Former UCLA Basketball Player “I was an athlete masquerading as a student.”
Ed O’Bannon is a former basketball player for the University of California – Los Angeles and is lead plaintiff in an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA for not compensating student athletes.
As the case gets underway, he offered some fascinating testimony.
According to ESPN, the former UCLA basketball player opened up the trial by arguing he was in school to get drafted into the NBA, not to earn a degree. He said he spent 40 to 45 hours per week on team activities compared to 12 hours studying.
…”I was an athlete masquerading as a student,” O’Bannon said on the stand. “I was there strictly to play basketball. I did basically the minimum to make sure I kept my eligibility academically so I could continue to play.”
He also said his academic adviser was behind his switch from a communications major to U.S. history, since classes in the latter would be easier to schedule around basketball.
“There were classes I took that were not easy classes but they fit my basketball schedule so I could make it to basketball practice,” O’Bannon said.
U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken previously separated O’Bannon’s case from that of Sam Keller, a former quarterback at Arizona State. The NCAA settled the Keller case, which was to focus on video games, Monday for $20 million ahead of its March, 2015 trial. O’Bannon’s case will determine whether or not Division I basketball and football players get a piece of the billions of dollars the NCAA makes from TV deals for live events and rebroadcasts.
O’Bannon and the plaintiffs are not seeking individual damages, but are rather hoping to shatter the NCAA’s strict model of amateurism. 20 plaintiffs in total, the group wants student-athletes to be able to market and sell their own image before turning pro.
O’Bannon was sure to acknowledge the benefits of playing in college on a scholarship, such as not paying tuition, room and board or his relationship with the late John Wooden. He also said he is still in contact with Jim Harrick, his former coach, and that he met his wife in school.
Ed O'Bannon Trial Begins With His Own Testimony: 'I Was an Athlete Masquerading as a Student' (University Herald)
Comments
Unfortunately for Ed O’Bannon, when he reached the NBA, he didn’t have the option of masquerading as a decent professional player. He was exposed like few NCAA stars have in the history of the game. IMHO, that’s why it’s he who is going this route and not a player who actually made his living as an athlete.
These guys are ridiculous. They made a choice to be athletes instead of students. They got what they wanted: a ball and little education, now they want to sue because perhaps their bad choices didn’t pan out as they wish? Actions have consequences, fellas, learn to live with them.
Always nice to see someone stick up for the billions the NCAA and the colleges make off of the students they recruit while the actual players make zip.
Oh, puhleeze. O’Bannon and everyone else who scratched and clawed and worked themselves to the bone to become elite athletes knew they were not going to be compensated for playing for their schools. So what’s he bitching about?
In the words of Super Chicken, “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.”
On top of that, O’Bannon admits that to be better at basketball, he switched his major from communications to U.S. History (which is harder, but not really that hard). He’s gotta know he made the wrong choice every time he answers an American Revolution trivia question for nothing while guys like Charles Barkley and Jalen Rose trip all over their tongues on ESPN for big bucks.