O.J. Mayo will be in this summer's NBA draft, where he will almost certainly be a very high draft pick, and in all likelihood a household name in the NBA for years to come.
He is, he hopes, on a well-worn path to basketball stardom.
Mayo's agent, on draft day, will be Calvin Andrews who works for Bill Duffy's company, BDA Sports.
ESPN's Kelly Naqi has a long and detailed report -- a serious bit of journalism detailed yesterday on Outside the Lines -- about the people, payments, and process of being a top NBA prospect.
Naqi presents strong evidence that Ronald Guillory paid for all kinds of things for himself and O.J. Mayo with money that allegedly came from BDA. There is much more -- I encourage you to read the whole thing.
This story is what everybody is talking about in the NBA today.
The playoffs are really heating up. The MVP Kobe Bryant is in overtime with a bad back. The Spurs have re-seized control against the upstart Hornets. The Cavaliers are putting a scare into the mighty Celtics.
And when my phone has been ringing -- and it has been ringing -- it's big people from all over the NBA world wanting to talk about how this one player may or may not have chosen this one agent.
Of course, no one cares all that much about this one case. The reason everybody is so amped up is because the story that has been told on Outside the Lines is a story that's very common in sports.
In short, this is not a story about O.J. Mayo, his confidante Ronald Guillory, the agent Calvin Andrews, or the friend of Mayo and Guillory's -- Louis Johnson -- who spilled the beans to Outside the Lines.
That well-worn road Mayo is on to stardom? It often looks a lot like this.
From what everyone has been telling me, for years, this is a story about common practices in recruiting. If you get in trouble for doing what people around Mayo did -- a lawyer who read the report mentioned a number of relevant codes of professional conduct, state laws about agents, and federal laws about charities and transferring funds that could apply -- then who else might get in trouble?
As Naqi quotes Johnson: "This is way bigger than some 'brand' and money and all of this stuff," Johnson said. "He played within the rules of the game, and this is the game. Runners, agents, shoe companies, other elements -- this is the game."
Bingo.
This is what David Falk was talking about a few days ago when he told me that in the agent business: "It's not competition based on merit. It's competition based on improper inducements. I think it's an abomination."
That's not to say that every sports agent is crooked. I don't think that's true at all. I have heard from some who are hoping this report may finally help to inspire some industry-wide changes that they would welcome.
But I do think that it's fair to say that agents have not done a good job of policing their own thus far. (If there's a group of agents out there who think they know some good ways the industry could be cleaned up, now would be a good time to step forward.)
Also, one note: When I talk of corruption, and sound upset about it, please don't think I'm on some jag about the NCAA and amateur student-athletes and all that. I have no problem with people who create tremendous value getting paid. I see things strictly through an NBA lens, and what bothers me is that a lot of future NBA stars make it to the league surrounded by people who are self-selecting to be schemers looking out for themselves, while keeping players in the dark about how the business of basketball really works. I believe the NBA is stronger, in the long run, if players are surrounded by brilliant people, who help the players to become empowered, informed, and in control of the lucrative off-court business that revolves around their celebrity.
In the meantime, we certainly do seem to have a situation where the best way to get ahead as an agent is not necessarily to serve clients better. There are just too many corruputing factors.
This is a rare instance of an insider talking to the media. And it has the potential to touch off a much broader conversation. It's the kind of thing we have talked about for years on TrueHoop, and I suspect there's much more to come.
