When I heard about the Outside the Lines piece about O.J. Mayo, it made me ill.
If there is validity to this, it becomes embarrassing to USC. This is something that is damaging to college basketball.
The Mayo problem was established years ago when he was an up-and-coming high school player. If a school hears rumors about that athlete, usually the best scenario is to stay away. Unfortunately, we are in a world where schools want to win at almost any cost.
Ultimately the athlete has to look in the mirror. Life is about decisions and we are talking about people old enough to go fight in a war. These are not little guys. If you make good decisions, positives happen. A lot of them don't care about image, credibility and accountability. They care about cash, cash, cash, baby! Many times it brings them down.
I have said before and will say again ... I don't like the one-year-and-out situation where schools basically rent a player for one season and then he goes to the NBA. I think it is a joke. If someone would investigate what these players do academically after their eligibility is completed, it is a waste of time.
I feel that we should allow the elite high school players like O.J. Mayo to go right to the NBA. They want the cash and the goodies and they should go right after high school. We allow kids to become pros in baseball and hockey, so what is the big deal. The key is renting a player for one season a la Mayo and Michael Beasley gives you no stability in college hoops.
There should be a group of NBA general managers, or maybe use the committee that evaluates draft prospects that is already in place. Let them select up to five high school players that should be lottery picks and let them go to the pros. Guys like LeBron James were ready for the NBA immediately. The other kids that don't make this list should have to go to school for three years, the same way Major League Baseball does it.
Once they are on the college campus, you would have stability. Do you think a lot of these guys that come for one season are really going to class? These are supposed to be student-athletes!
As a guy who loves college basketball and admires student athletes, it really hurts when you hear stories like this. It gives ammunition to those who talk about players being bought and given things.
It is a sad story for Mayo as well as college basketball.
Dick Vitale coached the Pistons and the University of Detroit before broadcasting ESPN's first college basketball game in December 1979. Send him a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.
