The effects of our actions have far reaching consequences  This is especially clear when looking at the self-imposed sanctions that USC has adopted with the hope that the NCAA will leave the school alone thereafter.

In 2008, we found out that USC basketball player, O.J. Mayo, had accepted $300,000 from a runner associated with BDA Sports and its agent Calvin Andrews.  BDA lost O.J. Mayo as a client and Calvin Andrews received a 1-year ban from acting as an NBA agent, but other than that, those two parties walked away without any scars.  In fact, 3 BDA clients were taken in the top ten picks of the 2009 draft.  4 BDA clients went in the top 15.  6 in the top 21.  O.J. Mayo did not hurt BDA one bit.

But he did hurt USC, which is not surprising if you understand the rules and regulations surrounding the business of college athletics.  As I discuss in my upcoming piece in the Dartmouth Law Journal, the Uniform Athlete Agents Act has a primary purpose of protecting educational institutions by creating a uniform code of rules and regulations.  Its primary goal is to protect educational institutions’ financial interests against the practices of unscrupulous agents who may jeopardize a student-athlete’s NCAA eligibility, and thereby hurt the educational institution’s sports program. If a sports agent ignores NCAA and UAAA rules and regulations, it can lead to declaring a student-athlete ineligible, or result in an educational institution forfeiting funding.  In this case, O.J. Mayo has already left USC, but one of the sanctions will be forfeiting funding.

Can USC do anything about it?  Should BDA be concerned?  The state of California operates under its variation of the Uniform Athlete Agents Act.  It is titled the Miller-Ayala Athlete Agents Act and is governed by California Business and Professions Code Sections 18895 to 18898.97.  A part of Section 18897.8 reads:

(a) Any…college, university, or other educational institution…may bring a civil action for recovery of damages from an athlete agent, if…that institution…is adversely affected by the acts of the athlete agent or of the athlete agent’s representative or employee in violation of this chapter.

An educational institution is presumed to be adversely affected by the acts of an athlete agent or of an athlete agent’s representative or employee in violation of this chapter if, because of those acts, the educational institution, or one or more student athletes admitted to or enrolled in the educational institution, is suspended or disqualified from participation in one or more interscholastic or intercollegiate athletic events by or pursuant to the rules of a state or national federation or association for the promotion and regulation of interscholastic or intercollegiate sports events by or pursuant to the rules of a state or national federation or association for the promotion and regulation of interscholastic or intercollegiate sports, or suffers financial damage, or suffers both suspension or disqualification and financial damage.

As reported yesterday, USC has placed the following sanctions on itself:

• Banned from the basketball postseason in 2010.
• Banned from participating in the basketball Pac 10 tournament.
• Loss of 1 basketball scholarship for this season and next.
• Limitations on basketball recruiting.
• Vacating all wins from the 2007-2008 basketball regular season.
• Returning money to the NCAA that USC received through the Pac 10 Conference based on the school’s participation in the NCAA tournament the year that O.J. Mayo accepted outside funds.

The sanctions are based on O.J. Mayo receiving money from Rodney Guillory, who was linked to Calvin Andrews and BDA in the past.  Could USC take action against either party, using Andrews’ NBPA suspension as proof of a connection?  USC’s basketball program will undoubtedly suffer based on the sanctions it just placed on itself.  I doubt the school would pass up an opportunity to make some of that money back.

O.J. Mayo has affected a lot of peoples lives.  He has given the town of Memphis hope that one day the Grizzlies will be a contender.  He gave BDA Sports Management a scare when there were allegations of a connection between BDA employee, Calvin Andrews, leading to Calvin’s one-year suspension by the NBPA.  Bill Duffy lost Mayo as a client, but continues to have success acquiring new talent.  And then there was Tim Floyd.  For a long time, Floyd’s name was generally kept out of the media.  The Mayo scandal revolved around names like Andrews, Rodney Guillory, Louis Johnson, and Bill Duffy.  But then, on May 12, 2009, Charles Robinson and Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports dug up some dirt on Coach Floyd.  Only a month later, and Floyd is on his way out of the University of Southern California.

After such a long break in the O.J. Mayo debacle, things have started moving very fast again.  With Floyd’s resignation, which he claims was based on a new lack of enthusiasm, questions surrounding USC’s recruiting tactics have once again hit center stage.  Will Floyd’s resignation save or futher damage USC’s reputation in the eyes of NCAA investigators?

The Rodney Guillory debacle has sounded an alarm for the O.J. Mayo’s of the future. Summer is the time of the year where future NBA stars are found and many of tomorrow’s talented players rise to the top in camps or training. The summer time is also when NBA stars (Steve Nash, for example) and college coaches all over the country hold camps for these athletes to get exposure. The camps attract many agents and individuals associated with basketball, like Rodney Guillory. Mayo claims to have met Guillory at one of these summer camps in 8^th grade.

Many amazing athletes now have to look out for people who want to take advantage of them (Helping You Lose Your Money Effectively). After O.J’s recent mistakes, many athletes are now aware of the damage it can cause to let one bad apple into their entourage. “If you let one person into your circle, they can mess everything up,” John Wall, a junior point guard from Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh (NC) said. Wall is considered one of the top players in this year’s class, and is in the same shoes that Mayo was in last year.

This is a horrible position for Mayo and others to be placed in and the one-year-out of high school NBA will only make this story more frequent. However, not all middlemen and agents are bad people, trying to take advantage of young athletes. There are always going to be Rodney Guillory’s somewhere out there, and there always have been. The  Guillory story shows us the dark side of the industry. Not all people are as mischievous as Guillory.

The Rodney Guillory effect should not cause individuals to blame agents, as BDA did not do anything illegal with Mayo (as far as we currently know). This sad story should focus on the need for more regulations and checks to be made in high school and college basketball, and amongst agents. As I said earlier, not all agents and “runners” are bad people. AAU and summer basketball attracts a lot of America’s best basketball stars, yet it is highly unregulated. Almost any Joe Shmo can walk into a gym and watch these events. That is where it all starts. The rest comes when these “runners” violate NCAA rules and give athletes money or other benefits.

Basketball camps should be arenas were athletes can show off their talent to all. They do not need to be worrying about who is watching them, especially if these individuals can get them in trouble. The athletes should focus on their game and let everything else fall in place. They get into trouble when they start finding friends like Guillory and talking to people in the industry that claim they will make them rich.

The Knickerbockers already have the sixth pick in the draft and would love to be able to pick back to back so early in the draft.  The Knicks are looking to go young and get new faces in the City.  After bringing in Coach D’Antoni and with the many high priced contracts the Knicks have on the team, the loss of Lee and Rose could be beneficial to the Knicks in the future.  The Knicks are looking for a fresh team with new faces to make a new start and to allow fans to forget about the past four seasons.  With a new coach and a new president, Donny Walsh, the Knicks are hoping the new faces can mesh with the old faces to combine for some more wins.

Mock draft boards have Freshman phenom Kevin Love, as the #5 pick, going to the Grizzlies.  The Knicks are looking at either K-Love, Danilo Gallinari, Eric Gordon, or Russell Westbrook as probable #5 and 6 picks.  They would love to see O.J. Mayo drop in the draft, and with the most recent allegations about him receiving money (apparently over $30,000) from Rodney Guillory, anything is possible.

If the Knicks do trade Lee to the Grizzlies, Kevin Love is certainly a serious candidate to replace him.  They both have similar games and would fit into the Knicks new style with D’Antoni.  Both can shoot from the outside and play close to the bucket.  The Knicks have such a high team salary that the loss of Lee this year could be good for them.  The former Florida Gator has one year left on his contract worth around $8 million. He has been playing well for the Knicks and with his experience in the league, will likely demand more money than that next year as a free agent.  The past several years, the player going #5 has made less than $8 million which will certainly help the Knicks with their salary situation, however the addition of Brian Cardinal’s $13 million dollar salary would definitely make the deal seem less sweet.  The difference in contracts between Cardinal and a #5 pick rookie, and Rose and Lee comes out to around $5 million dollars. As we all know, spending more money is something New York is used to and not afraid of doing.

These are only rumors, and no formal trades have been offered yet, but Knicks fans can only speculate and look forward to a new season with a lot of new faces.