Trying to comprehend this one. Nail the agent , protect the player? How is one less or more guilty than the other? It is the same infraction and requires 2 people to make it happen.
It would seem to me that the " player " will seek out the agent with the best payoff.
It's because Mayo did all this before he belonged to the NBA players union so they can't pass any rule that impacts him. But they can pass a rule that prevents agents from paying players when they're amateurs and that's why they suspended Andrews, he violated the rule.
In this case I believe Andrews and BDA are just the one that got caught it's been widely reported that numerous agents were competing for Mayo when he was still in HS so it's highly improbable he only took money from one IMHO.
This is why I scoff when people say the rules are unfair to the kid anyways so who cares if they cheat. Mayo is a multi millionaire who just used some of his first NBA contract to move his mom and brother Todd(a HS SG) to Memphis to live with him, he has an endorsement deal, and he's doing what he's aways wanted to do, play basketball for a living. Meanwhile his former agent is suspended for a year, and his former school faces and NCAA investigation and probable probation. There's absolutely no loss here for Mayo IMHO, yeah he's less marketable than he was but not much, a lot of kids think its cool he took money.
They have to make the punishment severe enough for teh school and agent that they will think twice about doing it because the kid right now faces very little downside to taking money if like Mayo they're good enough to turn pro right away.