Hey, y'all!!!
I was pine-riding with one of my oldest homeboys today (hey, his brother used to terrorize me when we were in JHS), just kind of surfing NBA-dom when the question arose - what ever happened to Ed O'Bannon, star of the 1995 NCAA Champion U-C-L-A (sorry, I can't help it - I am a Bruin, after all) team?
From Wikipedia (one of the greatest projects on the 'Net - I contribute):
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Edward Charles O'Bannon, Jr. (born August 14, 1972 in Los Angeles, California) is a former basketball player, who was a star small forward for the UCLA Bruins, where he was known as "Ed-O," but had a less-than-illustrious career as a professional basketball player. He is the older brother of former Detroit Pistons guard Charles O'Bannon, who also played collegiate ball at UCLA.
He was a McDonald's High School All-American coming from Artesia High School and was all set to go to UNLV when the program came under probation due to recruiting improprieties, and he switched to UCLA. He had little impact, however, at the beginning as he tore his anterior cruciate ligament. He was told he might not be able to walk properly again[1], but eighteen months later, he returned to playing basketball and became the team leader. He was the key to UCLA's 1995 NCAA Basketball Championship scoring 30 points and taking 17 rebounds. For the season, he averaged 20.4 points (.533 field-goal percentage, .433 3-point percentage) and 8.3 rebounds, enough to earn him the John R. Wooden Award as well as the Oscar Robertson Trophy that year. His number 31 was then retired by the Bruins.
Selected ninth by the New Jersey Nets in the first round of the 1995 NBA Draft, he entered the league with high expectations, but was unable to find a place in the professional game, being too small for an NBA forward and too slow to be a guard. In his two seasons for the Nets, he averaged 6.2 and 4.2 points per game respectively. He was unloaded to the Dallas Mavericks in his third and final NBA season, where he had even less of an impact. His final indignity was being traded (along with Derek Harper) and then promptly released by the Orlando Magic on the 24th of September 1997. He is now universally considered one of the biggest all-time draft busts. [2]
After his NBA career, O'Bannon played professional basketball in Italy, Spain, Greece, Argentina and Poland (in Anwil Włocławek, Polonia Warszawa and Astoria Bydgoszcz). He decided to retire at age 30 after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. When he made his decision, he was in the process of trying out for a new league in China but realized he had no more motivation to play the game. Furthermore, the people holding the tryouts had never even heard of him.[2]
He attended UNLV to finish his bachelor's degree. He now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife and children and is employed as a car salesman. O'Bannon is not one to wallow in the past. He told the Los Angeles Times, "People see me and remember me and I'm proud to tell them — 'No, I don't play. No, I don't coach. Yes, I sell cars.'" [2]
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Well, I have to say that as a high 1st-rounder in 1995, he should never have had to ever work again - but we all know how easy it is to spend, spend, spend...yet, who (especially O'Bannon himself) could imagine that a high 1st-rounder would only last 2 dismal years in the league! Still, I think this Wikipedia entry was somewhat harsh on O'Bannon - I don't think that he is 'universally' regarded as one of the biggest draft busts of all time. I can't understand how he could ever have been viewed as a 'franchise' player in the first place by NBA front-office personnel, under any circumstances.
More busts to come...
- RB
Shaq #1
