Cannbera 2002? Made All-NBL 3rd team.

That would be him. Not a bad pick up IMO.

If this is the guy you are referring to ....
Plays All- Cypres League, check him out on : (scroll down)

http://www.eurobasket.com/cyp/d1.asp

Won Center of the year this year 05/06
made 1st All-Cypres team

Isaac Burton is there too in the 2nd team .

Banks must be a beast on the boards as he is only 6'8

He's 34 and plays for **Cyprus .

"Cannbera 2002? Made All-NBL 3rd team"

Yes. And he joined the Cannons part way through the season. Had he been there the entire season he probably would have performed even better in the player awards. Also had a stint with Perth a couple of years before that. He is a scoring machine, or at least was when he was in the NBL last. One game I remember watching he scored something like 20 points in the first quarter for Canberra. He was literally the only scorer the Cannons had for pretty much the entire first quarter.

Seems to fit the age requirement the Sixers have adopted for 2006/7 season, mid-30's, nice work.

George Banks was a gun a Canberra from memory he had noce mid range touch too.

Certainly new how to throw it down.

I think he was in the team that J Wells and DT where in when 3 imports were allowed, could be wrong.

im interested as to who was ment to be the mystery recruit

Really don't like responding to unconfirmed rumours, but it does (if true) beg a few questions:-

1. Does this mean we have missed out on the coaches first, second, third....import choices (did they really have any???)

2. They have settled on a +30 year old. Well as said previously above, that at least fits the mould of our recruits to date. So we are at least being consistent with our recruitment strategy.

3. He is a centre.....gee that's what we need to back up Coops and one of our other quality signings in Wheeler.......another centre.

Please tell me this is not true.

Surely if it's confirmed, it's no longer a rumour? ;)

Coops and Wheeler aren't a Rees, they can play positions other than centre. Obviously (if true), he's not a long term strategy, but nothing Phil has done recently seems long term, merely a stop gap to get through next season with some success and attempt to keep fans walking into the Dome.

As always from posts on this site, time will tell.....

First thing is that even if the above rumour is true, the initial post as I read it is not that we have signed Banks but we are looking at Banks.

For a guy that was All-League team in a decent Div 1 European comp with 42 points in the Grand Final taking out finals MVP, the first question I would ask is can we afford him?

He is more a power forward than a centre in any event and would be a great signing. As stated above, the guy can just flat out score and plays above the ring. Definitely the kind of player we need to replace Dusty's 20ppg.

I find it interesting that on the two occasions when Freeman's name starts coming up as being close to being signed that another name is mentioned.

The first time Freeman's name started coming up, Boti Nagy wrote an article about how we were targeting Ricardo Greer.

Again Freeman rumours start circulating and we have been given the name of another Euro star.

Smoke screen?

Phizzer , who has confirmed?

Yeah you are right though, I'm just dying to see themn play any where else, in particular the 1 and 2 spot, now that will be great entertainment!!

He'd be a PF surely. This is the first time I've heard his name come up.

I still think it's someone else.

I've been caught out with rumours like this as recently as 2 weeks ago. My flatmate's boyfriend's colleague's friend's friend was in the room and witnessed Newcastle United sign a new coach but it hadn't been made public yet and this guy was still at 12 to 1 with the bookies. A few phone calls later and myself and few mates have dropped 200 pounds on it collectively, we're virtually already spending out winnings.

Anyway, long story short they signed someone else and we lost all our money, so Hoopla, forgive me if I'm still a bit skeptical!!

Billo wasn't there a case like this recenty in the UK where the agent and the coach made a packet from the bookies betting in the deal?

My comment was in response to "Really don't like responding to unconfirmed rumours"

Hence my reply, by definition rumours are unconfirmed. A confirmed rumour is surely no longer a rumour but fact?

Anyway, saying no harm signing an import centre with Coops and Wheeler, they're quite handy at PF or even SF. I'm sure like every big guy I've ever played with though, they have dream of running the 1 or 2 spot.....

And nice work on the betting Dollar! I met a guy in India last year who told me he had an inside bookie contact in London and he told me Australia would lose the Ashes and I should put money on it. Of course, I though he was crazy and no way Aussies would lose hence kept my wallet shut.....

Kent, didn't hear about such a case but it sounds like something that could well have happened. We were so sure our info was on the money (even though it was through about 5 people and none of us actually knew the orignal source!!) we would have bet more if we didn't have daily restriction on the betfair account (after the first day we cooled off enough to not take out a loan!).

It was bloody exciting for the 2 or 3 weeks until the coach was officially named, not sure if we quite got £200 worth of entertainment from it though.

Phizzer, in response to "A confirmed rumour is surely no longer a rumour but fact?

A confirmed rumour is confirmed that it is a rumour and therefore not necessarily fact. However an unconfirmed rumour may be fact as it has not been confirmed as a rumour.

Hope this doesn't confuse.

Regardless of what has been said, heard etc etc.
I don't think Banks is our man, I'll go with the smoke screen theory :-)

If he is it will give us some decent height which we have lacked for oh so many years/decades ;-)

However is Banks the man for the job? Sure he was a good scorer at the cannons - where the ball went through him nearly every offensive set.

How strong is the Cypress League? My understanding is that it isnt all that great.

How old is this guy, does he still have the hops that is being raved about?

Kent-

there was the deal when the bookies put up the odds for the new Webmbley Staidum to be finished by the 2006 FA Cup Final....all the workers knew that it would be nowhere near ready and made an absolute fortune....

And of course the infamous Lille/Marsh bet.

EC, for a rumour to be confirmed who has to confirm it? If I said that I also heard Smythe talking about George Banks would that 'confirm' the rumour? Beacause a second anonymous person on an online forum backs up something someone else has said? Hell no!!!

A rumour, by definition, is a piece of information going round that may or may not be correct, it doesn't matter who has approved it. If an official announcement were made that the Sixers are persuing Banks then the rumour ceases to be one and becomes fact.

And Phizzer, I think your Indian bookie was telling tales, the prime Aussie candidate for accepting bribes to play poorly took 40 wickets in the series and dominated with the bat!!!

maybe this rumor could be right?

well, a hiccup?

billo, he WAS telling tales and he was still right, we did lose Ashes and he told me we would before Aussies even arrive in England!