Controversy, intrigue and an NCAA investigation swirl around USC freshman guard O.J. Mayo, a flashpoint in tonight's NBA draft who believes he has been destined for this moment since he was 9.

Nationally known since he was in middle school, once erroneously tabbed as the second coming of LeBron James and allegedly paid thousands of dollars by a sports agent when he was still in high school, Mayo is the player around whom tonight's draft might unfurl.

He's considered the draft's consensus third overall pick, which, it so happens, belongs to the Timberwolves. Thing is, if you believe all the predraft subterfuge, the Miami Heat might boldly take Mayo over Kansas State's Michael Beasley with the second pick, presumably because Pat Riley has concerns about Beasley's character. Or, more likely, it'd orchestrate a draft-night deal by dangling the chance to select Beasley in front of the Wolves, Seattle or Memphis.

Strange that Mayo, over whom so much hangs, has become considered perhaps the player most ready in both body and mind for the NBA.

A reporter recently asked Mayo -- first introduced nationally by the media when he was a seventh-grade prep star -- if he planned on taking a posse with him to the NBA.

"Yes, sir," Mayo said. "My mother and a best friend of mine."

He answered every question that way -- "Yes, sir," and "No, ma'am," looking his questioner firmly in the eye -- when he met with reporters at last month's NBA predraft camp in Orlando. Beasley arrived at the same camp with the demeanor of a college kid who shows up for his first job interview wearing T-shirt and cutoffs.

The Wolves were one of five teams that traveled to Chicago last week to watch Mayo drill alone in an invitation-only workout at a training facility. Afterward, team representatives met with him in an hourlong interview from which Wolves General Manager Jim Stack said the team emerged "impressed" by a gifted player who has charted his own course with schools and teams from West Virginia to Kentucky, from Ohio to Los Angeles since he long ago told his single mother he intended to play in the NBA someday.

"He knows he has to be accountable for whatever happens in his life," Stack said.

Long time coming

Mayo has spent much of the past six weeks in Chicago working with a trainer whose clients have included Michael Jordan and Dwyane Wade to prepare for draft night, a day he envisioned when his mother one day asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.

"I was like, I want to play in the NBA," he said. "I was 9."

By the time he was a 14-year-old seventh-grader -- he's nearly a year older than every other freshman in this year's draft class -- Mayo was a 6-4 guard starring for a private Kentucky school across the river from his home in Huntington, W.Va. By then, his photograph had already been printed in Sports Illustrated and USA Today and an ESPN crew had come to his school.

When he transferred to a Cincinnati school when he was in eighth grade, television news satellite trucks pulled onto campus to announce his arrival. More than 16,000 people attended one of his high school games.

"O.J.'s got a pretty extensive body of work," said Kevin McHale, Wolves vice president of basketball operations. "You can Google him and go back and look at him when he was 7."

Mayo arrived at USC last fall considered a possible No. 1 NBA draft pick, watched his draft projection tumble when he started the season slowly and then re-emerged as a potential top pick with a strong finish. When NBA scouts went back after his team lost to Beasley's Kansas State team in the NCAA tournament's first round and broke down footage of his games, they saw a player perhaps they had underrated: a polished shooter, hard worker and willing defender who could command a game even without the ball in his hands.

"He might be as good a shooter as there is in this draft," said Fred Hoiberg, Wolves assistant general manager. "His stroke is so pure, the same release every single time. It's just a textbook jump shot. He's going to space the floor for you in our league because his man will never be able to leave him."

The inside scoop?

Hoiberg's coach when he played at Iowa State was Tim Floyd, who coached Mayo last season at USC. They've had more than a few conversations about a player who finished second in the Pac-10 last season in scoring as a freshman.

"Talking to people, he's the ultimate competitor," Hoiberg said. "The kid wants to win every drill. He's intelligent; he got a 29 on his ACT. And he's a winner."

The Wolves are not in need of another guard, yet Mayo fills three of their biggest needs: talent, outside shooting, perimeter defense. Hoiberg projects him as a shooting guard who can play some point guard in the NBA. They already have one combo guard in Randy Foye. Will two combos make a complete backcourt?

"I think it does fit," Hoiberg said. "One of O.J.'s biggest strengths is his defense. He can stay in front of the ball, and he has the size to guard 2s [shooting guards] in our league. I think it gives us versatility to have a couple of combo guys on the court together."

Mayo has denied an associate's claims that he received thousands of dollars in cash, clothes and other benefits from a sports agent while he was in high school and in his one season at USC. McHale said the allegations will not affect the team's opinion of Mayo as an NBA player.

"My main concern is my future," Mayo said when asked if he thought the claims would hurt his draft position. "I've been waiting ever since I was 9 years old, since I first put a basketball in my hand, to play in the NBA. The time is finally here, so I just want to concentrate on that."