Tales of Cocky Basketball Phenom O.J. Mayo

If you are a basketball fan or have read a Sports Illustrated magazine you have probably heard of an up-in-coming basketball superstar. His name is O.J. Mayo.

He was first in Sports Illustrated when he was in the seventh grade and was already being dubbed the next Lebron James. He has played on one of the best AAU teams in the nation, D1 Greyhounds, alongside with Bill Walker, number seven on the infamous Rivals 150 list, OJ Mayo being number 6. Reebok has shown him special interest in spending over $100,000 on the D1 Greyhounds, they are unable to give the money to him or his family. He was at one point projected to be the number one draft choice in 2008 but has recently fallen to number three.

OJ Mayo returned to his old school in West Virginia, Huntington High, in order to play with his old friends. He lead them to the 2007 class AAA state title game, beating South Charleston 103-61. All of Huntington's starters scored double figures and OJ Mayo had an outstanding 41 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. The Highlanders have now won an unprecedented third straight Class AAA championship. Huntington finished #3 on the national rankings in Sports Illustrated and #4 on the USA Today Super 25.

Is all of this to much for OJ though? Is he a little to cocky and out of control? I mean, he was suspended three games for assaulting a referee after being ejected from a game, received a misdemeanor for possession of marijuana that was later dropped when a fellow passenger claimed responsibility, and received a technical in his last game for throwing himself an alley-oop and then throwing the ball into the crowd. He also had a friend, Ronald Guillory, an event promoter in Los Angeles, tell the coach of USC that Mayo was going to be playing there his first year of college. All of this seems to support the theory that OJ thinks he can do what he wants because he is the best.

The first incident that arose was the assault of a referee in the middle of a game in January 2007. OJ received a technical foul for shoving a player with 5:11 left in the game. He then received another technical foul for arguing with the referee about the call. He was then ejected for the game for walking up to the referee and shoving him to the ground. He originally received a two game suspension but allegations supported by video evidence showed that the ref overreacted and faked the incident so a temporary restraining order was signed and the suspensions from the incident were lifted. The restraining order was then nullified and Mayo was suspended for three games.

The next incident occurred on March 9, 2007. Mayo and three other men were cited for misdemeanor simple possession of marijuana. The officers recovered a cannabis in the car in which Mayo was a passenger. No one in the car claimed responsibility for the marijuana so all four men were cited with tickets. The charges against Mayo were then dropped on March 12, 2007 after one of the passengers in the vehicle took full responsibility for the marijuana. He wasn't charged with anything but he may need to find friends that are a little more responsible.

The third incident occurred in the Class AAA basketball championship of West Virginia. Mayo and his Huntington High School team won the third consecutive AAA title on March 17, 2007. Mayo's team won the game 103-61. However, with a minute left in the game, Mayo threw the ball off the backboard from the free-throw line, caught it in midair, and dunked the ball. Mayo then grabbed the ball and threw it into his student body while holding up three fingers, symbolizing the three back-to-back titles his school had won. He of course received a technical foul and had to sit out the rest of the game. Although, as a basketball fan, I was impressed with the dunk and was happy for him that he had won the game and had ended his high school career in such an amazing fashion, was it just another showing of how out of control he is?

The final sign of his extreme cockiness came last summer when a friend of Mayo's, Ronald Guillory, entered the University of Southern California basketball office and asked to speak to the head coach. He of course did not have an appointment. Guillory told the coach that O.J. Mayo sent him there to figure out who the coach was, to tell the coach that he wanted to play in Los Angeles to market himself for the NBA, and that he wanted to go to a school that had not won many championships and had not had many NBA stars. He wanted to be the pioneer for a new era. Floyd asked for Mayo's number and Guillory said that OJ would call him.

Later that night OJ called the coach and said he would like to come the his school. He had not been on an official campus visit or even seen the new arena. The next thing Mayo asked was how many scholarships does USC have now? The coach said three and Mayo said, "Don't worry about recruiting. I'll take care of it." The coach of course asked for Mayo's number again and Mayo again said, "I'll call you." With that he recruited a friend of his, Davon Jefferson, to join him at USC and on Wednesday, Nov. 15, faxed his letter of intent to Floyd.

Being cocky enough to talk to a D1 coach as if he was the big man, hitting a referee during a big game, receiving a technical foul and ending your high school career with that, and hanging around with people who do drugs. OJ Mayo is definitely cocky and may even be to full of himself.