Ed O'Bannon

Edward Charles O'Bannon Jr. (born August 14, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a power forward for the UCLA Bruins on their 1995 NCAA championship team. He was selected by the New Jersey Nets with the ninth overall pick of the 1995 NBA draft. After two seasons in the NBA, he continued his professional career for another eight years, mainly playing in Europe.

O'Bannon was the lead plaintiff in O'Bannon v. NCAA, an antitrust class action lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association which resulted in the discontinuation of NCAA video games.

Early life O'Bannon grew up in South Los Angeles and attended Verbum Dei High School before graduating from Artesia High School. He averaged 24.6 points, 9.7 rebounds in his senior year at Artesia. He led the school to a 29–2 record that year, and they won the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division II state championship. He was the most valuable player (MVP) at the Dapper Dan Classic, a high school All-Star game, and he was named a McDonald's High School All-American. He was also honored by Basketball Times as its national high school player of the year.

College career O'Bannon originally planned to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), but he did not sign a letter of intent with the university at the suggestion of UNLV head coach Jerry Tarkanian. However, when UNLV's men's basketball program was placed on probation due to recruiting improprieties, O'Bannon rescinded his commitment and instead attended UCLA. In his first year, he came off the bench in 23 games and averaged fewer than four points while never starting. In his junior year, he was named the team's MVP and was again first team All-Pac-10. For the season, he averaged 20.4 points (.533 field-goal percentage.433 3-point percentage) and 8.3 rebounds, earning him the John R. Wooden Award, USBWA College Player of the Year (now Oscar Robertson Trophy), and the CBS/Chevrolet Player of the Year. He was a consensus first team All-American, Pac-10 co-Player of the Year along with Damon Stoudamire, first team All-Pac-10 for the third consecutive year,

NBA career Leading up to the 1995 NBA draft, O'Bannon hoped to be drafted by a team on the west coast. He was selected ninth overall by the New Jersey Nets and signed a three-year, $3.9 million contract. However, he became homesick. In his two NBA seasons, O'Bannon was unable to find a place in the league, being too lean to play down low and not quick enough with his rebuilt knees to guard the perimeter. Former Nets teammate Armon Gilliam said, "He's a guy who didn't find his niche in the NBA. He wasn't in the right situation to grow and develop. He never got the opportunity to prove what he could do."

Subsequent career As of 2009, O'Bannon was employed as a marketing director for a Las Vegas auto dealership. In 2006, while employed as a salesman at the dealership, O'Bannon told the Los Angeles Times, "People see me and remember me and I'm proud to tell them—'No, I don't play. No, I don't coach. Yes, I sell cars.'"

O'Bannon was a volunteer coach at Green Valley High School in Henderson, Nevada.

Class action against NCAA O'Bannon was the lead plaintiff in O'Bannon v. NCAA, an antitrust class action lawsuit filed against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on behalf of its Division I football and men's basketball players over the organization's use for commercial purposes of the images of its former student athletes. The suit argued that upon graduation, a former student athlete should become entitled to financial compensation for future commercial uses of his or her image by the NCAA. In January 2011, Oscar Robertson, considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, joined O'Bannon in the class action suit. On August 8, 2014, Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the NCAA's long-held practice of barring payments to athletes violated anti-trust laws.

In March 2015, O'Bannon appeared in a faux commercial on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO that criticized the NCAA's payment practices regarding student athletes. With March Madness approaching, the commercial featured a fake video game named March Sadness 2015 that mocked the experiences of college basketball players in relation to the NCAA. "This game is every bit as fucked up as the real thing," stated O'Bannon in the segment. In 2018, he published a book about his fight with the NCAA, Court Justice: The Inside Story of My Battle Against the NCAA.

Personal life O'Bannon attended UNLV to continue earning his bachelor's degree.

O'Bannon is the older brother of Charles, who won the championship with him at UCLA and went on to play for the Detroit Pistons. His half-brother Turhon O'Bannon played college football for the New Mexico Lobos and professionally for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League.

O'Bannon lives in Henderson, Nevada, with his wife, Rosa, and their three children.

NBA career statistics

Publications