker Park all-time court record of 74 points, which was set by Joe “The Destroyer” Hammond. Breaking one record and almost breaking another record at the same time would’ve been remarkable, especially in this day and age where streetball records are seldomly broken.

“The records I broke this summer came as a total shock to me, Burtt, Jr. said. “I didn’t try to break any of those records, nor did I plan to. It was truly a great honor to have accomplished those goals. I never would have bet in a million years that I would have accomplished that this summer, or any summer. It actually took a while for it to all sink in. At the same time, I was inevitably watching my name being inserted into New York City streetball history. That is a great honor for me because it’s something my father did in his time.”

If you couldn’t break Hammond’s court record, you go out to somewhere else in the city and break another record, right? Well that’s exactly what Burtt, Jr. intended to do. He would then break the record in the Dog Show Tournament for points (53) and for 3 pointers (10 in game), but that was broken by his teammate a couple weeks later who hit eleven 3 pointers.

THEN HIS ICE GUN accompanies him to Hoops in the Sun at Orchard Beach, which has been nicknamed “Sun Stadium”, on July 15th for the 2007 Hoops in the Sun All-Star Game. Being voted in by the fans as a participant, and as a starter, Burtt, Jr. couldn’t just step off the court without bringing in some TNT type drama to the fold. In a battle to remember between himself and Kenny Satterfield, Burtt, Jr.’s team was down by three points with less than six seconds remaining on the clock. He gobbled up the rebound off his opponents miss, dribbled up the court, quickly looked to his left to check the clock, found the three point mark at the top of key (as he gets to the top of the key, announcer Bobby Cey shouts out through the speaker system “Steve Burtt, Jr. for the tieeeeeee” and hoisted up in what had to look like a prayer and it went right through the net. “OH DOCTOR!!! Lose your mind folks, what a three-point shot by Steve Burtt, Jr.” words that were shouted out by announcer Bobby Cey after the ball went through the net. I guess the ice gun had some kind of heat resistant. The West team calls a timeout and the 6’1 former Rice High School guard begins to walk off the court with a cold hearted stare and both of his fists clinched tight, knowing that he just single handedly extended the game for an extra five minutes. This was Burtt, Jr.’s official grand entrance into the league, and the mid summer classic was more than happy to open the doors for him.

“That was a great game all around. I was EXHAUSTED after that game!” Burtt, Jr. exclaimed. “I had a lot of fun playing against Kenny [Satterfield], someone that I’ve looked up to and admired as a player since High School. The shot to tie the game…I knew I was going to take that shot. I felt I had the hot hand at the time, but I did not know it was going to go in. I was actually praying it did go in because I knew I would have gotten killed for not passing the ball!”

Burtt, Jr.’s team would come out in a losing effort in overtime 133-130, but the performance he displayed would not be overlooked because it would be noted during late in the game that he had broken the Hoops in the Sun All-Star Game single scoring record with 51 points, breaking the previous record of 28 points, set by Smush Parker (2004) and Darren Phillip (2005). Just another game, and another record, added to Burtt, Jr.’s resume’.

BUT MR.FREEZE HIMSELF, when finally having the day to “cool” off, does take the time to discuss his play during the 2007 summer streetball season, as well as talking about where he likes to play in the summer and his own personal goals in playing in the summer.

“I love all tournaments in the city”, Burtt, Jr. said. “I love it because of the atmosphere, and believe it or not, because of the hate. It’s a challenge, and everywhere you play, you have to maintain your stature in this game because there is ALWAYS someone trying to go at you and make a name for them and I accept that challenge everyday. To choose my top tournaments, they would be Hoops in the Sun, Nike Pro City, and the Dog Show.” What does he think about the competition in the city? “I love to play against anyone with the same fire as me on the court. They could have a name or they could be nobody. They could be young or old; it doesn’t matter, as long as you’re out there playing hard, I love to play against you.”

The Steve Burtt, Jr. haters, and they’re stampedes of them, will probably continue to hate on him, and the Steve Burtt, Jr. lovers will continue to love him. He doesn’t have any other way around that, surrounded by hate, controversy, jealousness…all that ties into him loving what he does, and that’s making himself known as the villain, the guy nobody wants to see successful, and the guy nobody wants to see on top.

“Unfortunately, I think I am a target, but I think I acquired that this summer. I don’t think it really mattered much in the past as someone to look out for when you’re playing against me. I think that people do like to watch me play (something also acquired this summer) because of the way I play. I always play hard, win or lose, and people will always leave the game saying that kid gave it all he had. I don’t really mind being the villain, it doesn’t matter to me, but its flattering that to have people talking about me, good or bad, it still means you’re on their minds.”

Aside from the records he broke and endless numbers he kept putting up, Burtt, Jr. completed the ’07 summer season with a bang. Being part of Nike’s “City Is Watching” campaign, he was securely placed on a massive billboard on the side of a building in his old neighborhood in Harlem (128th and 7th avenue), that displayed “Junior is Watching.” What that did was give the people the chance to see Burtt, Jr.’s cold hearted stare into the streets of Harlem for themselves. Even Batman went up against a villain, and Harlem has welcomed the city’s number one villain with open arms.

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