Joy Marie Burke (born November 7, 1990), also known by her Taiwanese name Pao Hsi-lo (), is a Taiwanese-American collegiate and professional basketball player. Burke played college basketball for the Arizona State University. Following graduation she has played professionally overseas for the Hørsholm 79ers, Bendigo Spirit, and in 2015 she made her national team debut as a member of the Chinese Taipei women's national basketball team.
Early life
Joy was born in 1990 in Chiayi, Taiwan, the daughter of Steve Burke and Ming-Hui Burke. She is the oldest of two children. Her father Steve Burke is White American, and travelled to Taiwan to preach as a Christian priest, and her mother Ming-Hui Burke is from Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan.
Growing up Burke has lived in Kenting in Pingtung County and Kaohsiung. She is fluent in both Mandarin and English. Her younger brother Timothy James (TJ) Burke was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in March 1993. Burke was featured in a shampoo advert when she was four years old.
Burke attended Morrison Academy, a private conservative Christian school, in Taichung until she was twelve. Burke was a little shy as one of the tallest in her class. In the summers, Burke and TJ, would receive workbooks to study instead of playing with other children. Burke thrived and did not need help from her parents with her homework. Burke emigrated with her family to live in the United States when she was twelve.
High school
Burke attended Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe, Arizona and played basketball on the Arizona Elite Girls Basketball Club. According to Burke she never was never interested in basketball growing up, and had never touched a basketball. She was originally hoping to pursue ballet. On Burke's first day of high school she was asked by the school coach to consider taking up basketball, and she gradually felt interested, and practiced. Burke enjoyed an outstanding career in high school and is ranked among the top post players in the country, and was one of the top 100 basketball recruits in the nation. She was named to the All-City Basketball Team in 2007, 2008, and 2009. She holds the school's single-game record for most free throws with 17, and scored 51 of her team's 68 points in a Nike Tournament of Champions to secure her team the victory. She captained her team in two seasons.
Burke subsequently earned numerous awards during her high school career, including being named the Pima Region Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. She received the Kori Jacobson Excellence Award given to the top female athlete of the year in the Tempe Union High School District, based upon athletics, scholarship, and community service, and recipient of a Tempe All-City Banquet. She is a McDonald's All-American nominee and was also named to the Arizona Republic's All-Arizona Team, earning all-city accolades three times.
As a junior, she averaged 19.5 points, 13.3 rebounds, 5.3 blocks, 3.3 steals and 1.3 assists per game. This increased when she became a senior and she averaged 23.3 points, 17.8 rebounds, 7.5 blocks and 3.9 steals per game, and connected on 63 percent of her field goal attempts. At the end of her junior year Burke was offered full-ride basketball scholarships from over 40 Division One universities.
Burke also lettered in volleyball. In addition to her achievements on the court, Burke has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades off court, including being named the Tempe Top Teen, English Student of the Year, Homecoming Queen, and earning Scholar-Athlete honors four times, and was a member of the National Honor Society. Burke ranked 17th in a class of 463 seniors and carried a 4.0 grade point average. She was also served as a translator for students who spoke Chinese.
College career
After graduating from Marcos de Niza High School in 2009, Burke attended Arizona State University from 2009–2014. She had taken the opportunity of a basketball scholarship for a college education and cited the chance to live in different countries as a reason. She majored in marketing, and graduated from UA with a bachelor's and master's degrees in marketing in just five years in 2014. Burke's major in business marketing was more of an accident than a choice. When she first applied to ASU, she clicked a drop-down menu for majors and hastily chose Business Marketing. She said she didn’t think know she could scroll down for 'undecided'.
Burke was in ASU's Barrett Honors College. In the same period, she played for the Arizona State Sun Devils women's basketball in NCAA Division I.