O.J. Mayo Received $30,000 in Cash and Gifts in High School and USC
ESPN is reporting that a former associate of ex-USC basketball player O.J. Mayo says Mayo violated NCAA rules by accepting $30,000 in cash and gifts from a Los Angeles event promoter while in high school and during his single season playing for the USC Trojans.
The report, which this morning on Outside the Lines, says the gifts Mayo received from a man named Rodney Guillory included cash, a flat-screen TV for Mayo’s dorm room, cell phone service, a hotel room, clothes, meals and airline tickets for Mayo’s friends and a relative.
Mayo has issued the following statement:
“I am focusing on the process of making my dream come true, which is to play professional basketball. I will not allow these allegations to become a distraction to me and my family. I have been through investigations by the NCAA, the Pac Ten and USC before I attended school and during the time I have been here. I have not engaged in any wrongdoing. If these claims were true I would suspect they would have been discovered by one of these organizations.”
Mayo, who is done at USC and has declared for the NBA draft, is the second high-profile USC athlete to be accused of taking improper benefits; an investigation of similar accusations involving Reggie Bush is ongoing.
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