“You Call It Trash, I Call It Fact!”: 2 Years After ‘Final Retirement’, Michael Jordan Gave High School Phenom OJ Mayo a Harsh Reality Check

A lot of players and NBA pundits have called Michael Jordan a ‘different build’ for his inhuman mentality and nature. Jordan found motivation in even the slightest disrespect anybody had for him. Mike was always looking for something to motivate him. In 2013, Michael himself told one of the stories involving a high school kid, OJ Mayo, who trash-talked him in a camp, 2 years after his final retirement. 

Sitting with NBA 2K14, Jordan said that he doesn’t usually talk to people he doesn’t know. Rather, his trash talk is limited to his friends and people he knows like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and people of that kind. However, he added that if the other person is doing the trash-talking, he lets his game talk. 

Michael Jordan teaches OJ Mayo a lifelong lesson for talking trash to the GOAT

OJ Mayo was one of the most sought-after players in the country before the 2008 draft. Mayo was also in Jordan’s camp during 2005/06, who went on to trash-talk the GOAT. MJ said that it was the first time he had met Mayo. The high-school star started talking trash to Michael, saying, “you can’t guard me.” Jordan stopped the camp and took on Mayo which gave him a lifelong lesson to remember. Recalling the incident Jordan said,

“Finally, I just said, ‘Look dude, you might be the best high school player, but I’m the best player in the world. So from this point on, it’s a lesson.’ And from that point on, it was a lesson. He never won a game, I posted him up, I did everything. If I can ever show you that film or you can ask him that, ask him about the thing that happened at my camp. I don’t consider that trash [talk], I consider that fact. You call it trash.”

Larry Brown Sports later discovered the tape of Jordan playing a pick-up game against OJ Mayo. Jordan was also heard trash-talking Mayo, telling him to cry for his mama. Mayo learned everything in basketball, but he forgot that it was a sin to speak trash to His Airness.

what happened to OJ Mayo’s NBA career

In the 2008 NBA Draft, Mayo was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves. However, he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies on draft night itself. He played four seasons with the Grizzlies before being traded to the Dallas Mavericks in 2012 and eventually to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2013. Unfortunately, OJ was suspended for two years from taking part in NBA games. The specifics of the suspension were not released by the league. It was the longest suspension in NBA history. Previously, he was suspended for 10 games related to the positive test result attributed to performance-enhancing drugs.

Since his suspension, he has played in many countries, like Puerto Rico, Taiwan, and China. In 2022, he signed with the Egyptian club Zamalek, a team in the Egyptian Basketball Super League.