No appointment. No relationship. No nothing. As Lee Jenkins tells it in today's New York Times, he just told Coach Tim Floyd that blue chip recruit O.J. Mayo wanted to play for him.
"O. J. wanted me to come here today," the man told Floyd. "He wanted me to figure out who you are."
Floyd was desperate enough to play along. His starting point guard, Ryan Francis, had been murdered two months earlier. The backup, Gabe Pruitt, was in academic trouble. The third-stringer, a walk-on, was leaving college.
"Why aren't you at Arizona or Connecticut?" Floyd recalled asking.
The man explained that Mayo wanted to market himself before going to the N.B.A., and that Los Angeles would give him the best possible platform.
"Then why aren't you at U.C.L.A.?" Floyd asked.
The man shook his head. U.C.L.A. had already won 11 national championships. It had already produced many N.B.A. stars. Mayo wanted to be a pioneer for a new era.
"Let me call him," Floyd said.
The man shook his head again. "O. J. doesn't give out his cell," he said. "He'll call you."
Floyd remembers the meeting lasting 45 minutes. He learned that the man's name was Ronald Guillory, and that he was an event promoter in Los Angeles who had befriended Mayo. Other than that, Floyd learned absolutely nothing.
"There was no way that kid was going to call," Floyd said. "There was no way."
Mayo did call, of course, and now he has signed a letter of intent, and recruited some friends. If he actually shows up to play, it'll be cemented as one of the strangest stories in college basketball recruiting history.
