Holmey's Hypothetical: What If USC's Tim Floyd Is Actually NOT Guilty?

Most people don’t like Tim Floyd.  He is surly and aloof.  In some ways, these attributes can serve you well in the world of coaching. However, for Tim Floyd at USC, his unwillingness to play USC’s “game” may have cost him the best job he will ever have.

Coach Floyd was thrown under the bus. Not only was he was thrown under by the USC Athletic Department, but also the national media. Both entities were far too quick to believe the allegations of some guy. Some guy who was willing to sit in front of camera and tell a convincing story.

Almost a year later, there is no fire where “whistleblower” Louis Johnson provided the proverbial smoke.  I think it is time to consider the fact that maybe Coach Floyd was not guilty of anything Johnson claimed.

With holes in his story that Snoop Dogg could run through, Johnson claimed that Floyd handed OJ Mayo “handler,” Rodney Guillory, $1000 in an envelope.  Nevermind that when he claimed it happened, that Floyd was running a practice in the Galen Center.  Nevermind that there is zero proof. 

Nevermind that anyone who knows anything about college basketball and recruiting knows that nobody would ever do anything this obviously naïve and stupid.

People say that Floyd’s “flight” from the story proves his guilt -that anyone who was innocent would fight for their name. But does everyone remember just how hard that story hit?  It was a virtual tidal wave. Was Floyd not deemed guilty the first time ESPN ran Johnson in front of the camera? Does anyone recall any reporting that was not just pile-on journalism?

OJ Mayo at USC, at least conceptually, was a target. Not because Mayo was a bad kid.  He was, in fact, mature beyond his years and handled himself like a pro on the court. But he was a target because nobody could accept him going to a middle-of-the-road program like USC, especially without any recruiting or any of that fun stuff that surrounds blue-chippers before they put on that hat and choose a school.

Had Mayo just decided to go to UNC or UConn in the same manner he decided on USC, there would not have been any of the unfailing meddling into his journey to get there.  A decision to go to an elite program is explainable. But why a kid from West Virginia would go across the country to a B+ program didn't make sense and every two-bit member of the media was determined to be the sleuth that figured out why.

And then—FINALLY!—a guy who would go on-screen and say he knew why. With such a black andwhite story, too. He gave Mayo’s handler a white envelope full of cash. So easy. So obviously against the rules.

But at the same time, so inexplicably stupid.  Does anyone think that ANY major Division I coach would hand an envelope of cash to someone in a public place?  It would take me 15 minutes to come up with 100 better ways to make that transaction, including tying the envelope to a carrier pigeon and pointing him in Guillory's direction.

So, here we are. A story by some dude who carries no real significance in this arena at all and several months later, all the supposed rocks are overturnedand there is still nothing more than that single story. 

One guy. With one story.

I, for one, do understand why Floyd chose not to fight this.  How could he?  Should he sit in front of ESPN’s cameras, just like Johnson did and say, “Nope,I didn’t do it.”

Where would that get him?  USC’s Uber-dubious A.D., Mike Garrett, had already decided he was not going to fight Floyd’s fight, at least not from the same corner, so what course of action could Floyd have taken?  It was literally him against the world.

He chose to let it go and move on.  I get it.  I am not sure I would have done that, but I do get it. Sometimes it is just easier to give in, especially when there is no visible path to salvation. All doors had been closed to him at that point and he was a man alone.

Now, coach Floyd has a job as an assistant with the New Orleans Hornets. Good for him.  It does make one wonder though, why an NBA team would take a chance on him so quickly when there was no real need to.  Surely the Hornets would not have taken such a risk on such a radioactive coach without doing their own due-diligence, right?

I wonder what the Hornets’ investigators found? If it was anything more than zilch, you can be certain that they would have just very easily passed on him. There was no reason to take Floyd and his baggage unless your findings were conclusive and they were willing, as an organization, to stand in front of everyone and say, “The smoke provided no fire.”

And here we are today, Coach Floyd has moved on. USC and OJ Mayo have moved on. Louis Johnson has slipped back into obscurity. The only thing left is a thoroughly-unsubstantiated story from a thoroughly insignificant attention seeker that brought down the best thing USC Basketball had seen in 40 years or more.

So, I will be the first to offer Coach Floyd an apology and my sympathy. This is nothing more than a “he said-he said” situation, and Floyd was the decisive loser in this ordeal.

One thing is certain, though, if Coach Floyd did not give Rodney Guillory that $1000, then this is merely an appalling tragedy where a less-than-likable, introverted coach, was felled by one guy’s story and the media hoard who made a mountain out of this molehill of a questionably-credible story.

Sadly, in some ways, I hope Tim Floyd did hand-deliver that envelope of $1000.  I hope this because the alternative is just too sad.