O.J. Mayo Net Worth

What is O.J. Mayo's Net Worth?

O.J. Mayo is an American professional basketball player who has a net worth of $5 million. O.J. Mayo is a 6'4″ shooting guard who played college basketball at USC, where he was first-team All-Pac-10 as well as Pac-10 All-Defensive team and Pac-10 All-Freshman team in 2008. O. J. Mayo was drafted #3 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2008 NBA Draft. He played for the Memphis Grizzlies from 2008 to 2012. Mayo played for the Dallas Mavericks from 2012 to 2013 and the Milwaukee Bucks from 2013 to 2016. He went on to play in Puerto Rico, Egypt, and Taiwan.

Financial Issues and Controversies

Despite having earned around $45 million in salary alone while playing in the NBA, in recent years, O.J. has experienced some controversy on and off the court.

In 2016, he was banned for two years from the NBA after failing a drug test. Even before joining the NBA, he ran into trouble while still in college. While at USC, he received gifts that violated his amateur status and eventually caused the school to have 21 wins vacated.

In 2013, O.J. Mayo purchased a five-bedroom Milwaukee mansion in the ritzy Wisconsin village of River Hills for $1.8 million. The two-story, 9,000-square-foot home – which included its own theater and private gym – fell into foreclosure in 2019 when Mayo stopped paying his mortgage. After having not made a payment for ten months, the bank determined that he owed $1,137,302 on the $1.26 loan he took out to buy the home.

Early Years

Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo was born on November 5, 1987, in Huntington, West Virginia, to Kenneth Ziegler and Alisha Mayo. He began playing basketball while a student at Rose Hill Christian High School – a private school operated by the Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church – in Ashland, Kentucky. In 8th grade, he was named a first-team all-state player by the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper. When it became evident that his talent on the basketball court was something to take seriously, he relocated to Cincinnati, where he lived and trained with Coach Dwaine Barnes.

In 2003, Mayo enrolled at North College Hill High School – a public school in North College Hill, Ohio. There, he was named Mr. Basketball of Ohio and Associated Press Division III Player of the Year. He brought his team three consecutive AP poll titles and averaged almost 29 points, nine rebounds, and six assists in each game. In 2005, he was featured in the American sports magazine Sports Illustrated.

In February of 2006, the biggest crowd to ever attend a high school basketball game in Cincinnati turned out to see the North College Hill team go up against the top-ranking Oak Hill Academy. Over 16,000 sports fans watched Oak Hill win.

In 2006, Mayo enrolled at Huntington High School in Huntington, West Virginia. After being accused of assaulting a referee during the Huntington High vs. Capital High School game, he was suspended for two games. The matter went to the circuit court, where the judge considered allegations that the referee had faked the assault and temporarily lifted the suspension – which was reinstated soon after.

In 2007, Mayo was honored with a Bill Evans Award as West Virginia's male basketball player of the year by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association. In March of that year, he brought his school its third consecutive Class AAA basketball championship.

College Basketball

During the summer of 2007, O.J. Mayo enrolled at the University of Southern California. He earned All-Pac-10 first-team honors for the 2007-2008 season. Dropping out of USC after just one year, he entered the 2008 National Basketball Association draft. In May of that year, it was discovered that he had accepted gifts from basketball tournament promoter Rodney Guillory and money from sports manager Bill Duffy while a student at USC, in violation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's rules. On January 3, 2010, USC announced that he had been ineligible to play during the 2007-2008 season due to the rule violation and vacated 21 wins from the season as if they'd never occurred.

Going Pro

On June 26, 2008, O.J. Mayo was chosen third overall in the National Basketball Association draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Later that same day, he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies. He became runner-up for the 2008-2009 NBA Rookie of the Year Award and helped prepare the USA Basketball Men's National Team for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

On November 1, 2009, Mayo set a record for himself when he scored 40 points against the Denver Nuggets. Two months later, he was suspended from the next ten games by the NBA after he tested positive for the steroid Dehydroepiandrosterone – a violation of the league's drug rules. He first blamed the result on an over-the-counter supplement he claimed he ingested, though he refused to name the supplement. He later decided that it must have been an energy drink he ingested, not a supplement, which caused the positive test results.

During the 2011-2012 season, Mayo played as sixth man for the team and, as he was not under contract, he signed on to play with the Dallas Mavericks on July 19, 2012. Over the next year, he bested his own records, playing 52 minutes in a double-time loss against the Boston Celtics, accomplishing five steals against the Denver Nuggets and scoring 12 assists against the Houston Rockets. The spree he was on slowed when the team's star player, Dirk Nowitzki, returned to the court after a lengthy absence. In April 2013, Mayo announced that he would be opting out of the chance for a contract.

On July 13, 2013, Mayo signed a $24 million, three-year contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. Over the next three years, he suffered from issues with his weight, a strained right hamstring, a left hamstring injury, and a fractured right ankle. On July 1, 2016, he was dismissed from the NBA for another violation of the drug policy.

On April 4, 2018, Mayo signed with Atleticos de San German in Puerto Rico. Two months later, he was released from the league. In October of that year, he signed with the Dacin Tigers in Taiwan. As soon as their season ended, he signed with the Chinese Basketball League. One year later, he signed with the Taipei Fubon Braves in Taiwan. During the 2019-2020 season, Maho made his debut with the Liaoning Flying Leopards, a professional Chinese basketball team. In July 2020, he won the Chinese Basketball Association's Player of the Month Award. Four months later, he set a career-high of 48 points in a win against the Qingdao Guoxin Haitian Eagles.

In September of 2021, Mayo signed a one-year contract with BC UNICS, a professional basketball team in Russia. The following year, he signed with the Zamalek Basketball Club of Egypt.

His Story

The book "Mark My Words: Tales of Brandon Webb, O.J. Mayo and Other Sports Legends of Northeastern Kentucky" by Mark Maynard was released in 2010.

Mayo has publicly admitted in interviews that his early life had held some very difficult experiences. His father was sentenced to serve over a decade in prison for distributing crack cocaine, his brother was placed in a juvenile detention center, and one of his friends was killed. Basketball had been his saving grace through it all, and he claimed that he hit rock bottom when he was dismissed by the NBA in 2016 on drug charges.