Life After March Madness Immortality

When Ed O'Bannon, 38, meets with customers at the Findlay Toyota dealership in Henderson, Nev., he doesn't flaunt his former basketball career. "If they recognize me, that's cool, but I don't go out of my way to tell people who I am," he says. Even so, when potential buyers do join the 6-foot-8-inch sales rep in his office, there's no escaping the hoops memorabilia, including O'Bannon's UCLA jersey. He won't reveal whether his basketball celebrity has ever translated into a sale, but he admits that some customers want to talk more about his glory days than cars. And his co-workers aren't shy about saying to shoppers, "Do you like basketball? You should meet Ed."

For one shining moment in March 1995, O'Bannon was a superstar. After leading the UCLA Bruins to 32 victories in 33 games during the regular season, he helped the team win the 1995 NCAA national championship, its first in 20 years. In the final game against the University of Arkansas—and O'Bannon's last game for UCLA—he scored 30 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, a feat that garnered him the same John R. Wooden College Player of the Year award that Michael Jordan had won a decade earlier. O'Bannon went on to a less-than-spectacular NBA career with the New Jersey Nets, followed by years playing in Italy, Spain, Greece, and Poland. He retired in 2002. His March Madness triumph remains his biggest achievement, but O'Bannon prefers not to live in the past. "I'm just a guy who used to play basketball," he says, "and wants to help people buy cars."