Sean Banks

}} Sean Anthony Banks (born January 20, 1985) is an American retired professional basketball forward. He stands 6'8".

He attended the University of Memphis, where he was named the Conference USA Freshman of the Year in 2004 after leading all freshman in the conference by scoring 18 points and almost 7 rebounds per game, and was also named as a member of the All-Freshman Team.[1] Despite scoring an average of 14.5 points and nearly 6 rebounds over the first ten games of his sophomore season, Memphis dropped Banks from the team in January 2005 after he was declared academically ineligible.[2]

Banks, who is African American, grew up in Englewood, New Jersey.[3][4] He is a graduate of Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, New Jersey.[5] Banks was signed by the New Orleans Hornets as an undrafted rookie free agent in the summer of 2005 and was assigned to the Hornets' NBDL affiliate Tulsa 66ers in November 2005 after averaging four points per game during the preseason and spending the first seven games of the NBA season on inactive status.[6] On January 5, 2006, he was waived by the Hornets and thus released by the 66ers. After being waived, Banks spent time playing professional basketball in Puerto Rico, as well as other D-League teams, including the Idaho Stampede and Los Angeles D-Fenders.[7] While playing with the D-Fenders, Banks was selected to represent the Blue Team in the 2008 D-League All-Star Game, where he scored 14 points as his team won the second annual event by a score of 117–99.[8]

Banks was charged with an August 2011 incident in which it was alleged that he had been part of a group of four men who had robbed homes in Jefferson Township and Sparta, New Jersey before leading police on a high speed chase that resulted in the crash of the stolen vehicle that the group had been driving. Banks was said to be involved with an offshoot of what had been called the "James Bond Gang", which had used high-end sports cars in attempts to outrun police.[7]

On March 8, 2014, Banks was issued a warrant for his arrest after failing to appear at a sentencing in which he had agreed to probation avoiding jail time for assaulting his girlfriend in 2013. Banks now faces years in prison for each of his crimes stemming from a 2013 incident in which Police say Banks assaulted his girlfriend with a broom stick and belt and then restrained her from leaving before fleeing police on foot. Banks was arrested more than four times in 2013, including an incident in which he burglarized a woman's home in Englewood and then slashed her tires as well as failing to appear in court numerous times. [9]

References

  1. ↑ Staff. "Sean Banks Named Conference USA Freshman Of The Year: Banks also named to the C-USA All-Freshman Team.", Memphis Tigers, March 9, 2004. Accessed April 3, 2012. "Banks burst on the Conference USA scene this season, leading the league's freshmen in scoring (18.0) and in rebounding (6.9), while also ranking among the league's leaders in three-point field goal percentage (.392) and blocked shots (27)."
  2. ↑ via Associated Press. "Memphis' Banks ineligible for the rest of the season", Ocala Star-Banner, January 17, 2005. Accessed April 3, 2012.
  3. ↑ Staff. "A Day for Dreams Unmet", The Record (Bergen County), January 18, 2005. Accessed April 2, 2012. "As America celebrated the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, another troubling chapter unfolded in the life of an African-American basketball player from northern New Jersey. Sean Banks flunked out of college."
  4. ↑ Vitale, Dick. "Focusing on pros might cost Banks NBA dream", ESPN, January 19, 2005. Accessed February 16, 2011. "A 6-foot-8 sophomore forward from Englewood, N.J., Banks was one of America's premier diaper dandies a year ago. In fact, ESPN.com named him the best freshman in the nation last season, when he averaged 17.4 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 43 percent from the field."
  5. ↑ Glier, Ray. "COLLEGE BASKETBALL; Carney Answers Call for Memphis", The New York Times, March 20, 2004. Accessed April 3, 2012. "While the rest of the Memphis Tigers were finishing practice here Thursday, the day before their N.C.A.A. tournament opener against South Carolina, their coach, John Calipari, was handing his cellphone to Sean Banks, the freshman forward from Bergen Catholic High School."
  6. ↑ Staff. "Rookie Forward Will Gain Valuable Experience in NBA Development League: Hornets Assign Sean Banks to Tulsa 66ers", National Basketball Association, November 17, 2005. Accessed April 3, 2012. "Banks had spent the first seven regular season games on the Hornets’ Inactive List. He averaged 4.3 points and 1.0 rebounds in three preseason games after signing with the team as an undrafted free agent on Oct. 1."
  7. 1 2 Cohen, Noah. "Englewood Man, Former Basketball Player Pleads Not Guilty to Burglaries: Onetime basketball standout arrested alongside ‘James Bong Gang’ burglars, authorities say.", TeaneckPatch, April 2, 2012. Accessed April 2, 2012.
  8. ↑ Staff. "2008 D-League All-Star game", InsideHoops.com, February 16, 2008. Accessed April 3, 2012. "Fort Wayne’s Jeremy Richardson, a two-time D-League-to-NBA Call-Up this season, led six players in double figures with 22 points, as the Blue Team defeated the Red Team 117–99 in the second annual D-League All-Star Game, which took place on Center Court at NBA Jam Session, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.... Kyrylo Fesenko of the Utah Flash, also on assignment from the Utah Jazz, and Sean Banks of the Los Angeles D-Fenders each scored 14 points for the Blue Team, which shot 51 percent from the field, as compared to 40 percent for the Red Team."
  9. ↑ Miraglia, Mary K. "Former Englewood basketball star Sean Banks on run again". Cliffview Pilot. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
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