Another
allegation has surfaced about a student athlete getting
paid under the table while still in college. The
University of Southern California (USC) basketball star
OJ Mayo has been reported for receiving gifts from
sports agent Rodney Guillory.
Although
this may have surprised some, this controversy isn’t new
when it comes to Mayo. OJ has been scouted by colleges
and the NBA since the fifth grade. Before he could
accept his basketball scholarship from USC, the NCAA did
a special investigation on Mayo because of his high
profile status. I don’t know if Mayo received anything
extra, but if he did I don’t blame him. It’s not like
this issue is going to stop him from being a top five
pick in this years NBA draft.
Sources
close to this story say that Mr. Guillory provided Mayo
with a flat screen television, cell phone service, cash,
food and clothes. Early this year OJ Mayo was ordered to
repay Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets about five
hundred dollars for a night on the town that Melo
sponsored. About these new charges, OJ Mayo denied any
wrong doing in a statement he made to ESPN. In his
statement he basically said that he been under
investigation his whole career and nothing has ever been
proven.
For USC this
is not the first time underhanded allegations about
their players have surfaced. Reggie Bush former USC
Trojan star is under similar scrutiny for getting money,
cars and a house for his parents to stay in while he was
in college. The biggest question being asked now is what
is the NCAA going to do? I’ll tell you, little or
nothing. The NCAA likes sports agents and marketing
firms keep the high profile athletes happy. That way it
keeps the heat off them from discussing the possibility
of paying the players themselves. The answer is pay the
athletes, since they make the schools billions or let
them turn pro after high school.
