USA TODAY International Edition
NBA combine helps ex-USC player put hard year in past
CHICAGO – There was a sense of relief from Southern California’s De’Anthony Melton after days of probing interviews about a difficult season that left him “devastated” and hurt.
“I’ve been so quiet with it because everything was happening and more stuff kept happening and I was understanding that I had to just wait,” Melton told USA TODAY on Friday at the NBA draft combine. “I’ll eventually tell my full story. I’ve told the teams.”
The Trojans held Melton out from playing his sophomore season because of a connection to the FBI’s college basketball bribery case before he ultimately decided to withdraw from school in February and focus on the NBA.
“I think (USC) handled it the best way they thought was possible,” Melton said. “I know they weren’t out to get me, I know that they weren’t trying to hurt me and making sure the university and everyone in it, you know, was protected first. … USC just had a lack of trust (concerning David Elliott, a close friend of the family) and they wanted to play it safe. We were already halfway through the season so they didn’t want anything else to come up.”
Federal prosecutors alleged Elliott, whom Melton says he doesn’t speak to anymore, accepted $5,000 in exchange for ushering Melton toward would-be agent Christian Dawkins and a financial adviser once he turned pro. During an internal investigation, USC discovered “extra benefits” Elliott received, which ultimately led to the decision to hold Melton out.
USC and Melton were concerned about forfeitures if he had played, though he has never publicly been accused of any violation, and he said Thursday that he never took any money.
“I was shocked,” Melton said. “There’s no way this is me. Come to find out, the school first brought me in. I got cleared of the $5,000 pretty quick and then some more stuff came up that kind of really just set it over the edge, so I think that was really shocking to me.”
After Melton got a phone call with the news, his coaches told him to focus on the NBA. Then came 3-on-3 games, then 4-on-4, workouts against college players and against one or two NBA guys.
“I just tried to keep myself sane,” Melton said. “I shot a lot. I got in the gym. At first I was teasing myself being in the gym, but I realized that I needed to do this. Everybody has to go through something.”
Which brought Melton, who averaged 8.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.9 steals in his lone season, to Chicago for the combine, where he had to explain himself to teams and then prove himself against his peers.
“Having an actual clock and adding the rules into it, it’s a whole different ballgame,” he said of the five-on-five games in front of dozens of NBA executives and general managers. “I was a little nervous. I’m not going to lie, I was nervous.”
Melton, who played alongside Villanova star Donte DiVincenzo in Friday’s game, buzzed around the court playing his physical brand of defense. He finished with 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting with five rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks. Asked who he modeled himself after in the NBA, Melton cited two-way stars Dwyane Wade, Avery Bradley and Kawhi Leonard.
“They like to get downhill, they play defense, blocks shots,” he said.
Melton, who said he addressed his eligibility with every team he interviewed with, is currently projected to go No. 24 in USA TODAY’s latest mock draft.
Asked about changes to who he lets into his circle, Melton said he has a group text thread with five or six people who help him stay in the know. “Before it was lack of communication, and now it’s going to be excessive communication.
“Like I said, anybody that talks about me, that vouches for me, I just want to know,” Melton said. “I would say most of the information is not that valid unless you ask me first, I can tell you straight up. I’m an open book. I have nothing to hide. I don’t mind.”