Q & A: Joe Burton

Q: What’s your favorite place to eat here in Corvallis?
A: The Bee’s — Applebee’s. I go to Applebee’s and get some wings. Elmer’s is a good place also. I take it back, Applebee’s is not the top place I go, Elmer’s is the place. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack.
Q: What’s your favorite kind of sandwich?
A: I just get the biggest sandwich that I can find on the menu basically. At Flat Tail I get the Beaver Dam sandwich. It has a little grilled egg on it, it’s pretty good. It’s a two patty with the bun, the lettuce and all that good stuff.
Q: Favorite sports movie of all time?
A: It’s either “Coach Carter,” “Friday Night Lights,” or “The Express.” No, no, no — all time favorite: “Remember the Titans.” Denzel Washington kills it.
Q: If the whole team played a game of H.O.R.S.E. who would win?
A: I would win because I’ve got the trick shots under my sleeve.
Q: What’s your best trick shot?
A: I don’t know, I just come up with them on the spot.
Q: What’s been the highlight of your whole athletic career so far?
A: I’d have to say the N7 game, because freshman year we didn’t have it, and then my sophomore year, and my junior year and my senior year we did it again, so just seeing N7 striving — that’s the highlight of my athletic career here.
Q: One of your signature moves is called the “native tornado.” When did you develop that move and how has it worked for you?
A: I developed that move probably 6th grade. I’ve just always liked to spin baseline, and it just affects them because they get caught in my tornado tunnel and they just bounce off me.
Q: I’d say you hit the deck more than any other big man in the nation, is that just a part of your style of play?
A: I’ve got bad knees and a bad ankle, and I try to keep myself up, but if I have room to fall I’m falling to the ground, because it takes more energy to keep my big body up. So if there’s room to fall, I’m fallin down to the ground. I don’t fall gracefully sometimes, but it’s way worse to hold myself up than just flat out fall.
Q: If you weren’t playing basketball, what would you be doing?
A: Be at home on the reservation, probably on the couch, bigger than I am right now ... playing my PS3 and yellin’ at my cousins. Basically that’s what I’d be doing.