TF North basketball coach and former Simeon star Tim Bankston found fatally shot in Auburn Gresham home

Tim Bankston, a South Side basketball star at Simeon and current boys basketball coach at Thornton Fractional North High School in Calumet City, was found fatally shot Wednesday morning inside a home in Auburn Gresham on the South Side, according to Chicago police.

Bankston, 60, was found unresponsive with a gunshot wound to his abdomen around 10 a.m. in the 7600 block of South Emerald Avenue, police said in a statement. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said no one else was injured and reported no arrests. No additional details were released.

A large crowd of family, former Simeon teammates and former TF North players gathered on Emerald to mourn Bankston and support each other Wednesday afternoon.

“We don’t know what happened yet,” Sean Wright, a close friend and former Simeon teammate of Bankston’s, said. “They said they found my brother’s body and to come as fast as you can. From what the officer said, it looked like he had been laying there overnight.”

Bankston led Simeon to the state title in 1984. He played point guard and finished with a game-high 25 points and 12 rebounds in the state championship game against Evanston. Bankston went on to play one year at Bradley and two years at Loyola.

He was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame as a player and has been the head coach at TF North since 2002. Bankston was married with three children and lived with his wife, Lorna, in Gary, Ind.

“I was coming from an event and saw the tape,” 17th Ward Ald. David Moore said. “The police had not put out the report to me yet. I was on my way back home and my friend told me he was gone.”

Bankston was a Simeon teammate of Wilson, who was fatally shot on the South Side in November of 1984, shortly before his senior basketball season was about to begin. Wilson was the top-rated player in the country at the time. ESPN released a documentary in 2012 on Wilson’s life and murder which featured Bankston and several former NBA players, including Simeon grad Nick Anderson, Tim Hardaway, Juwan Howard.

“Tim is a legendary figure in the Chicago basketball world,” said Teri Sampson, a Simeon teammate of Bankston. “In my opinion, he was the second best point guard to come out of Simeon after Derrick Rose. Tough-minded. He was the one responsible for our toughness. Benji [Wilson] was obviously the most talented. But the leader of that team was Tim, by far. He had a willpower that was strong.”

Bankston played under legendary Simeon coach Bob Hambric, one of the most respected coaches in Chicago basketball history. Hambric didn’t allow his players to speak with the media or college coaches.

“[Bankston] learned discipline and structure from Bob Hambric,” Sampson said. “We went to grammar school together from kindergarten on up. I followed him to Simeon. He convinced me and [Wilson] to attend Simeon with him.”

A handful of 1984 Simeon team members gathered outside the house on Emerald Avenue on Wednesday, hugging and consoling each other. Other Simeon alums, including former basketball coach Robert Smith, who coached Rose and Jabari Parker, stopped by.

“I cannot believe this,” Moore, also a Simeon graduate, said. “It just brings back all the things with [Ben] “Benji” [Wilson]. It was not supposed to go like this. [Hambric] was not supposed to go like this.”

Bankston wasn’t in the spotlight as a high school coach. His teams at TF North were successful, but he didn’t recruit talented transfers or advance to the state tournament. Every season Bankston ran a two-day event featuring teams from all over the country, named after his mentor: The Bob Hambric Memorial Shootout.

“He was a community guy,” Wright said. “We grew up playing basketball at the Chatham YMCA. He wanted to give back.”

“He always spoke his mind,” said Mac Elem, who played for Bankston at TF North in 2012. “He was the best coach on and off the court I ever had. He taught you how to be a man and how to run a team. He wasn’t just a coach. He was family, like an uncle. He made an impact on a lot of people, a lot of my friends.”