Now that I've given you guys a little bit of background information about these two, I'll tell you what the workout was like. The intensity of the workout was unparalleled. Walker and Mayo went for approximately an hour and a half non-stop and at full speed through a series of NBA drills. These drills included reading screens, full court dribbling drills leading right into jump shots, mid range jump shots, and attacking the basket. Just about the only knock on Bill Walker coming into this year was that he wasn't quite the strongest ball handlerboy, has that changed. Bill was extremely fluid going up and down the floor at full speed in the ball handling drills. He was able to change directions and speeds very easily while keeping his head up and the ball low and tight. Bill began to shoot NBA three pointers off of these drills with absolute ease. At one time, we counted that Bill made 7 straight NBA three pointers in a row after dribbling full speed up the floor with a defender on him. Walker then showed off his midrange game, in which he has an absolutely astonishing lift on his shot, making it impossible for any defender to block. Walker then started attacking the basket, where he used his giant strides to get to the basket in the blink of an eye. He finished every one of his takes to the rim with an explosive dunk, where he was at least a foot above the rim on each and every one of them.
O.J. was going through the workout even though he had sprained his ankle in the high school state championship just two days earlier, showing his great toughness. In the full court ball handling drills that lead to NBA three pointers, O.J. handled the ball as if it was on a string and showed unlimited range. At one point, we counted him hitting 9 straight three pointers from NBA range (following which he missed one and then proceeded to hit 5 more in a row). Mayo did not have the usual (great) lift on his shot due to the ankle injury, but his mechanics were very impressive. Like Walker, O.J. showed a great midrange jumper with very quick release and good form. When it came to exploding to the basket, he was a bit limited because of the bum ankle, but he was still easily dunking the ball in all of the drills. We would see in a few minutes that even with a bad ankle, Mayo could still leap higher then the majority of college players.
At the conclusion of their workout, O.J. and Bill decided to have an impromptu dunk contest. Bill started off getting loose by easily touching the top of the square on the backboard. He then started off by throwing the ball off of the backboard and doing a reverse windmill dunk. This dunk would have easily gotten a perfect score in the NBA dunk contest. He then continued with a flurry of windmill, 360, and between the legs dunks that would have definitely given Josh Smith a run for his money. As for O.J., even though he was suffering from an ankle injury, he was still able to throw the ball off of the shot clock and dunk it (a la Gerald Green in the 2005 McDonald's dunk contest). He followed that with a flurry of windmill dunks and dunked 2 balls at the same time, reminiscent of the dunk Amir Johnson did in the McDonald's dunk contest.
While I had seen these two play before in person a few times and was fully aware of their talents, I had never seen anything like this in my life. These two looked like pro prospects, and they were only sophomores in high school. Both I and Prerak Shah (the other staff member in attendance) agreed that Mayo and Walker were more impressive than ANY of the players playing in the Roundball Classic. Only Gerald Green even came close. This should tell you how immensely talented these two sophomores are. Whether they are able to come out in the 2007 NBA draft right out of high school, or if they have to go to college for two years, you will hear the names of O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker very, very early on draft night.
