O.J. Mayo was attending an NBA draft party hours after he was selected by Minnesota when family and friends informed him he'd been shipped to Memphis for Kevin Love in a late-night blockbuster deal involving eight players.
Moments afterward, Rudy Gay - Mayo's new teammate in the backcourt - walked in the door to welcome him to the South.
"It was a great feeling,"
Mayo said as he was introduced Friday at a news conference in Memphis. "I was happy to see Rudy, and I'm happy to be playing for the Memphis Grizzlies."
Kevin Love was out on the town in New York with his brother and friends when he got word. Mayo and Love were the toast of the town in Los Angeles, starring at USC and UCLA, respectively, for just one year before leaving for the NBA. But before they even put on an NBA uniform, they became the story of the draft.
They've been friends for a long time and now will forever be linked via trade.
"It's kind of intriguing,"
Love said in his afternoon news conference. "I know I got the best of the deal. I'm here in Minnesota, so I'm happy about it."
Most NBA analysts agree with Love.
Love was drafted No. 5 by Memphis and Mayo No. 3 by Minnesota, a deal that was in the works long before the draft ended. Even though Love was available, Minnesota drafted Mayo. Executives from both organizations talked about possible wheeling and dealing during the week. Minnesota figured Mayo had more trade value, and the Timberwolves received sharp-shooting guard Mike Miller as well.
"When we started off the night, we thought if we could acquire two really good pieces and two building blocks with using the third pick as our primary source of doing that, then we would (make the trade) automatically,"
Kevin McHale, the Timberwolves' general manager, said. "Our No. 1 priority on our board when we looked at it was to possibly end up with a Mike Miller and Kevin Love combination, and that's what happened."
"(The deal) was going all over the place for a while. And then when we got it done, we couldn't have been happier."
Love felt the same.
Jeff Schwartz, Love's agent, called Love's brother sometime after midnight with the news Love had been traded.
"My brother came down from upstairs and told me, `hey, you're a Minnesota Timberwolf' and that changed my whole night,"
Love said.
"I was so happy. I get to work with Kevin (McHale), maybe my favorite player of all-time, get to have a great fan base. I'm happy to be here in the city. It's almost like a colder Portland. I'm happy to be almost back home. It's going to be my new favorite city."
If the Minnesota marketing department had listened to Timberwolves assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg after the selection of Mayo, it would've built a new advertising campaign around Mayo. After the selection of Mayo, Hoiberg said: "This means we're keeping him."
He neglected to mention he meant they'd keep him for just a few hours.
Hoiberg was feeling the heat on Friday. Television sportscasts were over before the deal was leaked and newspapers had to scramble to get news in the paper before deadline.
"I looked in the paper this morning, and I go so many e-mails,"
Hoiberg said. "People said I lied when I went down and talked to the group after the draft. You know, we expected O.J. to be on our team - that's why we drafted him. But when the deal came up with Kevin and Mike Miller, we just felt that it addressed so many needs. We felt it was a deal that we absolutely could not pass up on."
