Confidant says Mayo received thousands in illegal benefits
USC BASKETBALL
The firm now representing the former Trojans star allegedly funneled funds to him through an L.A.-based events promoter.
A former friend of USC freshman guard O.J. Mayo has alleged that Mayo violated NCAA rules by accepting tens of thousands of dollars in cash and benefits from L.A. events promoter Rodney Guillory since Mayo was in high school, according to a report broadcast this morning on ESPN's "Outside the Lines."
Guillory provided Mayo with a flat-screen television, cellphone service, cash, meals, clothes and other benefits, Louis Johnson told ESPN. Johnson, a former confidant of Mayo and Guillory, alleged that Guillory acted as a runner for BDA Sports Management, which funded Guillory until the summer before Mayo enrolled at USC. When the agency stopped providing money at that time, Johnson said, Guillory set up a fake charity and used donation money to fund his expenses.
Johnson estimated that BDA provided more than $200,000 in cash and benefits, including a sports utility vehicle, to Guillory and that Mayo received only a small fraction of that money from Guillory. Johnson provided ESPN with expense receipts and money transfer orders to corroborate his account.
"The fact of the matter is, O.J. has been pimped by Rodney," Johnson said in the report. Johnson, a former reporter for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, recently had a falling-out with Guillory and said he spoke because he wanted to bring the matter to the public's attention and "force O.J. to make some changes in his life ... that he desperately needs right now."
Guillory's alleged actions constitute the second set of potentially major violations recently to rock USC, which is still dealing with an NCAA investigation into whether former running back Reggie Bush received improper benefits from a would-be sports marketer.
Asked whether her organization would look into the Mayo matter, NCAA spokeswoman Gail Dent said the organization's policies prohibit any comment on whether investigations are pending or ongoing.
Mayo denied any wrongdoing in a statement to ESPN, saying, "I have been through investigations by the NCAA, the Pac-10 and USC before I attended school and during the time I have been here. ... If these claims were true I would suspect they would have been discovered by one of these organizations."
Johnson said he and Guillory traveled to several of Mayo's high school games when he was a senior at Huntington (W.Va.) High to build a relationship on behalf of BDA Sports Management in hopes that the phenom would eventually sign with the agency. Mayo, who last month declared for the NBA draft, signed with BDA vice president Calvin Andrews.
