ESPN.com’s Bomani Jones to Dave Smith of Sporting News Radio in Los Angeles on the fraud that is USC’s recruitment of top high school hoops prospect O.J. Mayo: "I heard he (USC basketball coach Tim Floyd) doesn’t even have his (Mayo’s) cell phone number."

Floyd may be a great guy and good coach, but he’s an average recruiter at best. More specifically, the only reason that Mayo would consider USC (he has reportedly verbally committed) is his relationship with Reebok’s Sonny Vaccaro, who is based in L.A.

ESPN.com’s Pat Forde reports high school basketball flesh peddler Sonny Vaccaro "is flexing more muscle than ever," as players from his "Reebok stable could be flocking to [his] Los Angeles backyard, apparently for star-making purposes." Forde also has the absurd story of Renardo Sidney, a 15-year-old hoops prospect who moved from Mississippi to L.A. after his father, a former school security guard, become a "paid Reebok ‘consultant.’"

The LOS ANGELES TIMES reports a "fear that shoe companies will cease giving money to schools because NBA players are more effective billboards."

Adidas shoe guru Sonny Vaccaro: "That day is coming, and we’ll let the NCAA pay the bills for shoes and gear. I don’t need the schools in Florida when I have Tracy McGrady to wrap up the whole state."

If that day ever comes, it’ll be the best thing to happen to college hoops.

©
- MAY 7, 2003

Jim Rome set sail on his "maiden voyage" yesterday as he launched his new TV show on ESPN.

Highlight from the lid-lifter: Panelist Jim Lampley intimating that the pay-for-porn option on Mike Price’s hotel room TV may have cost the Bama coach his gig.

The PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE reports that Adidas shoe guru Sonny Vaccaro "helped buy and sell" Ben Howland from Pitt to UCLA.

One of Finder’s sources indicated that Vaccaro had planned to sneak Howland from the Steel City to SoCal since March 2002 and quoted Vaccaro as saying, "I’m going to get Ben Howland the UCLA job."

Why did Sonny care?

The LOS ANGELES TIMES reports Vaccaro recently said, "with UCLA, we haven’t received a return on our investment lately." Adidas has a $19 million shoe and apparel pact with UCLA.

This is why college hoops makes me queasy.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED reports on Sonny Vaccaro’s new role as Senior Director of "Grassroots Basketball." The piece notes that the majority of top AAU programs are under contract with Nike and adidas.

So Vaccaro’s going young - very young: "I’m going to take care of people who nobody thought to take care of. There are some seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-graders who have a chance to be really special. They’ll be with us."

No word if Sonny plans to hire Michael Jackson as his talent coordinator.

TYSON CHICKEN? Sonny Vaccaro on KSPN-AM on the poor work ethic of Compton’s Baby Bull, Tyson Chandler: "He’s got the talent to be one of the top 20 players in the NBA, but right now people in the league think Tyson doesn’t want to be great."

The AKRON BEACON JOURNAL has an interview with adidas rep Sonny Vaccaro who claims Lebron James "is going to be given the biggest shoe deal ever given to any athlete in any sport in the history of sports coming out of the chute." More Vaccaro: "(Kobe Bryant) won’t get half of what LeBron gets."

Think Sonny might be tryin’ to heighten the hit Nike will take financially when it finally John Hancock’s James?