Tig Major, it's been a number of years since I've seen Burdette coach, so I cannot comment on what you were saying. I assume it's a bit tongue in cheek though. When I was in HS Burdette was the quintessential love/hate guy, even among the student body. Since I was an athelete I got a free pass a lot of the time from him, just like the other atheletes did. So I guess I didn't mind him too much, but I understand why other people may not have liked him. He was a bit of a smart a&& and had the personality that could rub people the wrong way, mainly due to his cockyness.
I remember one game when I was in HS and we were playing Sulligent there at South Lamar. Sulligent is from our county and was always an area rival when the teams were both 3A. The opposing coach was complaining about something (maybe the fact that we'd scored 140 on them, I don't know) and Burdette walked towards him and yelled out, "I'll play you 3 on 5 if you want me to". I'll never forget that. That's kind of the ballsy, smart-ass he was. And he would have done it too....and beat the guy. He was like that. Probably still is.
So like I said, your comments might have been tongue in cheek but I'm not able to comment on how Burdette is now. It's been a number of years since I've interacted with the guy....but it wouldn't surprise me if he's still the gambling, brash, egotistical smart-ass he was when he was younger. All I know is he's won a ton of games and he's very very good at what he does.
I don't know that he molds young men into better human beings but I know he makes them better basketball players. One need only log into AHSAA.com and check the all-time records to see what he's done. South Lamar is all over the record books while Calera has won a couple of state championships since he's been there.