As if 2k Sports needed any more buzz for Tuesday’s highly anticipated release of NBA 2k14, they came up with a great idea: releasing an exclusive interview with Michael Jordan via ESPN SportsCenter. The GOAT dropped some gems about beating LeBron and past NBA greats one-on-one. He also shared an amusing story about schooling OJ Mayo at one of his basketball camps when Mayo was one of the best high school players in the nation and Mike was “the best in the world.”
Bucks.com caught up with OJ yesterday and asked him for his side of the story. Mayo, being a great sport about it, confirmed MJ’s story and essentially summed it up by saying, “He had everything to gain and nothing to lose,” and “Mike was Mike.”
The story has sparked a scavenger hunt for the footage, and thanks to LarryBrownSports.com, we now have footage of OJ and MJ playing against each other at the Michael Jordan Flight School at UCSB. The footage is from the two-team games where they faced off against each other, but according to both Mayo and Jordan, they played one-on-one afterwards, and that’s when the “greatest of all-time” let the “best in high school” know why the camp was called Michael Jordan’s Flight School.
Thanks to Beyond The Buzzer for capping the OJ video
OJ MAYO IN HIGH SCHOOL
THE NEXT LEBRON
THE SECOND COMING
Y’ALL AIN’T READY
THE FUTURE IS NOW!
These were the headlines Dime, High School Hoops, SLAM, and PUNKS used on their magazine covers that featured Mayo, who won three straight high school state titles and had 41/11/10 and an off-the-backboard dunk in the final seconds of the final one!
OJ MAYO ‘S ROOKIE SEASON
And after his first month in the NBA, many people were thinking that the Grizzlies’ 3rd pick in the 2008 NBA Draft might just be the next great. He scored 28 in his fifth career game and then followed it up with 20, 31, and 33, and averaged 24.4 points over his next 12. A few more shining spots from the season included a game with 22 points and a career-high 16 boards, and one with 24 points and 10 dimes. These performances were good enough for him to finish second in Rookie Of The Year voting.
1: Derrick Rose
2: OJ Mayo
3: Brook Lopez
4: Russell Westbrook
5: Eric Gordon
6: Kevin Love