Kevin Rankin

Kevin Rankin — Biography

Kevin Michael Rankin was born on 26 August 1971 in Wheeling, West Virginia, and is a retired basketball player who later became a Turkish citizen. After developing his game in high school in Wisconsin, he played NCAA Division I basketball at Northwestern University from 1990 to 1994, starting 111 of the 112 games he played. He led the Wildcats in rebounding in all four seasons, remains the program's all-time leader in career blocked shots with 133, and topped the team in scoring as a senior with 15.3 points per game. He was named team MVP three years running and was also an academic standout, earning Academic All-America honors and the Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1994.

Rankin was discovered at a Chicago Bulls summer camp in 1994 by Murat Didin and signed with Fenerbahçe, where he and fellow American Mitch Smith helped eliminate three-time champion Efes Pilsen on the way to the final. He moved to Ülkerspor in 1995, played there until 2000, and acquired Turkish citizenship during that spell, contributing to the club's 1995 Turkish Cup, 1998 league title and a 1997 European Champions Cup quarterfinal run. He later won the German league and cup double with Alba Berlin in 2003.