MVN - Most Valuable Network

Did O.J. Mayo Accept Cash, Gifts While in High School and College?

You’re totally not going to believe this, but NBA Draft-bound O.J. Mayo reportedly received thousands of dollars in cash, clothes and other gifts during his high school days and his single season at USC. I know, it’s simply unbelievable that a star athlete would do such a thing while in school, but according to Louis Johnson (a former associate of Mayo), the basketball standout seemingly violated NCAA rules by accepting these “benefits.”

Louis Johnson, who was a part of Mayo’s inner circle until recently, said Mayo accepted around $30,000 in cash and gifts during the past four years from Rodney Guillory, a 43-year-old Los Angeles event promoter. In addition to cash, the gifts included a flat-screen television for Mayo’s dorm room, cell phone service, a hotel room, clothes, meals and airline tickets for Mayo’s friends and a relative, according to Johnson, others with knowledge of the gifts and store receipts.

When Mayo was in high school in Ohio and West Virginia, Guillory was receiving monthly payments from the Northern California sports agency Bill Duffy Associates. Johnson said BDA provided Guillory with around $200,000 before Mayo arrived at USC, and that Guillory used most of the money to support his own lifestyle but also gave a portion of it to Mayo.

In exchange for the payments and gifts, Mayo entered a verbal agreement to allow BDA to represent him when he turned pro, Johnson told “Outside the Lines.”

Anyone surprised by this? Even slightly surprised? No? Didn’t think so.

USC isn’t exactly proving itself to be an upstanding university; it was reported in the book Tarnished Heisman that Reggie Bush and his family received more than $300,000 worth of cash and gifts while he attended USC. So far, the university has escaped punishment for those allegations, but this Mayo controversy might — might — finally land them in hot water.

Simply put, USC seems to deliberately be turning a blind eye to the shady activities of its star athletes. It’s naive to think that this stuff isn’t happening at virtually every major college basketball and football program, but still, it seems to be especially out-of-control for the Trojans. They’ve either gotta clean up their act or actually figure out how to cover this stuff up like other universities do!

In the end, it’s hard to picture anything much happening to USC as a result of the Bush and Mayo controversies. The school carries a tremendous amount of power in the world of college sports, and that influence should help them avoid major punishments. USC basketball coach Tim Floyd and university officials will be “shocked” by the allegations against Mayo, and it’s possible that a half-hearted investigation will be conducted by the school or the NCAA. But there will be no consequences for them.

To be fair, it’s entirely possible that the school was out of the loop in this issue — they could have truly been unaware that Mayo was receiving kickbacks. But the fact that two high-profile USC athletes allegedly broke NCAA rules by receiving cash and gifts raises some red flags about the Trojan athletic department.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.