O’Bannon of UCLA Suffers Knee Injury : Basketball: Freshman from Artesia High injured in pickup game. He will have surgery, miss the season.

Ed O’Bannon, who was projected as a possible basketball starter at UCLA as a freshman, severely injured his left knee during a pickup game on campus Tuesday night and will be sidelined for at least 12 months.

Tests showed Wednesday that he had torn his anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus cartilage and will need surgery.

The accident occurred when he fell to the court after dunking and landed awkwardly on his left leg. Bruin forward Don MacLean said the injury occurred near the end of an informal five-on-five pickup session of UCLA basketball players at the John Wooden Center.

“Who’s to say if we had finished five minutes earlier, it never would have happened?” said MacLean, who was playing opposite O’Bannon. “God, it’s a shame.”

O’Bannon, a highly recruited 6-foot-8 forward from Artesia High in Lakewood, told those who gathered around him as he lay on the floor that he had slipped on some water on the court beneath the basket, but MacLean wasn’t so sure.

“I think he just came down wrong on it, myself,” MacLean said.

Although O’Bannon walked off the court unaided, he was examined by several of the UCLA physical training staff, including basketball trainer Tony Spino, and further tests were scheduled. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging test revealed the extent of O’Bannon’s injury.

The MRI was performed by J. David Grauer, an orthopedic surgeon and assistant team physician. Grauer indicated that O’Bannon would need about a year to recover from surgery, which has not yet been scheduled.

Coach Jim Harrick cut short a stay in the Palm Springs area and rushed back to the campus after hearing the news. Harrick had gathered his coaching staff at a desert resort to work out team personnel moves in detail and discuss the use of players.

“We can just throw it out the window now,” he said. “I really feel bad for the young man. That’s the worst part. Sure, this is certainly a big step back for us because it changes the composition of the team dramatically, but it’s the kid and the family that it hurts the most.”

O’Bannon, one of the more widely recruited players in the nation, averaged 24.6 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists a game last season and led Artesia to a 29-2 record. The Pioneers won the Southern Section 4-A championship and the state Division II championship.

O’Bannon was named most valuable player of the West team in the Dapper Dan Classic, a high school All-Star game, and scored 19 points in the McDonald’s All-Star game. In July, he averaged 11.5 points a game and helped the U.S. junior national team win the Championship of the Americas tournament in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Amid such acclaim, O’Bannon also ended speculation on his playing future. He decided to attend Nevada Las Vegas, the defending national champion, selecting the Rebels over UCLA, USC and Arizona State. However, O’Bannon and another prized UNLV recruit, 6-foot-5 Shon Tarver, a guard from Santa Clara High in Oxnard, did not sign letters of intent with the university.

When UNLV was barred from the postseason tournament for NCAA sanctions stemming from incidents of 13 years ago, O’Bannon and Tarver were free to go to another school. Both chose UCLA.

O’Bannon’s injury is a major blow to the Bruins, who were anticipating that he would move smoothly into the gap left by forward Trevor Wilson, now with the Atlanta Hawks. Now, Harrick may chose to fill that spot with 6-9 freshman Rodney Zimmerman of Colorado Springs, 6-7 sophomore Zan Mason, who had reportedly considered transferring from UCLA because of an anticipated lack of playing time, or 6-8 senior Keith Owens, a former walk-on.

NCAA rules forbid practice sessions in the presence of coaches until Oct. 15, the first day of organized practice. But pickup games are considered routine and are acceptable to the NCAA, according to Chuck Smrt of the enforcement division.

MacLean said O’Bannon had stolen the ball and driven to the basket. The next thing MacLean knew, O’Bannon was writhing on the floor, crying out in pain.

“He went up and dunked and everything was normal, then he came down,” MacLean said. “I saw it. It didn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. But he started yelling and screaming about his knee.

“He actually got up and walked off the court after a while. I thought he was OK. I came back about an hour and a half later and they tell me he screwed up his knee.”

Guard Gerald Madkins, who was playing on MacLean’s team, said it was just bad luck.

Madkins knows how it feels to be injured. He was sidelined for the 1988-89 season after he was seriously injured in a head-on collision when a car struck the moped he was driving. Madkins suffered multiple fractures of his pelvis and a torn abdominal muscle. After two operations, Madkins returned to the UCLA team.

“It’s tough on a young guy and I know how it affects you mentally,” Madkins said. “We pray for him. Let’s hope he gets through this thing OK, because we’re going to need him.”