Kennedy Winston signs with Turkish team

TUSCALOOSA | Kennedy Winston has signed with a Turkish basketball team. He will join former University of Alabama teammate Erwin Dudley on the roster of the Turk Telekom squad.

Winston, a Prichard native, signed a contract Wednesday to play for the team, which lost in the Turkish league championship last season. Dudley, a power forward from Uniontown who was Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 2002 and an Associated Press All-American, has been playing with Turk Telekom for the past three seasons.

Winston left Alabama after his junior season but was not drafted by any NBA team. He was a freshman when Dudley was a senior. He has played professionally in Spain and Greece.

Winston led the SEC in scoring as a junior, averaging nearly 18 points per game, and was a key player on the UA team that made it to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2004 when he was a sophomore.

The Crimson Tide had several former players listed on European professional basketball rosters last season. Proexposure, which follows the European league and its transactions, lists a dozen former UA players who were on rosters last season or have signed for the upcoming season: Demetrius Alexander (Latvia), Michael Ansley (Poland), Evan Brock (Venezuela), Shea Cotton (Venezuela), Chuck Davis (Belgium), Dudley (Turkey), Rod Grizzard (Australia). MC Mazique (Finland), Earnest Shelton (Belgium), Kenny Walker (Czech Republic), Eric Washington (Finland) and Winston (Turkey).

Alabama has six former players on NBA rosters, including Charlotte teammates Gerald Wallace and Jermareo Davidson, San Antonio's Robert Horry, Detroit's Antonio McDyess, Milwaukee's Mo Williams and Golden State's Richard Hendrix. Playing in the U.S. last season in the Premier Basketball League was Chauncey Jones, who was with the Quad City Riverhawks.