Antoinette Bannister threw away an opportunity that many people would kill to have.
Bannister was kicked off the UF women’s basketball team on Friday after she reportedly stole teammate Viktorija Dimaite’s credit card and used it at multiple stores in Gainesville. If the reports are true – and they likely are, seeing as Bannister admitted to police she used the card – then Bannister will have a hard time getting back in the basketball community.
Trust is an essential part of basketball.
You have to trust your teammates, trust your coaches, and trust the program. Your team becomes your family, your coaches are your parents.
When Bannister transferred to Florida in January 2013, she was regarded as a steal for the Gators. The state of Florida’s all-time leading prep scorer, things didn’t quite work out for Bannister at the University of North Carolina. So she transferred back to her home state, the state she set numerous records in, the state she was comfortable in. She had a fresh opportunity, and she’s thrown it all away.
No Division I program will touch Bannister even if she avoids jail time and gets a chance to play anywhere else. The Gators, along with coach Amanda Butler, welcomed her as a transfer to their program and she threw it in their face.
Dimaite, who has had arguably the worst luck with injuries of any UF athlete, was taken advantage of in this situation. How selfish of Bannister – not just monetarily, but opportunistically – to prey upon an athlete who has waited more than three years for the opportunity to play for the Gators.
Dimaite rehabbed from a dislocated ankle, and then from two ACL tears, just to be betrayed by a teammate — someone she was supposed to put her trust in. By someone who was supposed to work with her to grow, as a basketball player and as a human being.
Bannister is a thief, and unless the allegations are somehow fabricated, she will deservedly be treated as such.
Before her recent string of injuries, Butler stated that Bannister had been playing her best basketball since she had been a Gator.
She let Butler down, who believed in her. She let down her family – her brother TJ who, like Antoinette, played basketball his entire life, first at the University of Virginia and then professionally overseas.
She let down her father, Tony Bannister, who spent his time coaching Antoinette in high school.
Antoinette Bannister is 21 – a lot of 21-year-olds make mistakes. Her life is far from over, and she has plenty of opportunities to make something of herself. And I hope, from a humanistic standpoint, that she sees nothing but success and happiness.
But this is a mistake that may blacklist her from the basketball community. The entire incident is extremely sad and disheartening, for the Gators, for the Bannister family, but most importantly, for Dimaite.
Viktorija Dimaite left her entire life in Lithuania to come to Gainesville to play basketball – first for The Rock School and then for Butler’s Gators. She’s experienced hardship and pain before, but this is a different kind of pain.
This kind doesn’t go away with rehab and surgery. It’s going to be hard for her to trust teammates again, and I can’t blame her. Trust doesn’t come easily, and once it’s lost, it sometimes never comes back again.
Follow Graham Hall on Twitter @Graham311
Antoinette Bannister looks to pass the ball during Florida's 84-73 win against Jacksonville in the O'Connell Center.
