He still has plenty of potential at 26 years old
Turk Telekom energizer Kris Bankston didn’t take basketball seriously until fifth year of college
Player Spotlight
6 Min čitanja
Turk Telekom Ankara has one of the most exciting players in the BKT EuroCup in Kris Bankston. And the center loves energizing his team and its fans. But he’s really only taken the game seriously for a few years, promising for plenty of upside in the future.
Bankston has been a major part of Turk Telekom’s success this season, averaging 9.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 0.9 blocks in 11 games as the team ranks third in Group B with a 7-4 record after losing its first two games.
“I feel like at the beginning of the year, we didn't really have an identity as a team and our chemistry wasn't all the way there,” the 26-year-old big man told David Hein. “So we built up that chemistry and we started learning our roles and what we can bring to the team as individual players. I feel like that really helped us a lot into building us to what we are now.”
Bankston is in his second season in the EuroCup after he contributed 6.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.6 blocks in 16 games in 2023-24 for Aris Thessaloniki Betsson.
That was an eventful season for Bankston. He started the campaign on the roster of Israeli side Hapoel Be'er Sheva, but then left the team in October due to the political turmoil in the country. For his rookie professional campaign, he landed at Aris.
“It was an eye-opener,” he said. “The fans were completely different from what I was used to in America. I had to get used to that and also the way the game was played – the different rules. But I really enjoyed it.
“Some things I used to do in college are taught differently overseas, and it actually works better for how the game is played.”
Aris ended up having too many foreigners and Bankston was the odd man out late in the season, so for the final month of the season he returned to Israel and finished the campaign with Be'er Sheva.
Bankston then moved to Turkiye last season and signed with Tofas Bursa, with the team losing to eventual champion Bilbao Basket in the Basketball Champions League Quarterfinals. He averaged 11.4 points and 5.2 rebounds in the competition.
Bankston had come quite far in the game already, especially considering he was a late starter to the game.
The Arkansas native started his sports journey with baseball, playing the important positions on the diamond of shortstop, center field and sometimes pitcher. Then in the summer after ninth grade, when he was 13 years old, he had a major growth spurt from 1.75 meters (5-foot-9) to 1.98 meters (6-foot-6).
“After that, that's when I realized I should try to play basketball,” he admitted.
Bankston really never played much organized basketball so he had his beginning at age 14. And while he started playing the game, he never really watched much basketball on his own. In essence, he wasn’t really interested in basketball.
“It took me a while to really understand that I actually have to watch basketball and understand it to learn and get better at it,” he said.
It was only when he was a freshman at college at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock that he picked up on studying the game more because he saw some of the team’s star players doing so.
But it took even longer for him to really know the game and understand and appreciate it. That came when he left his home state of Arkansas to attend Norfolk State University in Virginia.
“I was away from home and everything about my life was basketball at that point. I feel like that’s when I really started to appreciate the game more,” he said of his two seasons at NSU from 2021 to 2023.
A big part of his game already back in college was his powerful dunking. And it remains one of his favorite things about the game.
“I like playing for the crowd. The crowd reacts to dunks, and I like getting everyone hyped,” said Bankston, who finished off the Round 10 win over ratiopharm ulm with a windmill reverse slam just before the final buzzer.
It really shouldn’t be a surprise who Bankston’s player was: Blake Griffin, a dunking machine in his own right.
“Watching him during the [Los Angeles Clippers'] Lob City era really got me into dunking,” he said.
But Bankston enjoys playing defense, too. And he plays a big part in Turk Telekom’s defense, which is ranked second in the league in fewest points allowed at 74.8 per game and is top in lowest opponent’s index rating at 68.5 PIR.
The team had a great run of defense coming out of the national team break, allowing only 63, 61 and 53 points in a span of three road games – including Rounds 9 and 10 in the EuroCup.
“[Coach Erdem Can] actually loved the way we played defense. He was saying our defense is really good, and that's the reason why we've been winning games. I agree. Because if a team can't score, then they can't win,” Bankston said.
He really prides himself on his defense, saying: “Defense to me is one of the most important things of the game. Everybody can score, everybody can put the ball in the hoop, but can you stop your man from doing that? I understand that there are pros who get paid to score, but if you can stop that guy, it'll give you a better chance of winning.”
When asked which he would rather have: a dunk to win the game or a block to secure the win, Bankston’s answer was: “A block. It means you’re playing defense, hustling, working harder.”
And if that game-winning block comes at home or on the road: “At home – to hype the crowd up.”
There it is, that energetic Kris Bankston who is really still new to the game.