[TM]

i wonder how long until things catch up to Calipari

[USSKittyHawk]

Originally Posted by TM

Said another executive: "You've got a poor kid from a single mother home who had a man come into his life and offer to buy him things. It sounds like O.J. may have taken some of the gifts. I don't know many kids who wouldn't. We've got to quit making these kids into criminals."

That's from ESPN.com

I agree with that executive and Louis Johnson needs to stop snitching, he only making himself look like he is just salty that he isn't in Mayo's inner circle anymore.

[Diable]

This Williams guy isn't harming Mayo at all.Mayo is going to go off and get rich.Williams is getting even with Guillory for something,likely not paying him any more.What has Mayo done to get into trouble for?People gave him stuff and he took it.I think I'd do the same thing so long as I didn't care about my amateur status.The only people Williams is going to harm is USC,Guillory and this agency.Frankly none of them are in line for much sympathy no matter how they fare.

[Ron Mexico]

so the NBA has no problem with BDA giving money to 9th graders?

[Diable]

The Players association is who BDA has to worry about.If they decide to decertify them BDA is out of business overnight.You can't represent NBA players unless the union certifies your agency.

[futuristxen]

He probably wouldn't have even gone to college if the NBA didn't force him. This is the exact story that would have been written about Lebron James if he went to school for a year. Mayo wasn't going to college and probably started taking gifts before the NBA changed it's rules about going to school. And even up till the end he thought about going overseas.

I wish more guys would go overseas, but I guess if you got to american colleges, you get known better, and you can increase your "brand".

[Diable]

Lebron's amateur status was long gone before he went to the NBA.It's pretty obvious that his mother was borrowing money against his future earnings for at least a year or two before he went to the NBA.Ohio HS athletics bodies were investigating his amateur status.The guy was driving a hummer as I recall.


If the NCAA prevented a guy like Lebron from going to the NBA he'd be foolish not to go overseas.Nike gave Lebron tens of millions to sign with them before he played a game.You'd get the shoe money right away and you sign a one year deal to play in the ACB or La Lega.You certainly don't risk a career ending injury in college when you've got the chance to give yourself and your family lifetime security by signing your name on a shoe contract.


The one year rule has absolutely helped Beasley so far as the shoe money is concerned.Noone would have known who he was or how good he really was if he hadn't gone to college.He's probably going to make five times as much as he would have on his shoe deal and other endorsements based on the exposure he got in college.

[futuristxen]

Of course the level of competition is higher overseas, and not ever high school star could hack it over in Europe straight out of high school.

[lw32]

I mentioned this 2 years ago in my blog and on the HS basketball board when Guillory and Mayo were chummy back in his HS days. Didn't know BDA was the agency behind it though. Was startlingly obvious with the similarities in the relationships between Mayo-Guillory and Trepagnier/Maddox-Guillory.

The NCAA needs to get it's act together. They're an utter joke of an organization and I squarely place the blame on their shoulders. This is happening, albeit on a smaller money scale, year in year out. Only the big names get caught because journalists don't have the time to act as watchdogs. Perhaps the NCAA should be hiring some journalist/detectives to do their dirty work.

It tells you something when the NCAA has done an investigation and found nothing, then a two-bob journalist has done some leg work and found out all this. The NCAA needs to get away from this false idea of amateurism, if musicians, artists and other sports talent can receive advice and consultation from agents at any old age why should basketball be any different? Lower the age limit to sign with an agent to 16 and start paying the kids. Let the agents pay the kids if they wish, what is the harm?

I can think of a few players still in HS with heavy links right off the top of my head that I'd be investigating.

Let me end with this question: What is wrong with agents giving incentives to teenagers? It takes the kid a couple weeks to write in and switch agents if they wish, and they're not in any way entitled to stay with the agency. After the agents have been burnt a few times, all this under the table business will curtail.

[HKF]

Nothing is wrong with it, but the NCAA doesn't want to lose their basketball cash cow. C.R.E.A.M.