Aug. 19, 2008

TUSCALOOSA - Kenny Walker, a center who helped lead the University of Alabama win the 2002 Southeastern Conference basketball regular season championship, was named the MVP of the Eurobasket Summer League in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Walker finished the 2008 season in the Czech Republic playing for Geofin Novy Jicin, a team that advanced to the Mattoni NBL Finals. Walker, who played at Wolfson High School in Jacksonville, Fla., before playing four years and graduating from the University of Alabama, will return to the Czech Republic to play again this season. He will play in the Mattoni NBL and FIBA Central European Basketball League.

Walker's summer league play was in Salt Lake City and ran concurrently with the NBA's Rocky Mountain Revue. Former Tide player and Birmingham native Emmett Thomas also participated. Walker played for the league champions, Team Sevilla, which was made up of Delta Jammers Play2Win players. Walker had a key block late in the championship game against Team Munich to preserve the win and give the championship to Team Sevilla.

An Academic All-SEC player as well as a four-year starter for the Crimson Tide, he played on back-to-back NCAA tournament teams for Alabama in 2002 and 2003 and helped Alabama advance to the NIT Championship game in 2001, his sophomore season. His senior season Alabama received the school's first No. 1 national ranking, a spot it held for two straight weeks in December of 2002.

Walker has been playing basketball professionally since graduating from Alabama in May 2003. He led his league in Poland in blocked shots in 2007 playing for Polonia and was MVP in the Kosovo Finals, playing for Mabetex Prishtine in 2005 while leading Kosovo to the Super League championship. In 2004 he was All-Swedish league playing in Sallen, Sweden and was selected for and played in the Swedish league's all-star game.