Fennis Marx Dembo (born January 24, 1966) is a retired American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

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National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

champion A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, a ...

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...

. A

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three or swingman, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than power forwards and centers but taller, larger, and stronge ...

, he only played in the NBA for one season, averaging 1.2 points and 0.7 rebounds in 31 games. He was selected by the Pistons in the second round (30th overall) of the

1988 NBA draft The 1988 NBA draft took place on June 28, 1988, in New York City, New York. The length was reduced from seven rounds in the previous year to three rounds. This was also the first draft for the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat, prior to their i ...

College career

Dembo was barely recruited out of high school in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, but caught a break when he was sought out by

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

's then head coach Jim Brandenburg, who had previously been a high school coach in that city (and would later retire to San Antonio). Dembo's campus visit was the first time he had seen snow; he went on a

snowmobile A snowmobile, also known as a Ski-Doo, snowmachine, sled, motor sled, motor sledge, skimobile, or snow scooter, is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. It is designed to be operated on snow and ice and does not ...

trip as part of the visit, and would remember in a 2009 interview that he had a gut feeling that Wyoming was for him. At Wyoming, Dembo had a successful career, finishing as the leading scorer and rebounder in Cowboys history. He accumulated 2,311 points and 954 rebounds. He was part of the Cowboys team that qualified for the finals at the

1986 National Invitation Tournament The 1986 National Invitation Tournament was the 1986 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA ...

. The following year, the Cowboys qualified for the Sweet Sixteen of the

1987 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 1987 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 12, 1987, and ended with the champions ...

. At the 1987 NCAA Tournament, Dembo was the leading scorer, averaging 27.8 points per game. Dembo appeared on the cover of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

'' dressed as a

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. He was the first basketball player from the University of Wyoming to be featured on the SI cover. He was inducted into the University of Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame on October 29, 1993. His number was retired and hosted up in Wyoming's Arena Auditorium during half time on December 7, 2019.

After the NBA

He played for several years in Europe and the CBA after his release from the Pistons, retiring in 1998. He then bounced between several jobs, including a stint as a prison guard in Alabama. After separating from his second wife, he moved in with his mother in San Antonio, and found employment as a maintenance person for the San Antonio Water District. Early on Easter morning in 2003, a man broke into Dembo's house while he and his mother were sleeping. Dembo grabbed a gun and faced the intruder, warning him to stop and leave. When the intruder failed to stop, Dembo shot and killed him. No charges were filed against Dembo, but he was shaken by the incident, fearful for a time to talk to others or to leave his room. He ultimately was able to move on from the shooting with counseling and time. His job with the Water District sparked an interest in engineering, and he began taking courses in the subject when his schedule allowed. In the autumn of 2009, he enrolled full-time at St. Philip's College, a community college in San Antonio. In the fall of 2009, he was enrolled at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Name

Dembo's unusual first name came from a suggestion by an older sister, Zona. He and his twin sister Fenise were the 11th and 12th children in their family. Zona preferred that they be the last children in the family, and suggested they be named after ''finis'',

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

for "finish".

Awards and honors

* First Team All-Western Athletic Conference (1986, 1987, 1988) * Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year (1987) * NCAA basketball tournament record (Best Free Throw Percentage in One Game – 100%) * Inducted into the University of Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993

References

External links

Fennis Dembo Remains a Name to Remember
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dembo, Fennis 1966 births Living people African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Italy American men's basketball players Basketball players at the 1987 Pan American Games Basketball players from Alabama Basketball players from San Antonio Chorale Roanne Basket players Detroit Pistons draft picks Detroit Pistons players Pan American Games medalists in basketball Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Power forwards (basketball) Rapid City Thrillers players Shreveport Crawdads players Small forwards Sportspeople from Mobile, Alabama Wyoming Cowboys basketball players Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople