Former NBA legend Bill Russell has recently brought a suit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) (Russell v. NAT’L Coll. Athletic Ass’n., 11-04938, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California). Russell’s suit is one of several the NCAA is currently facing revolving around alleged violations of federal antitrust laws. Russell alleges the NCAA used his likeness from his days as a collegiate athlete at the University of San Francisco, where he led the men’s basketball team to national championships in 1955 and 1956. He also claims that the NCAA has violated federal antitrust laws by preventing former student athletes (football and basketball) from being compensated for the commercial use of their images and likenesses. Russell alleges that the NCAA sells videos of the championship games he led his team in for $150, without compensating the featured athletes.
Electronic Arts, Inc., (“EA”) is also named as a defendant in the suit. As the second largest video game maker in the United States, Russell claims EA used his image in a “Tournament of Legends” featured on one of its NCAA basketball video games. Russell seeks an injunction blocking any further sales of the videos and video games in question. Additionally, he wants disgorgement of profits from both the games and videos along with other damages.
Russell’s claim will likely be consolidated with a pending lawsuit brought by Ed O’Bannon, a former UCLA basketball standout (O’Bannon v. NAT’L Coll. Athletic Ass’n., 09-cv-01967, N.D. Cal.; appeal pending, 10-15387, 9th. Cir.). O’Bannon’s suit alleges that the NCAA and EA have conspired to violate former student-athletes’ rights to profit from and control the use of their image. EA has denied any wrongdoing, relying on the constitutional right of freedom of speech under the First Amendment. EA claims that freedom of speech under the First Amendment means it does not need permission to use any player’s likeness because the videos have sufficient creative elements that collectively express that they are more than depiction of any one athlete. The NCAA has also denied any wrongdoing.