The Ohio Supreme Court decided not to even consider the appeal by The Ohio State University in regards to the wrongful termination lawsuit by Jim O’Brien on Wednesday. The court voted 5-2 to decline the appeal and did not issue a reason for not hearing the case. After almost 4 years of court hearings, appeals, and media reports this case is finally going to be closed. Ohio State will be required to pay O’Brien almost 3 million dollars in the settlement.
O’Brien may have won the court battle; however, he did nothing to clear his name in the court of public opinion. If anything, the long legal battle hurt his reputation.
In April of 2004, Jim O’Brien was forced to disclose the payment of $6,000 to Aleksandar Radojevic. Radojevic, a 7’3” center, was being recruited by O’Brien at the time. Radojevic never signed with Ohio State.
O’Brien was forced to disclose the payment to Radojevic because of a lawsuit by Kathleen Salyers. The lawsuit centered on the improper benefits Boban Savovic received; however, the $6,000 payment to Radojevic was mentioned in the suit. At this point O’Brien had no choice and had to come clean to Andy Geiger, the former Ohio State Athletic Director.
On June 8th, 2004 Andy Geiger fired Jim O’Brien for violation of NCAA rules. O’Brien file’s a lawsuit against Ohio State for wrongful termination and eventually wins a settlement of $2.2 million dollars plus interest in February of 2006. Interesting enough, in the judgment the court ruled that O’Brien violated his contract; however, the violation was not serious enough to warrant his dismissal.
The NCAA did not agree with the court. The NCAA put severe limitations on any university that hired O’Brien until 2009. The NCAA also put Ohio State on probation for 3 years and required the university to remove the trip to the Final Four in 1999 from the record books.
Ohio State may have lost the lawsuit; however, Jim O’Brien is the real loser. O’Brien misled the Ohio State administration about his involvement in the $6,000 payment. He also misled the administration about his involvement in the Boban Savovic suit. It is safe to say O’Brien’s coaching career was over when he decided to sue Ohio State.
Andy Geiger did the right thing by getting rid of O’Brien right away. The NCAA compliance department has many confusing bylaws and rules. Giving student-athlete’s money is not one of them.
Jim O’Brien claims he gave the money to Radojevic because the family just lost their father and the Radojevic’s mother was unable to provide for their 3 siblings. The fact of the matter is O’Brien got caught trying to cover it up and only told the truth when his back was against a wall.
I caution any college institution looking for a coach to avoid the O’Brien charm. The NCAA recently changed the terms allowing O’Brien to return to coaching this year without any imposed restrictions. This was only done because they had to throw out 3 of the allegations on a deadline technicality.
Jim O’Brien is a liar and a cheat. No lawsuit or legal judgment can fix O’Brien’s integrity. Enjoy Ohio State’s money; you may need it because I doubt anyone will hire a cheater.
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7 months ago
Wow. I sense a bitter man!
I have to agree with you, Rob, though I still feel like Obie had good intentions -- he just didn't use the most common sense. $6,000 doesn't seem like a lot of money to me as far as an amount that you would throw at a kid to recruit him. However, I suppose that it certainly seems like the lotto when you live in war-torn Serbia (??). Bottom line: he should have discussed this with someone, and the fact that he did not - and then kept quiet for years - tells us all that he knew what he was doing was in the wrong.
I can't help feeling like one of the biggest issues to come out of this is the way that the NCAA handles its business. There is no doubt that Geiger did the right thing by firing O'brien as soon as he could due to a major violation, but obviously, the courts felt differently. OSU was in a no-win situation. If they kept O'brien around, they would have been hammered by the NCAA but could have pleased the courts. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
7 months ago
I am bitter. When it was reported the O'Brien gave money to a recruit I really didn't believe it. I always defended O'Brien as a coach. It was like someone kicked me in the stomach.
Ohio State did the right thing and the courts did the wrong thing. Imagine that!
6 months ago
You have no idea what your talking about other than Jim O'Brien made a mistake at best.
Cheater? Liar? Far from it. One of the best coaches and people on earth. Don't be mad cause he had the balls to deal with the consequences that came from helping a kid that truly needed it irrespective of the bullshit NCAA rules of "we make all the money......you play and get your education".
Jim O'Brien is a class act. His resume as a coach speaks for itself. Look it up. In case you don't want to:
A10, Big East, Big Ten Coach of the Year multiple times.
Conference Titles. Tournament Titles. Sweet 16. Elite Eight. Final Four.
Players graduate.....and go on to be solid pros, and solid people.......ex. Dana Barros (over 10 yrs in the NBA....former all-star).....Howard Eisley (over 10 yrs in the NBA)......Michael Redd (Millwaukee Bucks right now)....Antonio Granger and Scoonie Penn (2 of the top 8 American b-ball pros in all of Europe right now)....Prince Pheenix Wade (world entertainer/humanitarian..former pro b-bal player in Europe....BC class of 97) just to name a few.
He'll never coach again? You have no idea what your talking about. Don't make ridiculous negative comments unless your prepared to state the other side of O'B which dwarfs the mistake he made in trying to be good person and help a player with a family issue....within an institution that cheats and is full of scandal anyway.
Maurice Clarret.........Art Schlindster (or however you spell his name). Not saying Randy Ayers is a bad guy....but you'll never hear thru the grapevine of the head men's basketball coach having sex with female students in the men's basketball locker room if Jim O'Brien was coach.
O'B would still be there if wasn't such a good person. Thank God. He can do much better Ohio State.
CONGRATS ON TERREL PRYOR.
Peace
3 months ago
Hmmm... I still don't see any schools knocking down Jimmy's door for a coaching gig. I guess time will tell. Just because you are a class act for 20 years doesn't mean you can do what ever you want. I use to be a big O'Brien supporter because of all the things you mentioned above; however, the fact he blatently broke the rules and lied about it to try and save his skin really hurt his reputation, which was the basis of my article.
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