Former NBA player Rashid Byrd has been handed a hefty 90-year to life prison sentence after being convicted of a series of brutal sexual assaults across Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties, authorities declared. The towering ex-athlete, standing 7-foot-1, who had a brief stint in professional basketball and dabbled in the Hollywood scene, was taken down by the justice system on Friday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The saga of Byrd’s criminal behavior came to a head after one courageous victim reported her assault in 2019, lighting the fuse of a comprehensive LAPD investigation. It turned out, that this was not Byrd’s first tangle with the law; he had a prior sexual assault arrest in Washington back in 2005, and a conviction in 2010, the Daily News reported.

"He started as a charmer, playing up his status as an athlete, and pseudo-celebrity, but that quickly faded into rapes and violence," LAPD Detective Dara Brown described. Brown, who led the investigation, hailed the victims' bravery for stepping forward which ultimately put Byrd behind bars, as CBS News Los Angeles captured in her statements.

Byrd's fall from grace is a stark contrast to his days playing for the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA Development League in the 2008-09 season and his appearances in films like "Semi-Pro". Police have been working diligently to locate all potential victims of Byrd's, urging anyone with information on the ex-ball player’s crimes to come forward, and call Detective Brown at 213-486-6840 or email [email protected], the Daily News detailed.