Hours before his second collegiate debut after a stint as a two-way player in the NBA and the G League, Charles Bediako said Alabama could 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 not being selected in the 2023 NBA draft.
“[Coach Nate Oats] has a plan,” Bediako told Yea-Alabama.com, a website for the school’s NIL collective. “I’m ready to help these guys win and also give them some of my knowledge. We’ve got a great group of guys. I think we can win it all. I’m just excited, just as much as they are.”
Days after he scored four points and grabbed three rebounds in the Motor City Cruise’s win over the Birmingham Squadron in the G League last Saturday, a Tuscaloosa judge cleared Bediako this week to play college basketball even though he had already played multiple years in the G League and signed a two-way contract with the San Antonio Spurs following the 2023 NBA draft. Other players with professional experience, including 2023 draft pick James Nnaji, have also been granted eligibility by the NCAA in recent months.
Bediako, however, is the first player with collegiate experience to sign an NBA contract and get the chance to return to college basketball. Tuesday’s preliminary injunction hearing for Bediako, who is expected to play in Alabama’s matchup against Tennessee on Saturday night, could alter the framework of college basketball and the NBA draft and perhaps open the door for more players with NBA experience to pursue another stint in college.
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Bediako said it has been all “positive vibes” since he returned to the team this week, even though he is still getting to know his teammates.
“Half of them I met today,” he said. “Probably the only guy I met before I got here was [Labaron Philon]. It’s been good. I got to actually learn how to play with him. He makes the game so easy. I think that’s one of the things that stands out. 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, as Aden Holloway and Amari Allen are considered doubtful to play, a source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Holloway is Alabama’s second-leading scorer at 17.7 points per game, and Allen is third at 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 rest of the season, depending on the outcome of Tuesday’s hearing — and reiterated this week its rule that a player who has signed an NBA contract will not be cleared to play college basketball, rules a Circuit Court judge in Alabama rejected when Bediako was granted a temporary restraining order.
In a statement Friday, Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, said Bediako’s case also threatens to disrupt the structure of the NBA draft, as early withdrawal deadlines would be nullified and create personnel uncertainty in the NBA and college basketball.
“If these rules surrounding the NCAA pre- and post-draft rules cannot be enforced, it would create an unstable environment for the student-athletes, schools building a roster for the following season and the NBA,” Gavitt said. “The NCAA membership has a set of rules in place regarding the pre- and post-NBA draft eligibility that have clearly been in place and supported by all parties until these recent court changes.”
Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne pushed back with his own statement, saying the G League players and European players who’ve been given an opportunity to play college basketball this year are no different than Bediako, who averaged 6.6 PPG, 5.2 RPG and 1.7 BPG in two previous years at Alabama.
“There are many programs across the country with former G League and EuroLeague players on their rosters who have been deemed eligible,” Byrne tweeted Friday. “At the end of the day, these are men with professional basketball experience that are now playing in college. The distinctions between those cases and Charles’ situation are without real differences. A professional contract should be a professional contract. Why should a student-athlete who earned millions competing professionally overseas be eligible to return to college, while someone earning $50,000 annually in the NBA G League is not? Similarly, an athlete who leaves high school for professional basketball returning to college later is okay, while a student who entered the draft during college, perhaps based on incomplete or poor advice, may be barred. These distinctions are impossible to explain, undermine confidence in the system and do not meaningfully advance the educational mission of college athletics.”
Bediako’s agent, Daniel Green of GSE Worldwide, said Bediako — who averaged a double-double in the G League last year — spoke with multiple schools about a possible return before he chose Alabama again, and decided to pursue the legal route after the NCAA denied the school’s initial appeal for him to play.
Green said Bediako became interested in a return when Nnaji — who played in the NBA’s summer league twice and overseas for multiple years after he was the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA draft — was cleared in late December to play at Baylor.
Green said the NCAA’s distinction between players who’ve been pros overseas and pros in the United States is unfair.
“We have a compelling case here because the facts are contradictory,” Green told ESPN. “You’re saying someone, just because they played in a different professional league, isn’t allowed to play collegiate basketball when you just ruled for another player to have not half a semester, not one year, but four years of eligibility. That’s very contradictory and unfair. So that’s why we felt that it made sense to go the legal route to see if we could file a suit 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’s looking forward to the reception he’ll receive on Saturday night when he returns to play at Coleman Coliseum for the first time in three years.
“Coming up for [tonight’s] game, yeah I’ve already had some thoughts about when I take that first step onto the floor,” he said. “Everybody will be welcoming. 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.”
