{"id":802292,"date":"2026-08-02T23:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T23:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/802292\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T23:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T23:39:15","slug":"lakers-rookie-robbie-avilas-potential-college-return-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/802292\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers rookie Robbie Avila\u2019s potential college return issue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/31\/sports\/judge-grants-class-wide-injuction-in-response-to-ncaas-5-for-5-rule\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charlotte Sweeney granted a class-wide preliminary injunction in Colorado that made the NCAA declare eligibility<\/a> for every athlete from the high school Class of 2022 who ran out of eligibility this spring.<\/p>\n<p>This included Lakers rookie Robbie Avila, who is perhaps <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/14\/sports\/lakers-robbie-avila-aka-cream-abdul-jabbar-ranks-nicknames\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">better known by his nickname \u201cCream Abdul-Jabbar\u201d<\/a>\u00a0because of his height and the glasses he wears on the court. And, as a result, it seemed that Avila could decide to return to college if he wanted.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.79980469;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40160951\" width=\"472\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2285137160.jpg\" alt=\"Robbie Avila on the bench during a Los Angeles Lakers Summer League game.\" class=\"wp-image-40160951\"  \/>Robbie Avila has a decision to make regarding his basketball career.  NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Soon after, it was reported that<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/01\/sports\/lakers-rookie-robbie-avila-considering-college-return-after-ncaa-rule\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Avila was \u201cwaiting to see what his options are\u201d<\/a> after being granted this fifth year of eligibility before deciding whether to return to college or keep playing professionally.<\/p>\n<p>There has now been some clarity on what Avila\u2019s options might look like \u2014 and he probably isn\u2019t going to like it.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Sweeney issued a clarification that said her injunction did not block NCAA transfer rules. Therefore, any player who receives and then decides to exercise this extra year wouldn\u2019t be able to transfer and would have to play for their former teams.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.66699219;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40161009\" width=\"394\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2284414010_a86245.jpg\" alt=\"Robbie Avila during a Los Angeles Lakers Summer League game.\" class=\"wp-image-40161009\"  \/>Avila played for the Lakers during summer league games. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>In other words, if Avila were to return to college, he would have to go back to Saint Louis. Before this clarification, the assumption was that Avila would be able to enter the transfer portal and essentially get to pick which school he\u2019d join, but it\u2019s clear that this is no longer the case.<\/p>\n<p>This is a harsh reality for check for Avila. While it\u2019s unclear whether he\u2019d be interested in going back to Saint Louis, the prospect of joining a national powerhouse and competing for a national championship surely would\u2019ve been a reason he\u2019d want to go back to college.<\/p>\n<p>There could still be more changes regarding this injunction. But for now, it seems that Avila is more likely to stay with the Lakers then he was before this clarification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge\u00a0Charlotte Sweeney granted a class-wide preliminary injunction in Colorado that made the NCAA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,160,217,8042,150,6,3494,231,66],"class_list":["post-802292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-california","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-transfer-portal","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-nba-summer-league","tag-ncaa","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117028557158490248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}