Today’s guest columnist is former basketball star and athlete-rights pioneer Ed O’Bannon.
EA Sports is bringing back its college basketball video game, and it’s good to see they are finally doing the right thing by compensating the players for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).
Funny how things have changed. Back in 2009, I was EA’s enemy No. 1, because I challenged their business practice in court about the unfair use of players’ likenesses in video games without those players’ permission or any compensation. To be clear, it wasn’t my opinion that changed their minds; it was based on the decision of the court to protect the players’ rights of using their NILs.
It wasn’t a complicated legal argument, either: If you use someone’s NIL to sell a product or service, you should get their consent and pay them.
The case started when a friend of mine, Mike Curtis, invited me to his house to watch his son play “me” in EA’s March Madness on his Xbox 360.
This was in 2008. I was a 36-year-old retired pro basketball player, in my new career in car sales. But I saw myself in the game as a younger college player who led the UCLA Bruins to the national championship in 1995.
The game noticeably didn’t have my name, but it had everything else: Number 31. 6’8”. 222 pounds. Power forward. Left-handed. It was very cool.
Ironically, my friend mentioned how he paid $60 for the game. I had no idea that this likeness was created, because no one from EA sports contacted me about it to ask for my approval or to use my NIL. And I definitely didn’t receive a dime.
These days, that kind of argument might seem too obvious. College athletes can sign NIL deals and, with the House settlement, some will score a share of broader athletic department revenue, too. There are college athletes earning millions of dollars a year. That’s because they generate even more revenue for their schools, TV networks, apparel makers and other brands. They get paid because they generate money. They’ve always generated revenue. It’s just now they can get paid.
But in 2009? That might as well have been 1989 or 1969 when we’re talking about the NCAA. For decades, the NCAA spent many millions in court fighting against basic fairness and coming up with rules to treat athletes like we were second-class citizens.
It was a losing strategy. The NCAA lost O’Bannon v. NCAA. They lost NCAA v. Alston. They lost the War on NIL. They were going to lose House v. NCAA until they faced up to reality and cut a deal. I’m glad the settlement will pay $2.8 billion to athletes who would have made video games and other NIL money but for NCAA rules.
It’s about time.
I understand EA’s college basketball game won’t be released until 2028. In the meantime, maybe EA will reach out to former players on classic teams and ask us to be in the game. I’d be inclined to say yes. I know my grandkids would like me in it. And unlike before, where players’ names were stripped right before the game was published, this time the game would say my name.
Doing the right thing can be as easy as a layup. We’re finally seeing that with college athletes’ rights. Keep it up.
O’Bannon is a retired NBA player and former UCLA basketball star who led a historic case against the NCAA for college athletes’ NIL rights. He also wrote Court Justice: The Inside Story of My Battle Against the NCAA with Sportico’s Michael McCann.
