Jordan Burks' good deed inspires Kentucky fans to pay it forward

Sherry Myers went into Target on Tuesday night to buy a gift for a young boy in need. Little did she know her act of kindness would multiply thanks to Kentucky Basketball player Jordan Burks.

Myers is a human resources manager who also does extensive community service in the Lexington and Georgetown communities. Through a mentoring program for young mothers, she met Chandler Graves, a 10-year-old boy who has had a rough year. She went inside to get him a gift and a few things for herself. When she got to the register, she noticed a very tall guy ahead of her who lingered at the credit card machine when she put her items on the belt.

“I’m in line thinking, let me hurry up and get out of here,” Myers told KSR. “And this gentleman in front of me, I noticed after he paid for his stuff, he kind of stood there by the kiosk where you put your debit card in. He never moved but I put my stuff on up there and she’s ringing it up. And he told the cashier, ‘I’m gonna get hers.'”

Myers then took a good look at the person and noticed how young he was.

“I said, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no, no, you’re not going to pay for my purchases.’ And he said, ‘No, ma’am, I really want to. Merry Christmas.'”

After Myers continued to protest, she noticed the cashier had a “big, funny-looking smile” on her face.

“She’s like, ‘Ma’am, he wants to be kind. He wants to pay for your purchase. Just say thank you.’ And I’m looking at him and I was like, ‘Well, what kind of job do you have, that you can pay for my stuff?’ He said, ‘I play basketball.’ ‘Play basketball where?’ And he said, ‘For UK.'”

At that point, Myers knew to give in. She asked the cashier — who clearly recognized Burks — to take a photo as proof of the encounter for her husband, a diehard Kentucky fan.

Once Burks left the store, Myers felt compelled to carry on his good deed. She turned to the next people in line, a young couple.

“I said, ‘Hey’ — and they’re smiling — I said, ‘I’m gonna buy your stuff because that gentleman there just bought mine.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, we know who he is. We realized you didn’t.’ And the cashier also told me, ‘We realized you didn’t have a clue who he was.’ I had no idea who he was.”

After their meeting at Target, Myers looked up “every single bit of information” she could find about Burks. In his Kentucky Basketball bio, the freshman forward from Decatur, Alabama says his mother is his greatest influence in life and his most prized possession is his Bible. She posted the picture with Burks and the story of their encounter on Facebook. From there, it spread on social media and around the Big Blue Nation. She hopes it inspires others, including the young couple behind her in line, to pay it forward.

“The ones I paid for, the young couple, said, ‘Yeah, we go to UK. We knew that was him.’ And they thanked me. And I said, ‘Well, you just go ahead and do something kind for someone else.’ So hopefully they did and and hopefully it just continues on.

“I’m a firm believer that you can’t outgive God, and no one in this world has ever gotten poor by giving and he’s proved that.”

This isn’t the first example we have of Burks’ generosity since he came to Kentucky. You may remember that earlier this year, he gifted his teammates, coaches, and even superfan Drake with leather bags and wallets as part of a Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal.

“I hope that it raises him up ten notches on whatever podium he’s already on because he really touched my heart and many others,” Myers said. “I’ve read everything I’ve been able to get my hands on about him and all the responses [to the post], they’ve all talked about the caliber of players that John Calipari recruits. And what an awesome example [Burks] is.”

Hopefully, this is only the first part of this story. Chandler, the young boy whom Myers was buying the gift for, is a big Kentucky Basketball fan. In addition to her original gift, Myers wants to take Chandler to his first-ever Kentucky Basketball game so he can watch Burks play, a good ending to an otherwise “terrible year.”

“[Jordan has] touched my life, and many others, and the little boy that I bought the gift for, I can’t wait for him to open it for me to tell him the story of how he got that gift.”

Another opportunity for a good deed if anyone else in Big Blue Nation wants to keep paying it forward.