<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The teenage girls at the McDonald's drive-thru window bust out in schoolgirl giggles when I ask them if they've ever heard of O.J. Mayo. "Yeah, we know that boy. Are you kidding? Everybody knows O.J.," says one through an embarrassed smile. She leans out the window and points beyond a busy intersection of a Cincinnati suburb. "His school's right down that road. He's easy to find. He's probably in the basketball gym right now." No, not in the gym. At least not this second. A handful of players are there, shooting around after practice, but they can't be who I'm looking for. They look like kids. None of them has the stature ? or the aura ? to be The Next LeBron. A lanky baby-faced student dressed in a North College Hill High School uniform approaches; he seems to know why I'm here. "'Mechi," as he would later introduce himself, leads me down a back staircase through a web of dimly lit, paint-chipped NCH Trojan crimson-colored hallways and worn locker rooms until we reach an unmarked door. I find the King's heir in a grungy equipment room. The 6-6, 17-year-old O.J. Mayo is sitting in the dark among football pads and lacrosse gear, strewn, scattered and piled about him. He's hunkered close to a TV, remote in hand, studying a high school highlight tape of Jason Kidd. The light from the screen flicks pale, cool blue on O.J.'s face while he plays, rewinds and plays again a particular series over and over ? a collage of clips of Kidd running his high school fast break. Stealing. Running. Passing. Scoring. Dominating. Six years ago, I traveled to a place much like North College Hill searching for the next Jordan. I stood in another bandbox gym in Ohio, in the fall of 2000, watching a 15-year old freshman named LeBron James loft jumpers during his lunchtime recess. It was two full years before the rest of the basketball world would really take notice, jump-starting the transformation of the kid into The King. Back then, James was innocent and unguarded. During the day I spent with him he was just as excited to talk about how and he and his friends were going to meet some girls at the movie theater later that night as he was about his NBA dreams. Yet LeBron was still mature for his age and seemed to know then he was destined for greater things, despite being years away from tooling to and from high school in his H2. In many ways, O.J. is a lot like that younger LeBron. Personable, poised, smart (check his 3.3 GPA) and already media savvy. And despite having already been in the media spotlight for years, O.J., like the neophyte LeBron, can come across as shockingly innocent at times. When O.J. finds out that Dime is based in New York City, he seems genuinely amazed at the notion of being able to get anywhere in the city, or any of its boroughs, by subway. "So it's possible to live in Brooklyn and still have a girl in the Bronx?" he asks in earnest, and he's pleased to learn that it is. "O.J. has a chance, if he grows three or four more inches and continues to get even stronger, to be among the greatest of the great. I really believe that," says Sonny Vacarro, Reebok's Director of Grassroots Basketball. "LeBron was the first player born into an NBA-ready body and O.J.'s on the right track. Right now, at worst, he's an absolutely tremendous player and I think a future NBA All-Star many times over."</div> Source
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Banks:</div><div class="quote_post">I swear I read this 2-3 months ago...Good read non the less</div> It was just released today, about an hour ago to be exact on the site. I'm sure a lot of the article had a lot of the same information as other OJ Mayo articles, but this is hot off the press.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting j0se:</div><div class="quote_post">So overhyped, I hope he's a bust.</div> Becareful what you wish for, he could be drafted by the Knicks. I do agree, I think Mayo is overhyped, but the media gets a hold of the next 'IT' player and run wild with the stories and hype. I actually think his teammate will be better, Billy Walker.
^ ya hes overhyped but as miamiballa12 said i mean hes still most likely going to be a pretty good player
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting j0se:</div><div class="quote_post">So overhyped, I hope he's a bust.</div> I don't know how you hope that he turns out as a bust. From everything I know and everyone else knows about him, he's the hardest working kid out there. He works on his game constantly and it has paid off so far.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It was one of those moments you instantly knew would vault into streetball lore. On Wednesday night at the Reebok ABCD Camp in Teaneck, N.J., Lance Stephenson, a rising ninth grader and the latest can't-miss point guard prospect from Coney Island, squared off against O.J. Mayo, the 6-foot-5 junior guard from Ohio who everyone knows is the best high school player in the country.</div> This link on O.J Mayo was sweet, i like that he's got some attitude to go along with his game.
Mayo has a very good total game. He's just led his HS team to a state title,as a sophomore,he's played against the best players under 18,in the US,and elsewhere. He scored 20ppg as an 8th grader playing HS varsity.30 ppg as a freshman. He was generally the best player in every game he's played in the past year,and the exceptions were when teammate Bill Walker had an especially hot game. He already has the size and strength to play in the NBA....with 2 years of high school left. Hype is some Euro pumped up as a top 5,yet unable to score 5 pt a game. OJ Mayo is a"sure thing" if there's such a thing. Mayo probably could play pro right now,but it will be 3 years before that happens,so you can guess how good he will be by then. A bust? Not likely.
Is Mayo a junior in HS coming septermber or a senior? And when is the earliest we will see him in the NBA now that there's that age limit in the league?
I don't understand how he played highscholl ball as a kid still in grade school. Can someone explain this to me? And to be still averaging 20 PPG, thats just crazy!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting REREM:</div><div class="quote_post">Mayo has a very good total game. He's just led his HS team to a state title,as a sophomore,he's played against the best players under 18,in the US,and elsewhere. He scored 20ppg as an 8th grader playing HS varsity.30 ppg as a freshman. He was generally the best player in every game he's played in the past year,and the exceptions were when teammate Bill Walker had an especially hot game. He already has the size and strength to play in the NBA....with 2 years of high school left. Hype is some Euro pumped up as a top 5,yet unable to score 5 pt a game. OJ Mayo is a"sure thing" if there's such a thing. Mayo probably could play pro right now,but it will be 3 years before that happens,so you can guess how good he will be by then. A bust? Not likely.</div> Who does he play against? Isn't he a 1 or 2 older than his opponents?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting j0se:</div><div class="quote_post">Who does he play against? Isn't he a 1 or 2 older than his opponents?</div> Yea, thats probably why he has a 3.3 GPA.
