Celtics Legend Bill Russell Joins Lawsuit Against the NCAA at LinesMaker

Celtics Legend Bill Russell Joins Lawsuit Against the NCAA

Of all the areas from which the NCAA is under attack, a law­suit accus­ing the orga­ni­za­tion from ben­e­fit­ing from the like­nesses and images of play­ers with­out com­pen­sat­ing them is maybe the most dan­ger­ous one.

And the suit is spot on. You can buy his­toric videos of NCAA hoops games, but the play­ers don’t ever see a dime. You can buy video games where the point guard for Nebraska seems incred­i­bly sim­i­lar to the actual point guard at Nebraska, but those play­ers never see a dime dur­ing or after college.

Now, Celtics leg­end Bill Rus­sell has joined the law­suit, reports Bloomberg.

Rus­sell, who led the Uni­ver­sity of San Fran­cisco to NCAA cham­pi­onships in 1955 and 1956, said in the com­plaint filed yes­ter­day in fed­eral court in Oak­land, Cal­i­for­nia, that the asso­ci­a­tion sells $ 150 videos of the team’s cham­pi­onship games. At least 54 video clips fea­tur­ing him are avail­able through the web­site of the NCAA’s for-profit busi­ness part­ner and pho­tos of him through an NCAA on-line photo store, accord­ing to the complaint…

“Bill Rus­sell, one of the great­est NCAA, NBA and Olympic bas­ket­ball play­ers in his­tory, joins the law­suit brought by Ed O’Bannon alleg­ing that the NCAA has vio­lated fed­eral antitrust law by unlaw­fully fore­clos­ing for­mer Divi­sion I men’s bas­ket­ball and foot­ball play­ers from receiv­ing any com­pen­sa­tion related to the com­mer­cial use of their images and like­nesses,” Jon King, an attor­ney for the for­mer play­ers, said yes­ter­day in an e-mail.

For the record, both the NCAA and EA Sports (also named as a defen­dant) deny any wrongdoing.

I hope the NCAA gets what is com­ing to them.

Related Posts:

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• Mar­shall Warns Press Against Spin­ning ‘Fins-Giants Tilt
• Jets Fire Blanks Against Rangers
• Blame Game: Ex-Raiders QB Rus­sell Can’t Own Up to His Failures
• NCAA Prez Wants $2K Grants for Athletes

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