Louis Johnson -- Don't hold the Mayo accountable

It's not OJ, it's the system, per Mr. Johnson

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=428460

 

Interesting byline on that article.

As for the rest . . . . Let's just say that getting screwed by Rodney Guillory has ironically lit a fire under Louis to write the book/stories many of us who knew him in SoCal always thought he could and should, detailing what goes on with prep basketball in that area. Dude is quite connected.

I look forward to reading it.

 

Former colleague at the P-T. Had no idea his life took this path.

 

I worked with Louis for a few years and to me, he's always been someone I knew where we stood even though we are two people from completely different backgrounds in these same United States, but I always considered him a friend. I appreciated his writing, his work ethic and his ability to take care of business as a journalist. It was obviously weird to see the whole Mayo situation play out like it did and I'm sure USC and others don't like Louis at all. Maybe I just know a different version of Louis than others do and maybe he even played a role of some kind whenever he was around me -- which was exclusively in a work setting -- but even if this seems biased, I'm glad that the book he's writing is getting published and if he and I ever run into each other at an event or something, I'll shake his hand, be happy to see him and want to sit down and just talk about the old days and catch up with how his life is and let him know how I am doing, too.

 

Hmm, I didn't realize how many former and current LB PTers there are on this board... it makes me feel kinda bad when I've been pointing out substandard quality in the paper..... sorry guys.

 

To get back to the central issue, it's abundantly clear that O.J. Mayo had a) no particular interest in going to college, b) no particular affinity or loyalty to USC as an institution, so why the hell should Mayo care about adhering to NCAA rules?

If the USC basketball program is penalized after the fact for things Mayo did while he was there, why should he particularly care? USC can't claim it didn't know they could be getting involved with NCAA problems by bringing in Mayo. They bought the ticket, they take the ride.

 

Ditto

 

Pat Forde had a nice story about O.J. a couple years ago that talks about some of the kid's handlers:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2188552

 

Louis was always a bundle of good energy in the office or at games. Liked him a lot. It would be great to catch up with him 17 years later. For a big guy, he was nimble on the court; several P-T sports guys would run full-court at Mayfair Park every Friday morning. Those were fun times.