LOS ANGELES — The USC men’s basketball team could face a forfeiture of victories from the 2007-08 season or more serious sanctions if allegations are proved that guard O.J. Mayo violated NCAA rules by accepting tens of thousands of dollars in cash and benefits from Los Angeles events promoter Rodney Guillory.
The allegations were made by Louis Johnson, a former confidant of Mayo’s and Guillory’s, on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” program. Guillory provided Mayo with a flat-screen TV, cellphone service, cash, meals, clothes and other benefits dating to when Mayo entered high school, Johnson told ESPN. Johnson alleged that Guillory acted as an agent’s representative and received more than $200,000 in cash and benefits, including a sport utility vehicle, from Bill Duffy Associates Sports Management.
When the agency stopped paying Guillory the summer before Mayo enrolled at USC, Johnson said, Guillory set up a fake charity and used donation money to fund his expenses. Johnson said Mayo received only a fraction of the money BDA provided Guillory, and Johnson supplied ESPN with expense receipts and money transfer orders to corroborate his account.
Guillory’s alleged actions constitute the second set of potentially major violations recently to rock USC, which is still dealing with an NCAA investigation into whether former Trojans football star Reggie Bush received improper benefits from a would-be sports marketer.
Mayo denied any wrongdoing, saying: “I have been through investigations by the NCAA, the Pac-10 and USC before I attended school. . . . If these claims were true, they would have been discovered by one of these organizations.”
Mayo got into some minor trouble with the NCAA this year after he accepted free tickets from Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony to an NBA game. Mayo didn’t miss any games but had to contribute $460 — the total value of the two tickets — to a charitable organization.
