Under a cloak of secrecy Thursday, the Clippers worked out guard O.J. Mayo, at an undisclosed Southern California private facility.
Previous workouts for prospective draft picks by the Clippers have been conducted at the team’s interim practice home, Spectrum South in El Segundo. However, Mayo’s audition was conducted somewhere else.
Apparently, the decision on where to have the workout was made by Mayo’s new agent, Leon Rose, who was selected after Mayo parted ways with his former agent, Calvin Andrews.
Rose’s major client is All-Star forward LeBron James.
Depending on the assortment of mock drafts, Mayo is projected to go somewhere between the third and sixth picks.
Mayo worked out recently for the New York Knicks. He is scheduled to work out this weekend in Chicago, in front of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ basketball staff.
Unless the Clippers trade up or down in the draft, they will have the seventh overall pick and wouldn’t appear to have a shot at drafting Mayo.
Mayo is not expected to fall that far but it was 10 years ago, when the reigning NBA Finals MVP, Paul Pierce, plummeted to 10th in the draft, where the Boston Celtics found him.
Drafted ahead of Pierce in that 1998 draft were established stars like Mike Bibby (2nd, Vancouver), Vince Carter (5th, Golden State) and Dirk Nowitzki (9th, Milwaukee).
Also picked ahead of Pierce was his college teammate at Kansas, Raef LaFrenz, (3rd, Denver), Robert “Tractor” Traylor (6th, Dallas), Jason Williams (7th, Sacramento) and Larry Hughes (8th, Philadelphia).
Oh yes, lest we forget, the Clippers had the first overall pick in the 1998 draft and they selected center Michael Olowokandi.
So, who is to say that Mayo couldn’t drop into the Clippers’ lap? And likely that could be the reason why Mayo and his agent agreed to work out for the Clippers.
