Life was good for Calvin Andrews and BDA Sports. They had locked up O.J. Mayo and were ready for another successful NBA draft. Then came the news that O.J. Mayo had received money from Rodney Guillory, a runner for Andrews and BDA. Calvin maintained that he stopped giving money to Mayo through runners prior to O.J. enrolling at USC. It turns out that his claim may have been far from the truth.
Calvin Andrews has been suspended by the NBPA for one year and its disciplinary committee may take further action in the future. It was obvious that Calvin’s and BDA’s name would be hurt by all of the negative headlines, but with a full-year suspension and the potential for an even larger penalty, what will this mean for Andrews, BDA, and Bill Duffy? They lost Mayo (who eventually signed with Leon Rose) and may be blocked from recruiting many one-time potential recruits due to a large kick to their reputation.
On May 23rd, I pointed out that the NBPA was starting to get serious about enforcing many of its regulations and that a penalty would probably be assessed to Andrews if he knowingly/recklessly/negligently supplied funds to a runner/handler who then passed them onto Mayo. The NBPA’s investigation into Mayo’s recruitment must have dug up some facts that led it to believe that Andrews played an active role in Guillory’s recruitment method.
BDA’s NBA Draft grade of C- may start to look rather generous. What will be BDA’s plan now that Andrews cannot represent his clients for at least a year? Who will fill in the gap? How will Duffy restore his agency’s integrity?