DJ Burns did not ease into life with Dinamo Bucharest. He arrived and immediately took over.
In his debut for the Romanian club on Wednesday, the former NC State star helped Dinamo roll past KB Peja 96-58 on the road in Kosovo in the opening leg of FIBA Europe Cup qualifying. Burns was right in the middle of everything, finishing with 16 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two steals in 25 minutes.
He shot 7-of-11 from the field and posted a 28 efficiency rating, the best of any player across Wednesday’s FIBA Europe Cup qualifying games. His 11 rebounds also led all players.
Burns was officially credited with a +26 while on the floor, and he tied Derrick Marks for Dinamo’s scoring lead with 16 points. He also finished tied for second on the team with five assists.
Dinamo wasted no time taking control. The club led 27-11 after the first quarter and stretched the margin to as many as 41 points before settling into the 38-point win.
The result carries real weight because this was only the first leg of a home-and-away qualifying series for the 2026-27 FIBA Europe Cup. Dinamo did not earn an automatic spot in the regular-season field, so it had to face KB Peja in a two-game aggregate matchup. The winner advances to the regular season, and Dinamo now holds a 38-point edge heading into the rematch in Bucharest on September 30.
That means the Romanian side could lose the second game by 37 points and still move on.
For Burns, it was a strong start to his third professional season. He began his pro career with the Goyang Sono Skygunners in South Korea, where he averaged 9.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists. Last season, he played for Bnei Herzliya in Israel and put up 9.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
Now he’s in Romania with Dinamo Bucharest, one of the country’s historic clubs. Dinamo has won 22 Romanian championships and four Romanian Cups.
Back at NC State, Burns remains a permanent part of Wolfpack lore. He spent only two seasons in Raleigh, but his role in the program’s unforgettable 2024 run made him an NC State legend. He helped the Wolfpack win its first ACC Men’s Basketball Championship since 1987 and then pushed the team to its first Final Four since 1983.
Burns was named ACC Tournament MVP and then earned Most Outstanding Player honors in the NCAA Tournament’s South Region. Across his two seasons at NC State, he averaged 12.7 points per game while shooting 54.4% from the field.
Numbers only tell part of that story. Burns became one of the defining faces of a team that won five games in five days to capture the ACC title and kept its run going all the way to Phoenix. Now, more than two years later, he’s starting a new chapter overseas in the same emphatic style.
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