One of College Basketball’s most controversial decisions has a new twist

The 2000s brought about a new archetype of character into pop culture: the “anti-hero.” Exemplified on television with the likes of Walter White and Tony Soprano, the anti-hero is a character who is by no means evil, but often has to do bad things as a means to an end.

In College Basketball, we’ve seen our share of heroes and villains through the years (here’s looking at you, Grayson Allen). But Charles Bediako, in the year 2025, is the exact anti-hero that the sport needs. His situation should bring about the necessary change that can save college basketball. 

The History:

If the name Charles Bediako sounded familiar before he made national headlines this week, it’s because he was the starting center for Alabama in the 2022-2023 season. This team was notable not just because they were the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, but also because they had an active team member commit a murder midseason

They also had a star player and future top-5 NBA draft pick, Brandon Miller, who faced scrutiny over how involved he was in the said murder, in which he would eventually face no charges. That Alabama team was a national story every week that season.

After the season ended, Bediako declared for the NBA draft, forgoing his remaining college eligibility. He would then play two full seasons in the G-League, never once getting called up to play in the NBA. And now, with the lines more blurred than ever in terms of what is allowed or not allowed in college basketball, he’s back playing for the Crimson Tide.

How he came back:

While the NCAA has officially ruled him ineligible to continue to play college basketball, Bediako got a temporary restraining order from an Alabama judge (who happens to have ties to the program), allowing him to play games in the state of Alabama. Bediako shined in Alabama’s loss to Tennessee on Saturday, scoring 13 points in 25 minutes off the bench. 

If it sounds villainous for someone to go behind the NCAA’s back to try to allow themselves to play in a sport that they left almost three years ago, that’s what makes Bediako the perfect anti-hero. No one can put individual blame on Bediako or on coach Nate Oats for this particular situation. Nate Oats’s career is defined by winning basketball games. And if Bediako can help him win, of course, he’s going to fight to get him back on the roster.

For Bediako, his goal is to continue to play basketball for as long as he can and make as much money as he can while doing it. So, if he’s not going to get called up to the NBA, and his G-League timer is not getting any longer, why not explore this option of getting to play again at Alabama? You simply can’t blame either Bediako or Oats for this predicament — they’re behaving rationally in their own self-interests. 

Pick a lane and stick to it:

Instead, blame the NCAA. The NIL era has allowed “the line” to continue to change. What do I mean when I say “the line”? The line is the thing that, once a player crosses, he can no longer come back to college basketball. The line simply used to be “declare for the NBA draft.”

Then it moved to “declare for the draft and hire an agent.” When NIL made agents more commonplace, it then became “play in a professional, pay-to-play” basketball league. But then, players like Creighton’s Fedor Zugic, who had played professionally in Europe, began to challenge this convention.

Then, you have Baylor’s James Nnaji, who was drafted by the NBA but played professionally overseas, being allowed to play college basketball this season. What makes the Bediako situation even more interesting is that Abdullah Ahmed, a player who played in the G-League before ever playing college basketball, is being allowed to play for BYU this season.

Conclusion:

So, I say all of this to say, where is “the line”? And has Bediako crossed it? The Bediako situation is so unique and represents such a unique series of events that it is going to force the NCAA into redefining where the line is and creating a uniform, inarguable policy that will make these situations much more black and white in the future, instead of living in the gray area of temporary restraining orders and court cases.

That would bring about a positive change to the sport in the long run, which would make Bediako the ultimate anti-hero. Not unlike how Ed O’Bannon became the face of the early NIL movement, Bediako can become the face of the line between professional and college basketball.

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