Getting dialed in with O.J. Mayo
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Same old O.J. Mayo.
When the Memphis rookie spotted me across the locker room before the Grizzlies’ 118-95 victory over the Clippers last night at Staples Center, he smiled and dropped a courtesy ‘Mr. Bolch’ salutation.
He wasn’t smiling a few minutes later when I asked him about all the cellphone numbers he had given me that didn’t work, but I saved that topic until the end of our brief conversation.
We mostly talked about a sterling season in which the 6-foot-4 shooting guard is a leading candidate for rookie-of-the-year honors and how NBA life differed from his one and only college season.
Asked whether he preferred life as a professional ballplayer or a college ballplayer, Mayo didn’t hesitate. ‘This,’ he said. ‘It’s way better. The NBA is what you work for all your life.’
Mayo acknowledged that he felt less pressure with the Grizzlies than he did with the Trojans, who made him the focal point of a team that otherwise lacked star power. Memphis is having a horrible season, but the expectations aren’t nearly as high as they were at USC.
‘We’re a young team and we’re still searching for a formula,’ he said. ‘We’re young and we need to grow and mature a lot more.’
Mayo said he envisioned the Grizzlies following in the path of the Portland Trailblazers, a young team that is starting to jell after a few trying seasons.
But what about the two bad cellphone numbers he had given me since departing USC?
Mayo asked Dustin Krugel, the Grizzlies’ director of basketball media relations, to give me yet another number. Krugel scrolled through his BlackBerry and gave me a number with a Memphis area code, though he readily conceded it was one of four -- FOUR! -- cell numbers Mayo used. Krugel said to drop him an e-mail if it didn’t work.
I haven’t tried the number, but something tells me Krugel will be getting an e-mail in the not-too-distant future.
--Ben Bolch