SEAN BANKS INTERVIEW
07/17/2008

GB hopeful Sean Banks has revealed how a chance conversation with a D League team mate put him on the road to a possible Olympic spot.

And the Toronto Raptors summer league trialist explained how he approached GB assistant Nick Nurse for advice ... without even realising he was talking to a member of Chris Finch's staff.

Banks is playing for Toronto in the Las Vegas Summer League where he held talks with Finch and Nurse this week and expressed his interest in playing for the GB team.

He is eligible because his father was born in Nottingham and still lives in Birmingham although Banks, 23, has yet to apply for the UK passport to which he is entitled.

The 6'8", 210-pound forward did not even realise he could play for the GB team, or qualify for a British passport, until he discovered that fact last season.

Banks said: "I didn't realise any of that until a team mate of mine told me. Errick Craven was with me in the D League last season in LA and he played in France and Turkey.

"We were talking about family one day and I told him my dad lived in England and was born there and he told me maybe I could play for the national team. That's how it all happened and I decided to look into it some more.

"I knew Nick Nurse from the D League and knew he had coached in England but I didn't know he was an assistant on the national team!

"I just wanted to talk to someone who had a better perspective on it so when I saw him in Vegas this week, I went up to him, told him what I wanted and he said he was an assistant with GB.

"I obviously knew I had British connections but I just thought you had to be born in a country to play for the national team.

"The last time I saw my dad was around 1994 when I was nine-years-old and I went to see him in Birmingham but we started going through the passport process right away. I have a really good agent and he was on it straight away."

The addition of Banks, who was signed by the New orleans Hornets in the 2005-06 season and spent that year with their D League team, would be a major boost for GB.

He led the LA D-Fenders in scoring last season and NBA insiders believe he has a decent chance of attaching himself to an NBA team for next season - scoring 8 points in 13 minutes of the Raptors summer league defeat against Sacramento on Wednesday will not have done him any harm.

And, of course, should Banks pick up a GB passport, that will help his marketability in Europe enormously.

Banks added: "My agent pointed that out but, hopefully, I will get a shot at playing in the NBA. I'd love the opportunity.

"I think GB would give me an excellent opportunity and the extra exposure would help. I did well in college, I did well in the D League and, hopefully, I can do well at whatever level I play, whether that is the NBA or Europe. I'm pretty sure I'd do well.

"I was in the D League with the Hornets in '05-06 but the NBA is just a numbers game, with the salary cap and stuff like that. Sometimes a guy low on the totem pole like me gets left out.

"I'm pretty sure this is a better opportunity that I'm in now and if I do get a chance, I'll seize the moment.

"Most definitely, I'd consider Europe as well. It's just about helping my family out financially in any way I can. If a situation presents itself that would help my family, I'd make sacrifices to do it."

Not that Banks considers playing for GB as making a sacrifice. On the contrary, the possibility of making an Olympic appearance in 2012 is beyond his wildest dreams - as it the prospect of teaming up with Luol Deng and ben Gordon - two players he knows from his high school days.

Banks said: "I'm excited about the prospect of playing on a broader scale, a world scale. Of course, the Olympics are coming in four years and playing for GB would be my best, my only, shot. Anything I could do to make the GB team better, I'm all for that.

"Luol went to high school in New Jersey and I'm a Jersey guy so I know all about him and would love to play alongside him. Playing with those guys would be unbelievable.

"I actually know Ben from high school. He's from New York and I played against him a couple of times and he was always really good back then. But with those guys on the team, GB could be a pretty good team."

And, with Banks in the fold, it could be about to get better.