OJ Mayo signs off his high school career....with some flash - Page 5

Mecca · 03-20-2007, 05:52 PM

http://deadspin.com/sports/high-scho...yle-245625.php

Mr. Plow · 03-21-2007, 09:56 AM

Check out this recruiting story on OJ.

He'll call you

LOS ANGELES, March 20 — It sounds like a fairy tale.

Mayo said that if he did not go to U.S.C., he would probably enroll at an African-American college.

A stranger walked into the University of Southern California basketball office one day last summer and asked to speak to the head coach. The stranger did not make an appointment. He did not call ahead. Tim Floyd, the U.S.C. head coach, cannot explain why he agreed to see him.

Nine months later, as U.S.C. prepares for the regional semifinal of the N.C.A.A. tournament, Floyd recounted his version of that conversation.

The mysterious man got right to the point. “How would you like to have the best player in the country?” he asked.

Floyd tried not to roll his eyes.

“Have you heard of O. J. Mayo?” the man asked.

Of course Floyd had heard of him. Everyone in basketball had heard of him. Mayo was first mentioned in Sports Illustrated when he was in the seventh grade. He was considered a future lottery pick by the time he entered high school. He once talked trash to Michael Jordan during a pickup game at Jordan’s camp.

Mayo was entering his senior season as a point guard at Huntington High School in Huntington, W.Va., but Floyd said he did not bother to call him. He did not even send him a U.S.C. brochure.

What was the point? Major universities had been courting Mayo for four years. Floyd had been at U.S.C. for fewer than 18 months. Besides, Floyd had only recruited two top-100 players in his life. He had no business going after Mayo, the No. 1 player in the country, especially being from a football college that was 3,000 miles away.

“O. J. wanted me to come here today,” the man told Floyd. “He wanted me to figure out who you are.”

Floyd was desperate enough to play along. His starting point guard, Ryan Francis, had been murdered two months earlier. The backup, Gabe Pruitt, was in academic trouble. The third-stringer, a walk-on, was leaving college.

“Why aren’t you at Arizona or Connecticut?” Floyd recalled asking.

The man explained that Mayo wanted to market himself before going to the N.B.A., and that Los Angeles would give him the best possible platform.

“Then why aren’t you at U.C.L.A.?” Floyd asked.

The man shook his head. U.C.L.A. had already won 11 national championships. It had already produced many N.B.A. stars. Mayo wanted to be a pioneer for a new era.

“Let me call him,” Floyd said.

The man shook his head again. “O. J. doesn’t give out his cell,” he said. “He’ll call you.”

Floyd remembers the meeting lasting 45 minutes. He learned that the man’s name was Ronald Guillory, and that he was an event promoter in Los Angeles who had befriended Mayo. Other than that, Floyd learned absolutely nothing.

“There was no way that kid was going to call,” Floyd said. “There was no way.”

College basketball recruiting, especially when it comes to the top players, is a famously shady business. Coaches deal regularly with handlers and street agents. When they land a top prospect, they are immediately open to questions and accusations.

Floyd is no different. Hours after he met Guillory, at about 6:30 p.m., Floyd was at home in Santa Monica when his cellphone rang. He gave his version of his second landmark conversation of the day.

When Floyd answered the phone, he heard a teenager’s voice on the other end: “Coach, this is O. J. Mayo. I’d like to come to your school.”

Mayo had not been on an official campus visit. He had not seen the new arena, the Galen Center. He did not know anything about the current roster.

Floyd did not believe it was possible to get a verbal commitment from a player he had recruited for less than one day, especially when that player was a 6-foot-5 sharpshooter with blue-chip strength, quickness and passing ability.

“I want to be different,” Floyd recalls Mayo telling him. “I want to leave a mark.”

Mayo said that if he did not go to U.S.C., he would probably enroll at an African-American college. Such colleges are renowned academically, but they do not typically produce pro basketball players.

Mayo’s mind was apparently made up. He was already looking ahead. “How many scholarships do we have for next year?” he asked.

Floyd stammered. “After this,” he said, “I guess we have three.”

Mayo went through the priority list in his mind. “Don’t worry about recruiting,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”

Before Floyd hung up, he asked one more time for Mayo’s cellphone number. “No,” Mayo said. “I’ll call you.”

When Floyd put down the phone, he turned to his wife. “This ain’t happening,” he said. “But we’ve got to act like it is.”

Never has a verbal commitment carried less weight. Mayo is one of those basketball prodigies famous for his large entourage and his erratic behavior. In the past six years, he has moved from West Virginia to Kentucky to Ohio and back to West Virginia. He has been suspended at least three times for fights and other violations.

Tim Floyd did not think he had a shot at O. J. Mayo. Mayo called him.

But every six weeks, Mayo called Floyd to check in. He persuaded one of his friends, Davon Jefferson, to join him at U.S.C.

“O. J. has a lot of people in his ear, but he is just not a follow-the-herd kind of guy,” Floyd said. “He never, ever wavered.”

On Wednesday, Nov. 15, Mayo faxed his letter of intent to Floyd. It was a bigger story in Los Angeles than U.C.L.A.’s opening game. On Friday, Nov. 17, Mayo finally took his official visit to U.S.C., accompanied by a documentary film crew.

Floyd solicited the help of a coach more familiar with five-star recruits. Pete Carroll, the U.S.C. football coach, gave Mayo his pitch. As usual, it worked.

“It was the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Floyd said. “I kept thinking, ‘Either this kid is nuts, or he’s got the biggest vision I’ve ever seen.’ ”

Like a true point guard, Mayo saw everything develop a split-second before it did. At the time he faxed his letter of intent, U.S.C. was a mess. Players were still mourning Francis’ death. Floyd could not persuade anyone to care about defense. The starting point guard, Daniel Hackett, graduated early from high school so he could fill in.

“We were miserable to watch,” Floyd said. “Our guys wouldn’t even shake their heads if they threw the ball away or let a guy blow right by them. They would only shake their heads if they missed a shot.”

As a high school senior, Mayo obviously could not help the Trojans cover the perimeter and work the ball inside. But Floyd believes that Mayo’s signing improved the team’s overall attitude. Mayo gave validation to a program that always trails U.S.C. football on its own campus and U.C.L.A. basketball in its own city.

“Now we’re getting as much love as those guys are,” forward Taj Gibson said.

The Trojans had reason to listen to Floyd before, based on his N.B.A. experience coaching the Chicago Bulls and the New Orleans Hornets. But when he showed that he could sign Mayo, his locker-room credibility rose even higher.

Fifth-seeded U.S.C. will play top-seeded North Carolina in the Round of 16 on Friday in East Rutherford, N.J.. The Trojans have a tough-minded defense and a selfless style. They always had players who could create — and make — their own shots. Suddenly, they have players who are willing to do more.

“We understand what it takes now to win games,” said Pruitt, who was academically ineligible for the first semester. “We like the results.”

This was all supposed to happen next year, with Mayo leading the team deep into the N.C.A.A. tournament and then bolting for the N.B.A. lottery.

Until he shows up for freshman orientation, U.S.C. will have to wonder if Mayo is for real, or if he will skip college entirely and wait the required one year for the draft.

“I used to think about that, but not anymore,” Floyd said. “This guy wants to play for it all.”[QUOTE]

**Saulbadguy** · 03-21-2007, 10:00 AM

He's gonna make U$C a national power in basketball overnight. They got players this year, and will get players because of OJ.

Sure-Oz · 03-21-2007, 10:07 AM

What is the story on this guy? Why is he so hated besides seeming to be a real cocky dude? Is he THAT good?

Jenson71 · 03-21-2007, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

What is the story on this guy? Why is he so hated besides seeming to be a real cocky dude? Is he THAT good?

I wonder where he would go in the upcoming draft?

TrickyNicky · 03-21-2007, 10:26 AM

The guy has an ego. Wow. I hope he has a good career and learns some humility. It never hurts.

WilliamTheIrish · 03-21-2007, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC

that just keeps getting better and better..

Now the KSU Male Cheerleader was saying on 810 today that, Benneck might be leaving?

I love it when KU fans h.a.n.g. on every word from Kevin Kietzman. Truely hilarious. Listening to Phlogentters parrot Tom Lght and the HBBIQ crowd and have them bring it here is even more precious.

WilliamTheIrish · 03-21-2007, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ari Chi3fs

The guys at ksufans.com are going to have to start tagging their work. It's all over the place.

kcxiv · 03-21-2007, 01:24 PM

Ok, i seen him dunk the ball, then i seen him throw the ball into the crowd and him getting what appears to be ejected on the last game of his career. The crowd absolutely loved it. I am still waiting for the part where this was some horrible act.

I seen some reactions on here where people are acting like he is the devil. Oh well, i guess i missed the part where he did something horrible.

StcChief · 03-21-2007, 01:27 PM

Sure to be a 'Magic' Man...

eazyb81 · 03-21-2007, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

No. No Felipe Lopez vibe at all.

Care to expand on your thoughts? You 100% sure Mayo is going to come in and dominate in college? I'm not sure he will be able to match all this hype he is getting - in fact I am willing to bet he won't.

Eleazar · 03-21-2007, 02:01 PM

He'll be in trouble before his college career is over I bet.

Reerun_KC · 03-21-2007, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

I love it when KU fans h.a.n.g. on every word from Kevin Kietzman. Truely hilarious. Listening to Phlogentters parrot Tom Lght and the HBBIQ crowd and have them bring it here is even more precious.

Hey he is your cheerleader not mine, Besides 610's streaming is not working so I am left with listening to KK, believe me, It is not by choice. But I want to hear some sports from the KC Metro area...

I was asking the question about Bennett? Is he leaving.. Huggy pretty much said he has zero offense skills for the Big XII...

HBBIQ? What does Saul have to do with this?

Reerun_KC · 03-21-2007, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

The guys at ksufans.com are going to have to start tagging their work. It's all over the place.

yeah they should have. That is awesome!

I like his style...

StcChief · 03-21-2007, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cochise

He'll be in trouble before his college career is over I bet.

He'll be in trouble before summer BB league.

jidar · 03-21-2007, 02:33 PM

I didnt think it was a big deal. sour grapes

03-20-2007, 05:52 PM
Mecca Hockey Town Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Kansas City, Missouri Casino cash: $-532950	OJ Mayo signs off his high school career....with some flash http://deadspin.com/sports/high-scho...yle-245625.php
Posts: 115,273

03-21-2007, 09:56 AM	#61
Mr. Plow In Search of a Life Join Date: Dec 2005 Casino cash: $-1342609	Check out this recruiting story on OJ. He'll call you LOS ANGELES, March 20 — It sounds like a fairy tale. Mayo said that if he did not go to U.S.C., he would probably enroll at an African-American college. A stranger walked into the University of Southern California basketball office one day last summer and asked to speak to the head coach. The stranger did not make an appointment. He did not call ahead. Tim Floyd, the U.S.C. head coach, cannot explain why he agreed to see him. Nine months later, as U.S.C. prepares for the regional semifinal of the N.C.A.A. tournament, Floyd recounted his version of that conversation. The mysterious man got right to the point. “How would you like to have the best player in the country?” he asked. Floyd tried not to roll his eyes. “Have you heard of O. J. Mayo?” the man asked. Of course Floyd had heard of him. Everyone in basketball had heard of him. Mayo was first mentioned in Sports Illustrated when he was in the seventh grade. He was considered a future lottery pick by the time he entered high school. He once talked trash to Michael Jordan during a pickup game at Jordan’s camp. Mayo was entering his senior season as a point guard at Huntington High School in Huntington, W.Va., but Floyd said he did not bother to call him. He did not even send him a U.S.C. brochure. What was the point? Major universities had been courting Mayo for four years. Floyd had been at U.S.C. for fewer than 18 months. Besides, Floyd had only recruited two top-100 players in his life. He had no business going after Mayo, the No. 1 player in the country, especially being from a football college that was 3,000 miles away. “O. J. wanted me to come here today,” the man told Floyd. “He wanted me to figure out who you are.” Floyd was desperate enough to play along. His starting point guard, Ryan Francis, had been murdered two months earlier. The backup, Gabe Pruitt, was in academic trouble. The third-stringer, a walk-on, was leaving college. “Why aren’t you at Arizona or Connecticut?” Floyd recalled asking. The man explained that Mayo wanted to market himself before going to the N.B.A., and that Los Angeles would give him the best possible platform. “Then why aren’t you at U.C.L.A.?” Floyd asked. The man shook his head. U.C.L.A. had already won 11 national championships. It had already produced many N.B.A. stars. Mayo wanted to be a pioneer for a new era. “Let me call him,” Floyd said. The man shook his head again. “O. J. doesn’t give out his cell,” he said. “He’ll call you.” Floyd remembers the meeting lasting 45 minutes. He learned that the man’s name was Ronald Guillory, and that he was an event promoter in Los Angeles who had befriended Mayo. Other than that, Floyd learned absolutely nothing. “There was no way that kid was going to call,” Floyd said. “There was no way.” College basketball recruiting, especially when it comes to the top players, is a famously shady business. Coaches deal regularly with handlers and street agents. When they land a top prospect, they are immediately open to questions and accusations. Floyd is no different. Hours after he met Guillory, at about 6:30 p.m., Floyd was at home in Santa Monica when his cellphone rang. He gave his version of his second landmark conversation of the day. When Floyd answered the phone, he heard a teenager’s voice on the other end: “Coach, this is O. J. Mayo. I’d like to come to your school.” Mayo had not been on an official campus visit. He had not seen the new arena, the Galen Center. He did not know anything about the current roster. Floyd did not believe it was possible to get a verbal commitment from a player he had recruited for less than one day, especially when that player was a 6-foot-5 sharpshooter with blue-chip strength, quickness and passing ability. “I want to be different,” Floyd recalls Mayo telling him. “I want to leave a mark.” Mayo said that if he did not go to U.S.C., he would probably enroll at an African-American college. Such colleges are renowned academically, but they do not typically produce pro basketball players. Mayo’s mind was apparently made up. He was already looking ahead. “How many scholarships do we have for next year?” he asked. Floyd stammered. “After this,” he said, “I guess we have three.” Mayo went through the priority list in his mind. “Don’t worry about recruiting,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.” Before Floyd hung up, he asked one more time for Mayo’s cellphone number. “No,” Mayo said. “I’ll call you.” When Floyd put down the phone, he turned to his wife. “This ain’t happening,” he said. “But we’ve got to act like it is.” Never has a verbal commitment carried less weight. Mayo is one of those basketball prodigies famous for his large entourage and his erratic behavior. In the past six years, he has moved from West Virginia to Kentucky to Ohio and back to West Virginia. He has been suspended at least three times for fights and other violations. Tim Floyd did not think he had a shot at O. J. Mayo. Mayo called him. But every six weeks, Mayo called Floyd to check in. He persuaded one of his friends, Davon Jefferson, to join him at U.S.C. “O. J. has a lot of people in his ear, but he is just not a follow-the-herd kind of guy,” Floyd said. “He never, ever wavered.” On Wednesday, Nov. 15, Mayo faxed his letter of intent to Floyd. It was a bigger story in Los Angeles than U.C.L.A.’s opening game. On Friday, Nov. 17, Mayo finally took his official visit to U.S.C., accompanied by a documentary film crew. Floyd solicited the help of a coach more familiar with five-star recruits. Pete Carroll, the U.S.C. football coach, gave Mayo his pitch. As usual, it worked. “It was the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Floyd said. “I kept thinking, ‘Either this kid is nuts, or he’s got the biggest vision I’ve ever seen.’ ” Like a true point guard, Mayo saw everything develop a split-second before it did. At the time he faxed his letter of intent, U.S.C. was a mess. Players were still mourning Francis’ death. Floyd could not persuade anyone to care about defense. The starting point guard, Daniel Hackett, graduated early from high school so he could fill in. “We were miserable to watch,” Floyd said. “Our guys wouldn’t even shake their heads if they threw the ball away or let a guy blow right by them. They would only shake their heads if they missed a shot.” As a high school senior, Mayo obviously could not help the Trojans cover the perimeter and work the ball inside. But Floyd believes that Mayo’s signing improved the team’s overall attitude. Mayo gave validation to a program that always trails U.S.C. football on its own campus and U.C.L.A. basketball in its own city. “Now we’re getting as much love as those guys are,” forward Taj Gibson said. The Trojans had reason to listen to Floyd before, based on his N.B.A. experience coaching the Chicago Bulls and the New Orleans Hornets. But when he showed that he could sign Mayo, his locker-room credibility rose even higher. Fifth-seeded U.S.C. will play top-seeded North Carolina in the Round of 16 on Friday in East Rutherford, N.J.. The Trojans have a tough-minded defense and a selfless style. They always had players who could create — and make — their own shots. Suddenly, they have players who are willing to do more. “We understand what it takes now to win games,” said Pruitt, who was academically ineligible for the first semester. “We like the results.” This was all supposed to happen next year, with Mayo leading the team deep into the N.C.A.A. tournament and then bolting for the N.B.A. lottery. Until he shows up for freshman orientation, U.S.C. will have to wonder if Mayo is for real, or if he will skip college entirely and wait the required one year for the draft. “I used to think about that, but not anymore,” Floyd said. “This guy wants to play for it all.”[QUOTE]
Posts: 31,679

03-21-2007, 10:00 AM	#62
Saulbadguy When a nightmare becomes real Join Date: Nov 2003 Casino cash: $736966	He's gonna make U$C a national power in basketball overnight. They got players this year, and will get players because of OJ. __________________ http://www.goemaw.com
Posts: 47,020

03-21-2007, 10:26 AM	#65
TrickyNicky My Black Friend, Alan Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Manhattan Casino cash: $10007047	The guy has an ego. Wow. I hope he has a good career and learns some humility. It never hurts.
Posts: 3,648

03-21-2007, 01:24 PM	#68
kcxiv In Search of a Life Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Central Valley, Cali Casino cash: $8697996	Ok, i seen him dunk the ball, then i seen him throw the ball into the crowd and him getting what appears to be ejected on the last game of his career. The crowd absolutely loved it. I am still waiting for the part where this was some horrible act. I seen some reactions on here where people are acting like he is the devil. Oh well, i guess i missed the part where he did something horrible.
Posts: 29,111

03-21-2007, 01:27 PM	#69
StcChief Playing for #1 Draft Pick Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Just West of Lambs land Casino cash: $10004900	Sure to be a 'Magic' Man...
Posts: 25,901

03-21-2007, 02:01 PM	#71
Eleazar Beyond the Rapids Join Date: May 2003 Location: Langley, VA Casino cash: $-370000	He'll be in trouble before his college career is over I bet.
Posts: 80,659

03-21-2007, 02:33 PM	#75
jidar MVP Join Date: May 2005 Location: a Casino cash: $10004900	I didnt think it was a big deal. sour grapes
Posts: 5,502