OTL probe: Mayo received money, perks from agent reps - Men's College Basketball

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Uh-OJ: Did Mayo Put USC in Hot Water?
Published 5/12/2008 by Brian Kamenetzky at SportsHubLA
... least. I still believe he’s a good, polite kid, and the reports seem to indicate Mayo was not pleased with all of Guillory’s actions. I’d be surprised to hear that Mayo skipped his classes and didn’t meet his obligations on campus, and certainly while he was on campus, trouble many people expected didn’t materialize, in terms of bad behavior or posses run amok. Still, the Year of OJ, as many feared before he arrived, could leave SC in hot water. Beyond the material produced for OTL, ESPN.com’s Kelly Naqi breaks down in detail the relationship between Mayo and Guillory , and ...

Time for USC to get the death penalty
Published 5/12/2008 by admin at NittanyWhiteOut
... But what is going on at USC is on a whole different level. And what’s even more absurd is that the OJ Mayo scandal comes less than a year after the Reggie Bush scandal was blown wide open by Yahoo! Sports. Not only did USC not cooperate by discouraging Reggie Bush to talk to investigators, they now have a full blown case with OJ Mayo on their hands. USC played the ignorance card the first time around with Reggie Bush, it’ll be interesting to see what they pull this time around. ...

WEEKEND DIGEST - 5/12/08
Published 5/12/2008 by eirishis at Thirtyfive Seconds
... EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT Inconceivable! Pop quiz to start your weeks, ladies and gentlemen - and we don’t want to hear any complaining, because if you’ve been reading the assigned material, this one will be easy: Which of the following post-season events, all related to one Ovinton J’Anthony Mayo, was the most predictable? Was it … A) His decision to go pro after one year at USC? B) An investigation by tWWL revealing Mayo received thousands of dollars worth of benefits from a sports agency’s middleman? ...

OJ Mayo might have made as much money as Reggie Bush at USC
Published 5/12/2008 at The Dagger
... Outside the Lines aired a thorough and scathing report yesterday about thousands of dollars that were allegedly funneled to Mayo through his high school and college days. It's a long and complex story (and I'd encourage you to read about it/watch it here), but Naqi reported the hell out of it, has plenty of evidence to support her claims, and it all seems very, very convincing. ...

OJ Mayo Accepted Gifts? Color Me Surprised
Published 5/12/2008 by Tar Heel Fan at Tar Heel Fan
... ESPN reported over the weekend the results of an Outside the Lines investigation which showed that USC freshman OJ Mayo received a variety of goodies from an agent middleman called a “runner” during the course of his brief NCAA career in Los Angeles.  Mayo naturally ...

Monday Musings.......
Published 5/12/2008 by Berger at Sports Business Radio blogs
... is. He's on his way to the Knicks and inherits a team that has been a trainwreck on and off the court. How will D'Antoni fare without Steve Nash orchestrating his offensive scheme and without athletes like Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion filling the lanes? At $6M per season, the Knicks are betting that D'Antoni will not only turn the Knicks in to a winner, but that his exciting brand of basketball will draw fans and potential free agents to Madison Square Garden. - If this story about USC is true, I agree wholeheartedly with this column. And Mike Garrett ...

O.J. Mayo, Agents, and Basketball
Published 5/12/2008 at ESPN.com - True Hoop - Blog
... ESPN's Kelly Naqi has a long and detailed report -- a serious bit of journalism detailed yesterday on Outside the Lines -- about the people, payments, and process of being a top NBA prospect. ...

Shocking News: College Athlete Takes Inappropriate Gifts
Published 5/12/2008 by J Money (noreply@blogger.com) at Boiled Sports
... Looks like OJ Mayo was receiving cash, gifts, cell phone service, etc., the list goes on. During his one year at USC. He, and the lowlifes who can't wait to get their hooks into him -- their meal ticket -- couldn't wait the one year until he was a pro. Nope, gotta make sure he knows you're his "friend" now and take care of his needs. And launder the money by giving it to his friends. Smooth. And totally untracable! Well done! ...

Talking Points
Published 5/12/2008 by Kurt at Forum Blue And Gold
... Finally, one suggested read — the ESPN expose of OJ Mayo and how he got funneled to an agent. As Henry said at True Hoop, to me this is interesting not because of Mayo or USC but because this is one of the first real journalistic breakdowns of a system we all know has existed for years for big-time college players. ...

No more OJs at USC?
Published 5/13/2008 by nvr1983 at Rush the Court
... Most of my knowledge on the topic comes from Kelly Naqi’s Outside the Lines report I saw on Sunday morning while I was staying at a beach resort so this isn’t going to be some deep NY Times investigative piece that some of you may be expecting from RTC–we’ll work on that over the summer. Instead, I think it’s more interesting to consider the impact this will have on USC and recruiting/college basketball in general given the hype that Mayo brought with him to USC and the manner in which he handled his recruitment of USC–yes, the way he ...

Word on the Street: Rounding Up
Published 5/13/2008 at Draft Express
... and BDA Sports on ESPN’s Outside the Lines . NBPA certified agents are required to attend the seminar in the first three years of their certification, and then every other year, to brush up on the latest rules and regulations as it relates to the agent-business. DraftExpress spoke with multiple agents who were present, one of whom talked at length about the tense atmosphere that presided over the seminar just a day after shockwaves were sent throughout the basketball industry. Despite the fact that a large portion of the agent community was present, alongside the people ...

Pete Carroll, Tim Floyd, USC and Scandal (3rd Update)
Published 5/15/2008 by Menelaus at Bruins Nation: Front Page Posts
... that contained extensive, well-documented allegations that USC guard O.J. Mayo received improper benefits from a sports agent (BDA Sports) and that agent's runner (Rodney Guillory) both before and during his one season at USC.  It was alleged that Guillory received ...

Four Questions About Recruiting and O.J. Mayo
Published 5/16/2008 at ESPN.com - True Hoop - Blog
... Vaccaro help us understand? There are various investigations underway from the media, the NCAA, and whoever else. Everyone is trying to piece together this and that. But you could probably do worse than to talk to one of the most powerful men in sports. If I could dump truth serum into anyone and get them to talk to me about this whole O.J. Mayo story, I'd pick Sonny Vaccaro. He's not close to every top basketball player. But he's close to this one. He's in Kelly Naqi's article a little, seeming close to all involved. For ...

Let the Finger Pointing Begin: USC, the NCAA, and David Stern All Get Blame for the OJ Mayo Situation
Published 5/19/2008 by Rahshaun Haylock at SportsHubLA
[image] So it looks like our boy O.J. took a couple of bucks …allegedly. Around 30K according to Louis Johnson’s interview with ESPN. In the week since the allegations surfaced, the NCAA has opened up an investigation regarding Mayo, and Johnson was contacted about his comments made to the “four letter.” Unlike some, I will not carry on, lobbying for the NCAA to drop the dea th penalty on USC Trojans. But don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Start with USC. As the saying goes, ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.’ ...

Runners and Recruiting: A Roundtable
Published 5/28/2008 at ESPN.com - True Hoop - Blog
... Rodney Guillory. It's a name we have learned in recent days, thanks to Kelly Naqi and her Outside the Lines investigation. ...

Runners and Recruiting: A Roundtable, Part 2
Published 5/29/2008 at ESPN.com - True Hoop - Blog
... Rodney Guillory. It's a name we have learned in recent days, thanks to Kelly Naqi and her Outside the Lines investigation. ...

Aaron Goodwin on Players, Runners, and Agents
Published 5/31/2008 at ESPN.com - True Hoop - Blog
... is typically higher. He knows what he's doing. The two biggest marketing deals any NBA rookies have ever received were the Nike contracts of LeBron James and Kevin Durant -- both Goodwin Sports Management clients at the time they signed their deals. For a big name in the industry, Goodwin has a fairly short client list, including players like Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, Al Horford, Jamal Crawford, Rodney Stuckey, Nate Robinson, and Leon Powe. In the wake of the O.J. Mayo story, as more and more agents have ...

Are Newspapers - and Everyone Else - Conceding Investigative Journalism to ESPN?
Published 35 hours ago by TheBigLead at The Big Lead
... fading toward hyper-local coverage, the role of the investigative reporter in newspaper sports departments is disappearing. There was a masterful series by the Seattle Times on the University of Washington earlier this year, but how come we’re not seeing more of that? (The sad job cuts at the LA Times may have been one of the reasons Yahoo broke the Reggie Bush case wide open and why ESPN went into the Times’ backyard to expose the OJ Mayo saga.) The WWL has amassed three of the most prominent in the field - ...