O.J. Mayo

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Lore & Background

Mayo's recruitment journey began far from the NBA spotlight, first at Rose Hill Christian High School in Kentucky before moving to North College Hill High School in Ohio. He dominated there, averaging nearly 29 points and leading his team to three consecutive AP poll titles. A record crowd of 16,202 fans gathered in Cincinnati to watch him play against Oak Hill Academy. After a suspension incident in West Virginia where he was banned for three games following an alleged assault on referee Mike Lazo, Mayo enrolled at USC. Although he played just one season and earned All-Pac-10 first team honors, the NCAA later vacated all 21 of his team's wins from the 2007–08 season after discovering he received improper benefits before playing a game.

In Their Own Story

On June 26, 2008, Mayo was drafted by Minnesota but traded that same day to Memphis along with Marko Jarić, Antoine Walker, and Greg Buckner for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal, and Jason Collins. He arrived as a rookie sensation, finishing second behind Derrick Rose for the Rookie of the Year Award. His career in Memphis faced turbulence on January 27 when he was suspended for 10 games after testing positive for dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), which Mayo claimed came from an unnamed energy drink bought at a gas station. Tensions also flared during a flight to Los Angeles where he fought teammate Tony Allen over a card game debt. By the 2011–12 season, Mayo had shifted to a sixth man role, answering candidly when asked if being a reserve hurt his value: "I would say so, I would probably say so. What do you think?"

Reader's Guide

Fans followed Mayo from his high school days in Huntington, West Virginia, where he led the state in scoring at 28.4 points per game and scored a triple-double of 41 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists to win the Class AAA championship. In college, while waiting for the season to start, he played pickup games at the UCLA men's gym against NBA stars like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. His professional path with Memphis was cut short when he signed with the Dallas Mavericks in July 2012 after declining a qualifying offer from the Grizzlies. After two seasons in Dallas, where he tied his career-high of 40 points again against Houston and recorded a career-high 12 assists against the same team, he moved to Milwaukee in 2013. His NBA career concluded with a ban in July 2016 for violating the anti-drug program, followed by a two-year hiatus before returning to play in Puerto Rico.

Did You Know?

• Mayo scored a triple-double with 41 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in his final high school game to win the Class AAA championship.
• The NCAA vacated all 21 wins from USC's 2007–08 season because Mayo was found ineligible before playing a single game.
• Mayo tested positive for DHEA, blaming an unnamed energy drink bought at a gas station, which led to a 10-game suspension.
• He played pickup basketball against future NBA legends like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett while waiting to start his college season.
• In the shortened 2011–12 season, Mayo played all 66 games for the Grizzlies but did not start any of them.