HENDERSON, Nev. ― The first time Ed O’Bannon went up against the NCAA he was an 18-year-old with some serious talent and even more serious aspirations to play basketball at UNLV.
Against an organization homing in on Jerry Tarkanian and his band of Runnin’ Rebels, it was no contest. O’Bannon got the news he would not go to the college of his choice while on the road with a traveling basketball team.
“I cried,” he said. “I had worked my tail off to be good enough to accept a scholarship and be part of that team. What kid at that time didn’t want to go to UNLV? For the NCAA to take that away was absolutely upsetting.”
Nearly a quarter century later, O’Bannon is getting a rematch. His landmark suit demanding college players get some of the hundreds of millions of dollars they generate every year could change the way big time college athletics are operated.
All because of a chance encounter a few years ago at a friend’s home, where a certain bald-headed, left-handed forward wearing a UCLA uniform in a video game looked awfully familiar. It was O’Bannon, leading his team to the national championship in 1995.
“Initially it was, wow, pretty cool. I was fired up,” O’Bannon said. “But I immediately went from being fired up to being embarrassed. Then I thought, this is BS.”
To O’Bannon it was simple. The NCAA was making money off his image, and so was the video game company. He and the other players portrayed were getting nothing.
