The LA Times is reporting that OJ Mayo may be in hot with with the NCAA because he accepted NBA tickets from Carmelo Anthony.
NCAA bylaw 16.11.2.2.3 states that student-athletes may not receive "free or reduced-cost admission to professional athletics contests from professional sports organizations, unless such services also are available to the student body in general."
So why is it okay for high school athletes to receive free tickets from schools? Certainly, these tickets (usually very good ones, I might add) are not available to the "student body in general." No, college coaches give them out precisely because they have a special ability to help that school. There's no competitive advantage, either. Melo went to Syracuse so it's not like he's acting as a booster for USC.
And how about Mayo lecturing Melo about being out late the night before a big NBA game? Said Mayo, "I was talking to him like, `Man, you're out pretty late. You've got a game tomorrow night against Kobe [Bryant],"' Mayo said. "He said, `Nah, it will be all right.' And then he asked, `You want to come to the game?' And I was like, 'Sure.' "
I'd prefer student-athletes spend their time studying and focusing on basketball, rather than meeting up with NBA players late-night and going to NBA games the next, but OJ knows how to squeeze the most out of his limited time at USC.
Another interesting sidenote from the LA Times article: Clipper coach Mike Dunleavy's son, James, is a member of the Trojan basketball team. And he's apparently allowed to take hoopster friends to games:
"James Dunleavy said USC assistant Bob Cantu told him he could take any of his teammates to a Clippers game once a semester."
Wow, are these NCAA rules confusing! In the end, I hope the NCAA clarifies what the rules regarding NBA tickets and, if this is a rules violation, issues a warning that says, "OJ, we don't want you to go to another NBA game...for the next 3 years."
2/26 UDPATE As I suspected, OJ was not suspended. He has to donate the value of the tickets to charity.
The NCAA is fair game for much criticism, but in their defense (which I can do every now and then), the media needs to, get this, be more patient before attacking the organization and its rules (approved by membership). As my friend Mike Decourcy e-mailed: "My favorite part of this episode: Mike Wilbon on PTI yelling at the NCAA for coming after OJ ... when this whole thing was started by a newspaper guy who didn't even wait to see if the NCAA had a problem with it before writing his story."
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