The last time Robbie Avila appeared in a basketball game was for the Lakers summer league team.
The next game he plays will be a college competition.
Stu Durando reported Thursday that Avila (better known as “Cream Abdul-Jabbar” because of the glasses he wears on the field) had obtained a preliminary injunction, allowing him to play for Saint Louis in his fifth year of eligibility after graduating from the school earlier this year.
As a result, Avila is expected to play in the Billikens’ game against Missouri on Friday night.
This is the result of a U.S. district court judge in Colorado granting a class-wide preliminary injunction that requires the NCAA to declare eligible all athletes in the 2022 high school class who were no longer eligible this spring.
When this news broke in August, it seemed like Avila would have to decide whether he wanted to return to college or stay with the Lakers. But that decision became easy once Los Angeles waived him before the start of the regular season.
The injunction made it so players couldn’t transfer to another school if they were eligible to return to college, meaning Avila — 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game with the Billikens during his senior season — had to return to St. Louis, where he spent the last two seasons, if he wanted to return to school.
And he clearly did.
Gn sports
