Yesterday, Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal tweeted that O.J. Mayo, the Memphis Grizzlies guard going into his sophomore season in the NBA, has dropped both his marketing agency and contractual advisor. His representation for team contracts was Leon Rose of Creative Artists Agency. Mayo’s marketing agency was LRMR Marketing, a company that has LeBron James on the board.
Mullen tweeted that CAA confirmed Mayo’s termination of CAA, but we still do not know exactly why Mayo chose to start fresh on marketing and contractual help.
O.J. Mayo had a terrific rookie season that included averages of 18.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.2 assists in 38 minutes per game. And I am sure that many agents were in his ear throughout the year. That would be a solid reason for why Mayo would drop smaller agencies for names like CAA and LRMR. In this case, Mayo has dropped some big dogs, and we will wait and see who will be the replacements.
In case you have a short memory, Mayo was represented by BDA Sports before people found out about Rodney Guillory, a runner for BDA Sports and Calvin Andrews, gave money to Mayo while he was an NCAA student-athlete. Andrews was suspended by the NBPA and Mayo started looking for new representation. The rumor was that it was a race between Leon Rose and Andy Miller, with Rose winning out in the end.
And now we are once again left to wonder who Mayo will choose to become a part of his team of advisors.