Published: March 15, 2008 01:19 am      

Mayo still makes me feel sick

RICHMOND — I’ve said for years that I don’t like mayo and now it has a whole new meaning.

O.J. Mayo has been the talk of the basketball world the last seven years, ever since he was in middle school. Sports Illustrated first mentioned Mayo when he was a seventh grade.

Over the next six years, he was talked about as he moved from schools in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and back to West Virginia. During which time Mayo was talked as a lock for an NBA lottery pick and then trashed Michael Jordan during Jordan’s own camp.

Now this uber-star is all the rage as he again went a wild way to college. After transferring from high school to high school the top colleges were not shy of Mayo’s apparent commitment phobia.

However, Mayo only wanted one thing – to market himself to the NBA. He decided Los Angeles was the best location to do it.

Mayo has said over and over that he is only in college for a season. He felt L.A. was the best way and therefore only two choices of schools – basketball power UCLA (11-time NCAA champs) or football powerhouse USC.

UCLA offered too much tradition and Mayo wanted a chance to blaze his own trail.

So what did Mayo do? He had Los Angeles event promoter Ronald Guillory approach USC coach Tim Floyd.

The story goes Guillory and Floyd had approximately a 45-minute conversation and at the end the USC coach asked if he could get Mayo’s number. Guillory told Floyd that Mayo doesn’t give out his number, but that the star would call him.

Mayo did and told the coach he wanted to be a Trojan.

But, has the mega-star been all that. USC is tied for third in the Pac-10 and despite some close games with top teams, Kansas and Memphis, and even a recent win over No. 7 Stanford, is not currently receiving votes for the top 25.

However, the Trojans have been a sure lock for the NCAA Tournament for weeks, while the University of Kentucky (18-11, 12-4) which is receiving votes in both the AP Poll and the USA/ESPN Poll only recently got a projected tournament spot.

Why one reporter might ask? Easy enough to answer, Mayo gives USC an automatic bid into the tournament because people want to see how the ‘star’ will perform on the big stage.

And the publicity hound keeps it going by already hinting at a change of heart about going to the NBA next year.

All I can say is Mayo do the sport a favor go pro, become the limelight washout you have been destined to be since seventh grade and finally give mayo a good name again.