Ed O’Bannon entered the public eye as a basketball player, but his foremost legacy might be as a plaintiff. Years after his playing career, O’Bannon saw his own collegiate likeness in a branded video game. Having received zero compensation for the game, or the college basketball career depicted therein, O’Bannon took a historic stand, becoming the face of a class action lawsuit against the NCAA.
But why him? Out of countless college athletes, what made Ed O’Bannon the right face for this cause? If you understand Ed’s other, preexisting legacies, you’ll see why. Let’s meet these versions of Ed O’Bannon in the Prism.
Written and produced by Seth Rosenthal
Directed by Jiazhen Zhang
Subscribe: http://goo.gl/Nbabae
Enter the Secret Base: http://www.sbnation.com/secret-base
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/secretbase
Follow us on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/secretbasesbn
Follow us on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@secretbasesbn?
Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/9pMHRV
Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/NvpZFF
Explore SB Nation: http://www.sbnation.com
source
One of the reasons my favorite video game (collage football)is not around now 🤬
I did a double take when I heard my date of birth in this video
Tim Tebow
My dad used to tell stories about playing pick-up w/ the O’Bannon brothers around the Cerritos/Long Beach/Artesia area. It’s always great to hear about these local legends (being from SoCal). I never knew about the NCAA investigation, though. Great episode
Is it too early to request for ohtani vs trout world classic match up deserve a deep rewind?
He’s a legend, s.o. Sonny Vacarro for supporting this mission
no he's to blame for no more ncaa games
When I had reached the endpoint of the episode, I thought it was only halfway over
It's a worthwhile movement he started. NIL is directly because of O'Bannon taking a stand but I'll always remember him as the guy who ruined video game college football and college basketball.
ALL I HAVE 2 SAY IS THAT U AUTO BE HAPPY U MADE IN THE NBA
Eddie O was the first local college “star” I got to see growing up.
I remember being mad that he fell to 9th in the draft – the only 3 players I saw being on his level were Stack, Rasheed, & Big Country. KG was picked over him, but Ed was a college-tested version of what KG was at the time. We thought Ed was gonna be what Kevin Durant is – and in real time, that’s why Oden vs. Durant was such a debate: people were afraid Durant would be too frail like Ed because he was a “tweener” on top of being too skinny.
In terms of his career, ngl i cant feel sorry for o'bannon.. He seems always ungrateful and he's an example of what kobe said that most players dont have real passion for basketball..
Also, in watching this again, I'm a little bummed that Seth didn't mention that Tyus Edney couldn't play in the 1995 title game after he hurt his wrist late in the Oklahoma State game….Cameron Dollar came in and played well, despite Arkansas really putting it on UCLA early on. Also, Toby Bailey dropped 26, and played probably the best game he played in his 4 years at UCLA. But, winning that game against Arkansas, the team that won the title the year before, who returned its entire team, without Edney really does make what Ed did in that game even more special.
This feels unfinished
🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑 a fkn bum….. I'm 40 yrs old….. Grew up playing NCAA games on Sega…..SNES……PS1…..PS2…..I'll never forget this happened……..and Just to hear this bum wanted to ruin everyone's life for money….. 👈👈👈👈👈Ppl look at this dude like he's right…. And that playing STUDENT ATHLETES is right….. It's not….. It's about morals… And codes….. Fk Ed O'Bannon…… I've never cared for dude
🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑this dude was a Bum… And ppl don't understand he's the sole reason you don't get NCAA video games….. 👈👈👈👈Greed…. Another reason to pay welfare to Mfks who just didn't make it …… Fk the kids…….. I need money. 👈👈👈👈And ppl primitively agreed without thinking.
🛑🛑🛑🛑and remind you … Dude cheated to get into college…… I hate these type of ppl…. And the ppl who think he did something good. All primitive
So what happened in 2009 NBA NCAA video game? How was he similar to the game?
This is a really good episdoe and much needed story… I really enjoyed NCAA Basketball game, thought the Bruins and the O'Bannon Bros were better than the Griffin and Morris Bros. Much respect to Ed and te others who fought for collegiate players to be compensated.
Side note: Having college sports in Las Vegas always seemed wild to me lol
You better pay Ed for this video
This doesn’t address the movement. I thought we would get some info into how this was the predecessor to college players getting paid. It’s just a story about his unfortunate career
Watched Ed during the UCLA run in the mid 90’s, I was impressed but I knew the NBA doesn’t deal well with tweeners. He had no place in the league when real grown men power forwards are 6’9” 230lbs he was going to get stomped on nightly and he had no specialty to lean on to overcome the sheer physicality of the association.
Makes $7mil. Ends up having to work a regular job in his 30’s. Ha
Wait… what about the whole lawsuit ? Are you just gonna gloss over it at the beginning of the video and that’s it ?
He was my favorite college player as a kid
When he first sued the NCAA initial reaction was to stop making NCAA basketball with EA but continued to still make football. The incompetency of that organization is baffling.
This brings back memories as the first column of my sports writing career was a column on Ed O'Bannon I wrote for my college newspaper back in 1993-ish. Having had an ACL injury end my football career, I was very aware of and rooting for O'Bannon.
toby bailey had a tremendous impact on that team, toby was dunking every game ferociously
Also the reason we didn’t have college basketball video games for over a decade
He is kinda the sole reason for not just the video game case but you can almost say he is reason college athletes have NIL today.