Education
University of Wyoming.
University of Wyoming.
A small forward, he only played in the National Basketball Association 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 National Basketball Association Draft. Dembo was barely recruited out of high school in San Antonio, Texas, but caught a break when he was sought out by Wyoming"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 ever seen snow.
He went on a snowmobile 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 following year, the Cowboys qualified for the Sweet Sixteen of the 1987 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men"s Division I Basketball Tournament.
At the 1987 National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament, Dembo was the leading scorer, averaging 27.8 points per game. Dembo appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated dressed as a cowboy. He was the first ever 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.
He played for several years in Europe and the College of Business Administration after his release from the Pistons, retiring in 1998. He then bounced between several jobs, including a stint as a prison guard in Alabama.
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.
Number 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 Saint Philip"s College, a community college in San Antonio.
He is currently enrolled at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Dembo"s unusual first name came from a suggestion by an older sister, Zona.
Zona preferred that they be the last children in the family, and suggested they be named after finis, French for "finish". First Team All-Western Athletic Conference (1986, 1987, 1988).