00:00Hey, Johnny's fans, you guys remember R.J. Lewis Jr., right?
00:04The Big East Player of the Year who led St. John's to a regular season title
00:08for the first time in 40 years.
00:10Guess what? He's back in college basketball, and the judge just made that official.
00:15So a Louisiana judge granted R.J. Lewis Jr. a preliminary injunction Monday,
00:21clearing him to practice and potentially play for LSU this season.
00:25And that's despite the fact that he signed multiple NBA contracts after leaving college.
00:31Now, he went undrafted in the 2025 NBA draft.
00:34Then he signed a two-way deal with the Utah Jazz.
00:38He was then traded to the Celtics in August of 2025
00:42when Boston sent a player and two second-round picks to get him.
00:46He later played on an Exhibit 10 deal with the Celtics G League affiliate.
00:52But here's the loophole.
00:53He never appeared in a single NBA regular season game,
00:57and he didn't play for the G League club either because he was hurt.
01:02His legal teams argue that that means he never actually played professional basketball,
01:08and the judge agreed with that framing in his ruling on Monday.
01:12LSU coach Will Wade, who was recently rehired by the Tigers,
01:17is the one who brought him in.
01:19And Lewis hugged Wade in the courtroom after the ruling came down.
01:24Now, this isn't something that's happening in a vacuum, y'all.
01:27The NCAA is currently fighting a wave of similar cases from players in the 2022 recruiting class
01:34who missed out on the new age-based eligibility rules.
01:38In fact, Kentucky commit Mark Mitchell got a similar injunction as well over the weekend.
01:44Now, the NCAA is expected to keep fighting this,
01:48and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has already gone on record against both Lewis and Mitchell playing.
01:55The current NCAA landscape in both college basketball and football is just a complete mess.
02:02Recent legal rulings and a new NCAA eligibility rule have created an unprecedented situation
02:10where now NFL training camp players and rookies can potentially return to college football.
02:16So we can assure you that this isn't the end of players leaving the pros and going back to college.
02:22So stay locked in with the New York Post for more information and updates.
02:27So stay locked in with the new days.
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