One on One with OJ Mayo

oj mayo

Reported by hoopsworld.com. People are talking the same way about OJ Mayo as they did about LeBron James at this time of year back in 2003. In fact Mayo, one of the nation’s top high school players out of Huntington, West Virginia, would be taking his 31 points per game to some lousy NBA squad with a top three pick in the draft if this were a different era. But things have changed, and Mayo will play his first year of non-high school ball next season at the University of Southern California, and as you’ll find out, Mayo is pretty excited about doing some time in college. All things considered, what 18-year-old wouldn’t?

At Tuesday night’s annual Roundball Classic, held at the United Center in Chicago, Mayo took a few minutes away from a shoot-around bombarded by high school mothers snapping posed photos of the players with their buddies and family (the way high school mothers are known to do) to chat with Basketball News Services’ Joel Brigham about what he expects at USC, his controversial “Last Dunk,” and how long he actually plans to stay in school once he gets there.

How excited are you to suit up for USC next year and help that team advance even farther than they were able to do this season?

Oh yeah, I’m really excited, man. I’m excited just to move on to the next level, try to test my abilities, see where I’m at.

What do you expect to get out of a coach like Tim Floyd, who has done a lot with that team in only a short few years?

I guess I’m going to be working on becoming a full-time point guard, so I’m going to need to learn more of the game from a point guard’s standpoint. I think he’s a great guy to be with, especially considering he’s coached here in Chicago and in New Orleans.

You’ve undergone a ton of scrutiny going back as far as seventh and eighth grade—what’s it been like for you, being in the spotlight for so much of your life?

You know, you’re going to have positive things and negative things throughout your life. I guess as a basketball player it’s magnified a little bit, but you’ve got to accept that responsibility, you know? Make sure you do the right thing, or at least put yourself in a position to do the right thing.

Talk a little about that last dunk of yours, where you tossed the ball into the stands and as a result got ejected from your final game. What was going through your mind when all that happened, and would you do the same thing again?

(Laughing) Yeah! It’s been a long high school career, man. I’ve been playing competitively like that since seventh grade, so after all those things I’ve been through this year—which was really different from all the other years I played—and I realized it was all over. I knew that there was no more high school; time to move on to bigger things at college, the NBA, and wherever I go from there.

Are you someone who’s looking to learn what he can in one year’s worth of college basketball then hit the big league, or are you still leaving open the possibility of playing a couple years at USC?

I can see myself staying for more than one year. I’ll stay until I feel like I’m ready to go to the next level. They’re all stepping stones until you get to where you want to get to—until you reach what’s above your head. I’m going to accomplish everything that I want to accomplish in college, and once I’ve done that, then I’ll be ready to leave.

You and Kevin Love are two of the most highly-touted prospects in the country, and you’re going to be playing your college ball about twenty minutes away from each other in L.A. Do you see Love being someone you could spark a friendly rivalry with throughout your collegiate and pro careers?

(Laughing) You never know. It just depends, but I hope so. I think most definitely it would be a great rivalry. I know him since the eighth grade, he’s a great guy and a great competitor also. Knowing he’s only twenty minutes away, I think we’ll be pushing each other and it’ll make us better players. I think it’s good for both of us.

***

It might not be as quick a journey to the NBA as some other Roundball Classic players (see: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tracy McGrady, and Kevin Garnett among many others), but heading to college is still a necessary passageway into the Big League. Seeing Mayo score 27 points and throw pretty dishes all over the court must have put a lot of potential future pro teams in happy little hysterical fits.

In the meantime, the world is slowly going to learn OJ Mayo’s name, the way it learned LeBron’s and Kobe’s in the past, until eventually “Mayo” will be more household than “Helmann’s.”

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