Player Bio

James Khristian Middleton was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1991. Middleton comes from a basketball family. His cousin, Josh Powell, played 316 NBA games and a second cousin, Kenny Manginault, played at Wichita State. While at Porter-Gaud School in Charleston, Middleton twice earned state Player of the Year honors and averaged 22.4 points and 8.6 rebounds as a senior and 21.0 points and 8.6 rebounds as a junior. His senior year numbers helped lead Porter-Gaud to the state title matchup. Middleton spent the following three years at Texas A&M, where he started 72 games over three seasons, improving his points per game totals from 7.2 points in his freshman year to 13.2 points two years later. Middleton has donated his time and efforts to various charitable causes aimed at social justice education and training for underserved youth. He leads a holiday initiative called the "12 Days of Khristmas", where he participates in 12 acts of service in the two weeks leading up to Christmas. He also works with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Club of Metro Milwaukee, hosting Christmas sprees and holding private movie screenings. For these efforts and more, Middleton was nominated for the season-long NBA Cares Community Assist Award in 2019, which honors a player's "strong commitment and positive impact on his community". You can follow Khris Middleton on Twitter @Khris22m and on Instagram @K_mid22. Middleton moved from South Carolina to Texas to play for the Aggies. The 6-8 forward's college career began as a reserve, but he moved into the starting lineup after Derrick Roland's injury. He started 22 games as a freshman and averaged 7.2 points and 3.7 rebounds. Texas A&M was invited to the Big Dance and Middleton dropped a season-high 19 points - including five three-pointers - in the first-round win over Utah State. The forward became the team's leading scorer as a sophomore with 14.3 points to go along with 5.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He set a career-high with 31 points during a win over Arkansas and helped the team back to the NCAA Tournament while also being named to the All-Big 12 Second Team. Middleton racked up 16 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals in the first-round defeat to Florida State. His junior season was plagued by a knee injury and he was limited to 20 games. He still managed to average 13.2 points and 5.0 rebounds. After that junior year, Middleton declared for the 2012 Draft.