Throughout the history of the NBA there’s been a number of guys who have been suspended
by the NBA for violating various rules. One of those persons is O.J. Mayo. A guy
who averaged 18.5 points his rookie year. A guy who famously challenged Michael Jordan
while he was in high school. A guy who averaged double digit points in his first
7 seasons in the NBA. Now, at just 33 years of age he’s been out of the NBA for 5 seasons.
Hey guys hope you’re doing well. This is Purple Prince and today
we’re gonna look at what Happened to O.J. Mayo.
Back in 2006 O.J. Mayo attended Michael Jordan’s camp. He was the only high-schooler in that camp
amongst other college players. OJ Mayo got some buckets on MJ and started trash-talking the GOAT.
It didn’t turn out so well for Mayo when Jordan told everyone to leave the gym. Now, it was just
him and Mayo. It was time for a lesson. Already a few years into his retirement, he dominated Mayo
on every aspect of the game hitting his famous fadeaways, defending him, and embarrassing him in
a one-on-one pickup game. O.J. Mayo didn’t score a bucket and Jordan famously said: “You may be the
greatest high school player, but I’m the greatest ever...don’t you ever disrespect the great.”
A great lesson for a young kid who had that mentality that he’s the best.
And to be honest he really might have been the best highschool player at the time.
Mayo started playing for his highschool team in the 7th grade. In the 8th grade when he
was just 15 years old, he averaged 27 points per game playing against bigger kids. Mayo was
selected as Ohio Mr. Basketball two times and was considered a lock to make the leap straight
from high school to the NBA. Back then though it wasn’t allowed. The players had to be at least a
year out of high school to enter the NBA, so Mayo went to the University of Southern California.
While waiting for the college season to begin he was playing pickup basketball at
UCLA's men’s gym against some great NBA Players like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Jason Kidd.
Those should’ve been some great practice sessions.
In his first and what turned to be his only college year O.J. Mayo averaged 20.7 points
and 4.5 rebounds per game. After one season of college basketball he entered the 2008 NBA Draft.
O.J. Mayo was drafted with the 3rd pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves but later
that day was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies . His very first NBA Game was ineffective to
say the least - Mayo scored 10 points on 5 of 20 shooting and 0 for 7 from the three.
After that he started to adjust to the NBA level and actually scored in double digits in
the first 25 games of his career. In total, Mayo finished his rookie season averaging 18.5 points
and 3.2 assists as the team's starting shooting guard. He made the NBA's All Rookie First Team
and finished as a runner-up to Derrick Rose in Rookie of the year voting.
Mayo was a starter in his second year as well and continued to impress.
Problems started when he was late for a game-day shootaround in 2010. He was subsequently taken
out of the starting lineup and from that point on he was the Grizzlies sixth man.
It didn’t get any better with time. Mayo was involved in a fight with his teammate Tony Allen
and on January 27th, 2011 he was suspended for 10 games for violating the NBA's anti-drug program.
Now he was just a reserve, and in the shortened 2011-2012 season
he didn’t start a game for the Grizzlies despite playing in all 66 games.
After 4 years with the Grizzlies Mayo signed a 2-year contract with the Dallas Mavericks.
He kinda revived his career in Dallas scoring the ball a bunch in the first part of the season.
He tied his career-high of 40 points and set a new career-high in assists, but with the return
of Dirk Nowitzki to the lineup his performance dipped. After the season, Mayo declined his player
option, became a free agent and signed a 3-year $24 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks.
The whole debut season for the Bucks was kinda underwhelming - he averaged just 11.7 points
on 40.7% shooting from the field. During the season he had some problems with conditioning
and in the end played in just 52 games. His second season there was kinda the same statistically,
and in his final season in Milwaukee, he struggled with injuries , ended up
playing in just 41 games and averaged a career low 7.8 points per game.
O.J. Mayo’s NBA career was in a bad spot. It got even worse when it was announced on July 1st,
2016 that he is banned from the NBA for violating the NBA's substance abuse policy
and will be eligible for reinstatement before the start of the 2018-19 NBA season.
He didn’t come back to the NBA.
Instead, he signed with a Puerto Rican club Atleticos de San German. After averaging 13.4
points on just 39 percent shooting, he was released from his contract 3 months later.
His basketball journey continued in Taiwan where he signed with the Dacin Tigers.
In Taiwan he averaged 22.7 points and 7.3 rebounds.
Soon after the end of basketball season in Taiwan Mayo went to the second-tier league in China
to play for the Hunan Yongsheng Basketball Club.
He stayed in Asia also for the 2019-20 season.
He played for the Taipei Fubon Brave in the ASEAN Basketball League.
In the summer of 2020 Mayo signed with the Liaoning Flying Leopards in the Chinese
Basketball association where he’s currently setting his career highs across the board.
Just a month into his CBA career Mayo already won the CBA player of the month award in July.
and over 15 regular season games he averaged 28.4 points and shot 57% from the field and
43.5% from the three. So he has sort of revived his basketball career in China.
As of now, OJ Mayo is still a member of the Flying Leopards where he is
actually playing together with another former NBA player Jonathon Simmons.
In the 2020-21 CBA season OJ Mayo is averaging 20.5 points
on 52.2% shooting from the field . He is also one of the league's best three point shooters.
If OJ Mayo never comes back to the NBA, he will finish his NBA career with 547 games played
and averages of 30.9 minutes, 13.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game
on 42.9% shooting from the field and 37.3% from the three-point line.
Like many other former NBA players, it seems he’s found a basketball home in China. For now.
It is unclear whether he could ever return to the NBA.
He’s getting up there in age and it’s unclear what type of role he could play back in North America.
There in China, he’s one of the leaders of his team and seems like he’s good with it.
But what do you think guys? Could O.J. Mayo ever return back to the NBA. Could you see him as the
sixth man, a deep bench option, or maybe even a starter? Please leave your comment down below.
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any content coming your way. Thanks for watching. This was Purple Prince, and I’m out!