OJ Mayo being exposed for accepting gifts/paychecks/hookers is not news. It's not a scandal. It's further exploitation of a kid who has been exploited most of his basketball-playing life. It's the reported story that's happening to most talented men, particularly talented black men from poor backgrounds, playing NCAA DI football or basketball. It's a continuation of the enslavement of young black men that has existed in America since the country was founded.
Michael Wilbon wrote an excellent piece comparing Rodney Guillory and those who operate like him to "Suga Daddies". I often joke that I could use my own suga daddy...particularly just to chauffeur me around while I don't have a car. Thing is, in real life, in my sane mind, I would never dare. Suga daddies give and give and give...but eventually, something is expected in return. I was brought up to know to never accept too many favors, unless I'm willing to sacrifice on my own.
I wouldn't call Guillory and company suga daddies. I group them with shoe execs, pro-sport team owners, the NCAA, etc, as plantation owners and managers. Obviously (or I HOPE obviously), Guillory never expected literal sexual gratification in return for all he did for Mayo, but he enslaved Mayo. He provided a sort-of foreplay that was all about Mayo, a poor West Virginia kid that started receiving enough national pub in 8th grade that pretty much guaranteed his NBA career, but would eventually be flipped once that NBA career became a reality and Mayo would owe him back. Now, the story is pretty much he'd just owe him back in terms of signing with the sports agency Guillory was associated with, but the agent controls a large chunk of an athlete's career. Star power is created through endorsements, which the agent negotiates and acquires. The agent has every right to rape the athlete of their endorsement earnings, which in the long run, would cause the athlete to LOSE money for accepting some clothes, a TV, NBA tickets, etc that amounted up to a couple thousand while they were a broke ass kid. They give them freedom, but at a price.
And this is what America does - it preys on young, talented black men from poor backgrounds because they don't know any better. It's bad enough America has historically painted a picture to these men that they were put on the planet to run and jump and nothing more, and that's their only way to a better life. In turn with that notion and the existence of poverty, nobody is in their lives at a young age teaching them to be aware of people, financial management, etc. They're too young to understand past athletes who have been burned, and too cocky to think it can happen to them. They're vulnerable. And how many poor kids being handed a cell phone, some shirts, a couple hundred in cash, with just a smile from the giving hand and nothing more, wouldn't take it? Shoe companies send teen phenoms hundreds of pairs a year, which isn't any sort of violation, and most kids understand that it's just the company trying to hook them for later endorsements. The kids generally choose their shoe based on what they wore in AAU/college (which is another long, troubled socio-economical-political game in sports), and that's that. Nobody is really victimized in these shoe matters, and the youngins never pay for a thing to put on their feet. Yet they can't recognize that these gifts they're being given by boosters and agents and such are in the same vain. And if they're blind to it, they fall victim.
Growing up poor creates a desire for more which I can't classify as greed, knowing I come from similar meager-finance situations. When you see others (I.E. the privileged) easily gaining small things you wish you had, you don't get WHY they have those things. You don't fully get that it's a result of historical oppression of racial and social minorities. You just want the same. You don't understand why you can't have the same.
You don't understand limits because you have so little, and you define yourself by what you DON'T have.
What Mayo and these kids are wise enough to know is that they can exploit their talents to make gains for themselves before they're legally receiving their NBA/NFL paychecks. It's not done in the name of greed always, but bettering your situation quicker, for both yourself and your family, especially in case your career stops short of the promised land.
Look at OJ Mayo's former HS/AAU teammate/partner-in-crime, Kansas State forward Bill Walker. Walker was once a sure-short NBA lotto pick, expected by many to have a better pro career than Mayo. Two ACL tears and a somewhat average season in the shadow of Michael Beasley later, very few people in the NBA-world want anything to do with him. He can't work anymore. People won't profit off of him. The future that the world crafted for him to escape poverty may be dead.
I won't be shocked if Walker never gets exposed in this scandal. It's almost a sure thing that if OJ was being courted in HS, Walker was too. But likely, the sweet-talking for him was silenced in January 2007, when he tore the ACL a second time. People could investigate, but who cares? There's a chance nobody will ever hear his name again if he doesn't return to K-State.
You'd think the NCAA or Congress would investigate though, right? But if Walker isn't a big fish to reel in, like Mayo or Reggie Bush or others, do you think they care?
This is where the NCAA's enslavement comes in. They profit off these stories as much as ESPN and other news outlets do. It betters their policing image (which, in reality, sucks...the NCAA keeps their head up their asses so they can avoid being revealed as the fucked up, hopeless institute that they are), builds their ego when they get to hand down punishment, etc. Exposing Bill Walker does nothing for the NCAA. I doubt if you don't watch basketball that you even knew who Walker was before reading this. But chances are, you've heard of OJ Mayo in passing, even just to laugh at his name. He's a publicity star for everyone. He's the big fish to catch.
Chances are, Mayo's image will never really be tarnished enough to affect his career or endorsements. Tito Maddox, a former college bball star who also was kidnapped by Guillory, fell off the planet because he was small and not talented enough for the NBA, not because he accepted gifts. Reggie Bush is still the shining young star of the NFL...and also had the help of Pacman Jones and Mike Vick to overshadow his problems. The news will die, USC might get slapped, but Mayo's life will go on with a happy story until either he ruins it, or nature runs its course.
But, just like any problem situation, what happens in the future when some kid gets caught up and it does go too far and ruins his potential career? We have few institutions in this world focused on teaching social/character skills to budding athletes, a group that desperately needs this training at younger and younger ages as the predators begin hunting in middle schools these days. And that's simply because America is run by privileged people who enjoy profiting off of the naive and desperate. If these kids were informed, they might kill this profiting industry, so the powers-that-be hold their power high above their heads, while massaging them enough to make it feel good enough to not care. This is American oppression. This is why slavery isn't dead in 2008. This is the real scandal behind all of this.
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