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Myron Medcalf
Hours before his second collegiate debut after stints as a two-way player in the NBA and G League, Charles Bediako Said alabama Can win a national title with him on the roster.
The 7-foot center played two years with the Crimson Tide in 2021-22 and 2022-23 before going unselected in the 2023 NBA Draft.
“[Coach Nate Oats] There is a plan,” Bediako told Yea-Alabama.comA website for the school’s NIL collective. “I’m ready to help these guys win and give them some of my knowledge. We have a good group of guys. I think we can win everything. I’m just as excited as they are.”
Just days after scoring four points and grabbing three rebounds in the Motor City Cruz’s win over the Birmingham Squadron in the G League last Saturday, a Tuscaloosa judge this week cleared Bediako to play college basketball, even though he had already played several years in the G League and signed a two-way contract. San Antonio Spurs After the 2023 NBA Draft. Other players with professional experience, including 2023 draft picks James NanajiEligibility has also been granted by the NCAA in recent months.
However, Bediako is the first player with collegiate experience to sign an NBA contract and get a chance to return to college basketball. Tuesday’s preliminary injunction hearing for Bediako, who is expected to play in the game against Alabama tennessee Saturday night could change the contours of college basketball and the NBA Draft and perhaps open the door for more players with NBA experience to pursue another stint in college.
Bediako said everything has been “positive vibes” since returning to the team this week, although he is still getting to know his teammates.
“Half of them I met today,” he said. “He was probably the only person I met before coming here [Labaron Philon]. It was good. I really need to learn how to play with him. He makes the game very easy. I think that’s one of the things that comes up. “I’m starting to understand why he’s such a high prospect in this upcoming draft.”
For Saturday’s game, the Crimson Tide are set to be without a pair of their top scorers aden holloway And amari allen A source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel that he is considered questionable to play. Holloway is Alabama’s second-leading scorer with 17.7 points per game, and Allen is third with 11.7 points per game.
The NCAA has said it will fight Bediako’s push for full eligibility — he will only be available for the remainder of the season, depending on the outcome of Tuesday’s hearing — and this week reiterated its rule that no player who signs an NBA contract will be cleared to play college basketball, a circuit court judge in Alabama struck down that rule when Bediako was granted a temporary restraining order.
In a statement Friday, NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said Bediako’s case also threatens to disrupt the structure of the NBA Draft, as the early withdrawal deadline would be canceled and create personnel uncertainty in the NBA and college basketball.
Gavitt said, “If the NCAA’s pre- and post-draft rules cannot be enforced, it will create an unstable environment for student-athletes, schools building rosters for next season, and the NBA.” “NCAA membership has a set of pre- and post-NBA draft eligibility rules that have been clearly enforced and supported by all parties until these recent court changes.”
Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne walked back his statement, saying G League players and European players who have been given the opportunity to play college basketball this year are no different than Bediako, who averaged 6.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg and 1.7 bpg the past two years at Alabama.
“There are a number of programs across the country that include former G League and EuroLeague players on their rosters who have been deemed eligible,” Bayern tweeted Friday. “At the end of the day, these are people with professional basketball experience who are now playing in college. The difference between those cases and Charles’s situation is without real differences. A professional contract should be a professional contract. Why should a student-athlete who has made millions competing professionally overseas be eligible to return to college, while someone making $50,000 a year in the NBA G League is not? Similarly, an athlete who leaves high school for professional basketball and then returns to college, right? While a student entering the draft during college, perhaps based on incomplete or poor advice, these distinctions are impossible to explain, undermining trust in the system and not meaningfully furthering the educational mission of college athletics.”
Bediaco’s agent, Daniel Green of GSE Worldwide, said that Bediaco – who averaged a double-double in the G League last year – had talked to several schools about a possible return before choosing Alabama again, and decided to take the legal route after the NCAA rejected the school’s initial appeal to let him play.
Green said Bediako became interested in returning when Nnaji — who played in the NBA Summer League twice and played overseas for several years after being the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA draft — was cleared to play at Baylor in late December.
Green said that the NCAA’s distinction between players who have been professionals overseas and those who have been professionals in the United States is unfair.
“We have a compelling case here because the facts are contradictory,” Green told ESPN. “You’re telling someone, just because they played in a different professional league, they’re not allowed to play collegiate basketball, when you ruled for another player to have not a half semester, not a year, but four years of eligibility. That’s very contradictory and unfair. So we felt it would be appropriate to pursue the legal route to see if we could file a lawsuit and potentially win that decision.”
Bediako, who was a key player when Alabama had the No. 3 defense in America in 2022-23, said he is looking forward to the welcome he gets Saturday night when he returns to play in Coleman Coliseum for the first time in three years.
“Coming for [tonight’s] Sports, yes, I have already given some thought to when I will take the first steps on the floor,” he said. “Everyone will be welcome. I’m just ready to go, ready to play. At the end of the day, it’s just basketball. I’ll just keep doing what I do.”
