OJ Mayo: U.S. Culture and the One-and-Done Rule

By: D.K. Wilson

Google “one-and-done rule” and the search results are, well, hilarious. Everybody and their mother are touching on it. A blogger claims that myriad problems created O.J. Mayo. A mainstream columnist blames the NCAA for a, having players for one year is better than not having them at all, philosophy. Another columnist casts doubts on the rule and claims it is under scrutiny by the NCAA while NBA Commissioner David Stern defends his rule.

And on and on they go until the spin behind the pieces disintegrates as they become mired in mind-numbing exercises in futility.

If we are to believe Louis Johnson, Rodney Guillory approached O.J. Mayo when Mayo was 14 (he’d already played two years of varsity ball by that time) and over the next six years gave money and gifts to the combo-guard to the tune of a paltry $30,000 while allegedly hoarding somewhere between $170,000 and $220,000 supplied to him by Calvin Andrews of the sports agency, Bill Duffy and Associates.

However, cutting through the maze of “what if” and “they shouldn’t” and “he’s selfish” when it comes to Mayo, is one simple and very, very important fact:

There was no “one-and-done” rule some six years ago.

If every allegation levied by Johnson is gospel, Rodney Guillory, Calvin Andrews, and O.J. Mayo could never have imagined in a million years that David Stern would institute a rule mandating that a player be 19 years old and at least one year out of high school to be eligible for the NBA draft.

There was no rule that was so utterly ridiculous in its being, so against the basic premise that a person in this country has the right to seek employment whenever he or she feels they have the ability to do so, so revealing in that it completely eradicates the image of David Stern as an autonomous commissioner, and because the NBA is so predominantly black in its player makeup, so viscously racist.

To attempt to blame 14-year old O. J. Mayo - or any young athlete - for an incident such as this, is at least sublimely naive, socio-culturally irresponsible if you want something somewhere in the middle, and at worst disingenuous and racist.

The sad fact of America is that we thrive culturally in this country in large part precisely because we prey on our young. Youth sets fashion trends to the point where it dictates preferred and desired body type for middle-aged men and women, creating an entire industry out of the vain attempt to look younger than you actually are. Youth feeds and therefore dominates our entertainment and arts industries. Uninventive current rock and rap music dominates our airwaves to the point where people yearn for something, anything of meaning. Youth, and the maintenance of it, has become our primary cultural currency.

We are always on the lookout for the “newest” and “freshest” thing “out there.” And that “thing” just happens most times to be some young man or young woman too young to come close to dealing with the responsibility and the pressure that comes with being thrust into a position or societal role they most likely did not seek in the first place and has nothing to do with whatever it is they produce.

And when that person acts their age exhibiting the slightest sign of immaturity ——– we seek to crush them.

Our media quickly turns to mean-spirited snark and hyperbole to place an inordinate emphasis on their trials, to break and enter into their private lives, and psychologically assault them to force them to bow before those in the media so that they can dance around the youthful psychic corpse like a cackling pack of hyenas do upon finding a freshly expired wildebeest in the Veldt. And should their prey react poorly, the media tramples the youth underfoot on their way to whatever they deem as the next apple of their eye.

Go-betweens exist as artist and repertoire (A&R) people actively courting musical talent, offering the promise of millions for their signature on a contract. Talent scouts scour the U.S. looking for the next great young actor, the next great model. Anyone from parents to the talent themselves are offered the promise of fame and fortune if they just sign with “Acme Talent Agency.” Angel investors and venture capitalists read business proposals half the day, conduct seminars for young entrepreneurs a quarter of the day, and conduct interviews the remainder of the day. And they do it for the right to procure a percentage of some up-and-comer’s company.

Unlike the arts and entertainment and business worlds, the world of “amateur” sports must hide its go-betweens, the people who actively seek out and procure talent for waiting coaches, colleges, universities, and the boosters who keep the machine monetarily afloat. Because of the ruse that is amateur athletics, its governing body, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has created a plethora of rules - many arcane, antiquated, or purposely vague - to oversee its product. Chief among their rules are those dealing with recruiting.

Despite the vagaries of the restrictions placed around the recruiting of high school athletes, the rules in and of themselves do not contribute to “cheating” to obtain prize recruits. No, it is the combination of the rules with power and prestige of being associated with a successful collegiate athletic program that creates the atmosphere for what is known only in amateur athletics, as cheating. Between the program and the players to be recruited is a long line of men who will use any means to achieve their end: get the object of their desire to their appointed destination - the college campus or until recently, the NBA or the NFL.

To achieve this end these “middlemen” (also known as ‘runners”) or “influence peddlers” prey on children as young as 12. Sometimes the middlemen are high school or local summer league coaches. Sometimes they are friends of the young person’s family. Sometimes they come out of the blue with Blackberries full of impressive and influential contacts for the youth to see.

Once a youngster’s confidence is gained, the gifts come. Tickets to professional games, clothes, cell phones, money, and more can come the way of a pre-recruit. In the case of O.J. Mayo, it is said that most of these items were bestowed upon him in exchange for his loyalty to Calvin Andrews of Bill Duffy and Associates sports management (BDA). Duffy is a super agent and represents NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Yao Ming, among others (Duffy has repeatedly said he has given nothing to Mayo).

As we all know, Rodney Guillory, who acted as an influence peddler to former USC basketball player Jeff Trepagnier, is alleged to be Mayo’s middleman-confidant. Though O. J. Mayo’s mother says she never trusted Guillory, Mayo has said repeatedly that Guillory has acted as a strong influence on him - as a black man.

Again, if Guillory did give gifts to Mayo, it is only because there was no “One-and-Done” rule for a 14-year old O. J. Mayo - no hint of a rule like this, no hint that David Stern was anything other than a commissioner who acted on behalf of the entire National Basketball Association, and certainly not acting mainly as an extremely well-paid mouthpiece for the owners.

Guillory, on the other hand, is as American as a late 20th-early 21st century apple pie — as is Mayo. The pie may be rancid as a piece of a cultural whole, but it is pie, nonetheless.

Because the Mayo affair involves black males it gives this situation a completely new spin. That this involves O. J. Mayo, a well spoken, celebrated black basketball player allows the spit ‘em up and chew em out sports media an opportunity to spew venom his way. Michael Wilbon, the celebrated columnist of the Washington Post spewed venom at Mayo well before he ever met the young man. He intimated - as much as one can intimate to a national audience - that he’d seen Mayo’s type before and that Mayo was “a punk.” However, after actually meeting Mayo, Wilbon’s perceptions of Mayo changed completely. Unlike his peers, though, Wilbon, upon meeting Mayo realized his mistake and voiced it on national television just as he did when he called Mayo a punk.

Much of the rest of the press - and their followers on the Internet - have maintained their disgust for the soon-to-be NBA guard, regardless of their proximity to him.

In another twist there are those in the media who have pounced on solely or primarily on Guillory and have acted - wrongly - as Mayo’s protector.

O. J. Mayo is largely not placed in context with what he was - a poor, black 14-year-old teen with nothing to speak of except his ability to play basketball when he was first approached by Guillory. He is depicted, rather as a feted athlete who did what every other feted black athlete does…. cheat.

That Mayo has stressed Guillory’s role in his life is not perceived as the choice of a young, fatherless black man thankful for finding a role model he could actually respect. Instead it is seen as Mayo being thankful for finding a sugar daddy, which makes the scene between two black people a willful black-on black crime with black man Calvin Andrews acting as front man for the black puppet master for the entire affair, Bill Duffy.

Is it possible, though, that Guillory is complex enough of a human being to be both mentor to Mayo and an influence peddler? Or be a mentor and by default act as an influence peddler solely because he is the most influential black male adult in Mayo’s life?

No one has bothered to take Louis Johnson - the object of ESPN’s Kelly Naqi’s “investigative”, made-for-television piece on the affair - to task because he came up with receipts with Guillory’s name on them. Not Mayo’s and Guillory’s names —- but Guillory’s; complete with a tale for each receipt.

No one has chimed in with a call of “bullshit,” of, how can Johnson’s story be believed because he was busted for cocaine distribution, got out of jail and sought out Guillory, and was hoping to make quick dollars off whatever it was Guillory was into. Where is the charge that Johnson is just out to make money off of everyone’s back by writing a book about what little he really knows of the entire affair? Where is the charge - as Stern made about ex-NBA official Tim Donaghy - that the felon, Johnson, is attempting to lay blame elsewhere to get himself out of any future legal trouble because he already has a record?

All we get are reductionist, stripped-down perceptions of “what really happened” and “who’s to blame.” And when blame is cast in more than one direction, it is cast in such a wide net as to render the entire “problem” as hopeless.

The “problem” appears to be that we cannot seem to place what might have happened to O. J. Mayo in any real context. To pick and choose villains is the usual, hackneyed, easy way out. And the preferred out for most people reporting in any way on this story.

To attack the root of the issue - our very culture - for this problem is tantamount to a admitting that everyone from ESPN to Naqi to every writer casting aspersions in any direction other than on our culture is to be blamed. And no one wants to do that.

But.

There is one thing we can do. And that is to stop blaming teenagers for recruiting indiscretions. Even if that athlete is from a perfect nuclear family with a great and solid home life. Children will make mistakes, period. No matter how many people have done it before them, some child somewhere will think they will be the one who out-slicks everyone and has their cake and gets to eat it, too. It’s part of growing up. And for someone from a background as destitute and challenged as Mayo’s, the chances of making a mistake are exponentially greater.

You have less than nothing and watch images of people with everything and get told that this is what you should aspire to long enough and there’s a damn good chance your morals will reflect some form of the depravity with which you have been inundated.

So don’t blame Mayo - and toss the “black actors” biases out the door. After all, the O. J. Mayo story is today’s quintessential American success tale.

And it is as wholesome as a cultural apple pie today can be.

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D.K. Wilson is a freelance sports writer. He is better known on the internet as "DWil," and writes for Sports On My Mind.

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