Tuscaloosa County Circuit judge Jim Roberts, who caused a stir across college basketball by ruling last week that Charles Bediako could return to the University of Alabama's roster after playing the NBA G Leauge, is listed with his wife as active athletic donors on The Crimson Tide Foundation’s website, with lifetime contributions between $100,000 and $249,000.
Front Office Sports, which reported this discovery Friday, was unable to obtain comment at that time from Roberts, Alabama or the NCAA.
However, attorneys representing the NCAA on Monday asked Roberts to recuse himself from the lawsuit, as reported by several media outlets.
According to 1819 News, the NCAA argued in Monday's filing that Roberts's recusal was necessary to avoid an "appearance of impropriety."
"Courts in Alabama and beyond have widely recognized that a mere appearance of partiality is sufficient to require the recusal of a trial judge," Cason Kirby, an attorney representing the NCAA in the Bediako lawsuit, said in the filing. "This appearance can be compounded by widespread media and public scrutiny questioning the trial court's impartiality. Despite the NCAA's confidence that the Court can disregard his connections to the University of Alabama and its athletics programs, recusal is still necessary to protect these proceedings from an appearance of impropriety."
Bediako played for the Crimson Tide from 2021 to 2023 and is suing the NCAA to seek reinstatement of his remaining eligibility despite leaving Alabama and declaring for the NBA draft in 2023, Alex Schiffer of Front Office Sports reported. Bediako, a 7-foot center, never played in the NBA but signed a two-way contract with the Spurs in 2023. He played in the G League as recently as Jan. 17.
Related: Former G League Player Bediako Granted Temporary Restraining Order to Return to Alabama
Bediako, 23, played 25 minutes in the Tide's home loss Saturday to Tennessee, scoring 13 points — third-most on the team.
“It’s challenging the definition of an NBA contract,” a G League executive in the Eastern Conference told FOS in November. “If you declared for the draft, went undrafted and signed directly with a G League team, is that not considered an NBA contract to the right judge the same way a standard deal or [training camp deal] is?”
The NCAA had maintained that Bediako surrendered his NCAA eligibility by signing with the Spurs.
Judge Roberts' "backing of Crimson Tide sports isn’t his family’s only conflict of interest," Schiffer wrote. "His wife is a lawyer on the defense team for Bediako’s former Alabama teammate Darius Miles, who is set to stand trial for capital murder in a 2023 shooting.
"While NCAA eligibility lawsuits are occurring almost daily, judges have still recused themselves from cases when they see a possible conflict of interest that could impair their judgement," Schiffer continued. "North Carolina judge Michael O’Foghludha removed himself from Duke’s lawsuit against quarterback Darian Mensah over an NIL deal because he is a Duke men’s basketball season ticket holder and married to a university employee."
