The Charles Bediako eligibility saga at Alabama took another turn this week as the former Crimson Tide forward filed an appeal with the Alabama Supreme Court seeking to be reinstated on the team, as per Nick Kelly of AL.com.
The appeal comes after a county judge denied the initial injunction seeking to make Charles Bediako’s eligibility with Alabama permanent. The previous judge who had temporarily granted Bediako eligibility, had rescued himself from the case as per the NCAA’s request due to his donor status to the university.
Bediako had previously played for Alabama for two seasons from 2021-2023 before declaring for the NBA Draft. He went undrafted in the 2023 draft, and had been playing in the G League for the past couple of seasons.
While there have been other former G League players whom the NCAA granted eligibility to, at the center of the Bediako case is the fact that he signed a two-way contract with the San Antonio Spurs for the 2023-24 season, and was on the team’s roster despite not playing in any NBA games. He was later waived after a couple of months due to an injury.
After he was temporarily ruled eligible to play this season, Bediako appeared in five games, including two starts, at a little over 21 minutes per game. He was averaging a career-best 10.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots with splits of 77.3 percent shooting from the field and 69.6 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
When Bediako rejoined the team last month, Alabama head coach Nate Oats acknowledged that he was not in favor of the current landscape of college basketball regarding pro players’ eligibility. But he also admitted that all he was doing was using the tools available to him to make he roster better, and that Bediako had been legally granted eligibility by a judge.
