Mayo and Jennings had their hype right as I was entering my NBA phase and reading SLAM every month and totally bought into both of them. I was so hyper for OJ Mayo mostly because he had a cool name. I remember maybe his second season, he had a 40 point game against the Nuggets, and I was like “here we go!” And it never happened. I think maybe if he had been drafted 10 years earlier he could have had a Marbury esque career. Idk. Kyrie ending up being the player I thought Mayo would be.
Jennings had that 55 point game against the Warriors though, too, and that was even more insane, and then same kind of story- never reached the hype.
Probably the last time I got hyped about future basketball players. Nothing bad, I enjoyed the hype train, it’s just exhausting, and deflating if they don’t pan out. Better to wait and judge players in the NBA.
Yeah it was the time I got into tracking high school recruits as well. It was cool to see guys that panned out like John Wall because you followed literally their entire career. But yeah there are more duds than success stories. I only really hear about/follow the truly hyped prospects like a Zion, Chet, or Flagg now.
I kinda think he hit his peak though. He was a very high volume, low efficiency scorer on bad teams. Those guys are not rare in the NBA and don’t always translate to winning basketball when put on a good team.
Him and Brandon Jennings both had insane hype that I believed.
Mayo and Jennings had their hype right as I was entering my NBA phase and reading SLAM every month and totally bought into both of them. I was so hyper for OJ Mayo mostly because he had a cool name. I remember maybe his second season, he had a 40 point game against the Nuggets, and I was like “here we go!” And it never happened. I think maybe if he had been drafted 10 years earlier he could have had a Marbury esque career. Idk. Kyrie ending up being the player I thought Mayo would be.
Jennings had that 55 point game against the Warriors though, too, and that was even more insane, and then same kind of story- never reached the hype.
Probably the last time I got hyped about future basketball players. Nothing bad, I enjoyed the hype train, it’s just exhausting, and deflating if they don’t pan out. Better to wait and judge players in the NBA.
After Jennings tore his Achilles he lost his quickness. Tough for small guards to be successful in the league once the athleticism is compromised
Yeah it was the time I got into tracking high school recruits as well. It was cool to see guys that panned out like John Wall because you followed literally their entire career. But yeah there are more duds than success stories. I only really hear about/follow the truly hyped prospects like a Zion, Chet, or Flagg now.
Jennings was very, very good in his short time with us before tearing his achilles. Huge what if if he hadn’t gone down.
I kinda think he hit his peak though. He was a very high volume, low efficiency scorer on bad teams. Those guys are not rare in the NBA and don’t always translate to winning basketball when put on a good team.