Travis Henson wants to be a piece of something special at Etzella

From football to basketball

Travis Henson didn’t grow up thinking basketball would take him around Europe. In the beginning, he thought he was going to be an NFL quarterback.

Football was his first love. He grew up in the Washington, D.C. area as a Commanders fan and played both sports until just before high school. He had played basketball since he was four, but Allen Iverson was the player who made him fall in love with the game. Fittingly enough, Iverson was also a standout football player before ultimately choosing basketball.

“Everybody has that one guy that makes them fall in love with the sport,” Henson said. “That was my guy.”

Basketball has since taken Henson from Prince George’s County to East Texas, California, Germany, Sweden and now Luxembourg, where the 6-foot-7 forward has signed with BBC Etzella Ettelbruck.

That is a lot of moving around, but Henson has basically been away from home since he was 17. He spent three years at Angelina College in Texas before transferring to Cal State Bakersfield. By the time he began his professional career in Europe, living far away from Maryland felt pretty normal.

“I’ve been at least a thousand miles away from home for years now,” he said. “It wasn’t too crazy adjusting. It was more the culture and the language gaps here and there. Those were the small things I had to navigate early on.”

Adjusting to the European game

Living away from home already felt normal. Basketball-wise, the biggest difference he noticed was the physicality of the European game.

“The game is a lot more physical,” Henson said. “You have to make sure your body can withstand the punishment for a full season. It’s a long season here in Europe.”

That is one of the things casual American basketball fans don’t always understand about playing in Europe. The calendar isn’t necessarily longer than an NBA season, but the rhythm is completely different. NBA teams are constantly playing, traveling and recovering. In Luxembourg, teams usually play once a week, occasionally twice.

That means a lot more practice.

Players arrive in August, and the Luxembourg finals ran until May 17 last season. That is nine months of practices, preparation and repetition, often with an entire week spent getting ready for one opponent. It is not simply the length of the calendar that creates the grind. It is everything packed between the games.

“Every offseason, I try to get my body in the shape it needs to be in to withstand the season,” he said.

Germany, Sweden and a taste of the playoffs

Henson started his professional career in Germany with the Iserlohn Kangaroos before moving to BC Luleå in Sweden. The change gave him a chance to experience a different style of European basketball.

Sweden played faster. Many teams also kept the same group of domestic players together and changed only a few Americans each season. By the time the playoffs arrived, those teams had already built real chemistry.

“It was a fun brand of basketball, getting up and down,” Henson said. “There were squads that kept a lot of their national guys intact, and they were probably only switching out three or four Americans. Especially when it came to the playoffs, everybody really knew each other.”

Luleå came within one game of the Swedish finals during Henson’s season with the club, losing a seven-game semifinal series to Borås. They didn’t win the championship, but getting that close only strengthened Henson’s desire to compete for one.

Why Etzella?

After returning to Germany with SBB Baskets Wolmirstedt, Henson spent this past summer looking for more than just another contract. He wanted a good basketball situation and an opportunity to play for something.

“Getting a taste of being that close to a championship and trying to actually play for something important, like winning—that winning culture was something that really attracted me,” he said.

For an American playing in Europe, choosing a team can involve a lot of different factors. There is the country, the level, the role and, of course, the contract. There is also the question of whether a team can win.

For Henson, that last part clearly mattered.

“Playing for a championship is probably the greatest thing you can do, especially in professional sports,” he said. “Being part of something like that and having a chance to do something that special drew me in.”

On the court, Henson describes himself as an athletic player who can shoot, plays hard and wants to represent his team the right way. He believes he can be an important part of a winning team, but he also knows that every season in Europe is another chance to prove himself.

“I just want to keep expanding my game and keep proving that I can be a big piece to winning,” he said. “I’ve had a few good years in Europe so far. I’m just trying to prove my keep and show what I can do on the biggest stages.”

The man behind “Skywalker”

Away from basketball, Henson’s personality is much more relaxed.

He describes himself as laid-back, easy to get along with and fun to be around. He returns to the United States during the summer to train, recover and spend time with his family. He is also beginning to settle in Las Vegas after spending most of his life connected to the D.C. area.

And when he gets some time away from the gym, there is a good chance he will be watching a movie.

Henson is a big movie fan, enjoys Greek mythology and uses “Skywalker” in his social-media identity, so his feelings about Star Wars are not exactly difficult to figure out. The “Skywalker” name also fits a 6-foot-7 forward who gets plenty of airtime on his dunks. He also enjoys playing video games and spending time with friends.

Away from the court, Henson comes across as laid-back and easygoing. On it, he wants to prove he can be an important piece of a championship team.

Turning a goal into reality

He is comfortable living away from home, has adjusted to different cultures and understands the physical demands of a long European season. He has played in different systems and already come within one game of reaching a championship series.

Now, with Etzella, he has another opportunity.

“I think playing for a championship is probably the greatest thing you can do,” Henson said.

Henson has already experienced what it feels like to come close. At Etzella, he has another opportunity to make winning a championship a reality.