OJ Mayo not a hero. News at 11.

"Former USC star O.J. Mayo received around $30,000 in cash and gifts while he was in high school and his one year in college, ESPN reported, citing a former associate of the player."

"Rodney Guillory, a Los Angeles event promoter, gave Mayo the cash and gifts using money given him by a sports agency named Billy Duffy Associates, ESPN reported, citing Johnson.

BDA gave Guillory around $200,000 before Mayo came to USC, ESPN reported, although Guillory used most of the money for himself, Johnson said, ESPN reported. In exchange for the gifts, Mayo agreed to allow the agency to represent him when he turned pro, ESPN reported, citing Johnson.

Mayo played his freshman season at USC and has entered the NBA draft, hiring Calvin Andrews of BDA as his agent.

"

It will be very interesting to see how USC and Floyd respond to this. Again, this isn't entirely USC's fault, but the appearance of impropriety from both the basketball program and the football program certainly doesn't leave the best first impression.

And you know the old saying—"where there's smoke, there's fire". I would hardly consider it a coincidence that these questions are coming from both the football and basketball programs, especially given the fact that the basketball program doesn't generate nearly as much animosity as the football program.

UPDATE: Here's the video from Outside the Lines that broke this story. There's more to come with this, I'm sure.



UPDATE #2: I'm sure we all remember this, don't we? The long and the short of it was that Mayo was spotted with court side Lakers tickets, and later—Carmelo Anthony had supposedly come forward to claim that he gave the tickets to Mayo, so no problem.

Guess who Carmelo Anthony is represented by? Bill Duffy Associates—the same agency in which Mayo has now signed and which is fingered in the OTL report as funnelling money and gifts to Mayo. Yep, that seems totally legit.