Chad Baker-Mazara’s right knee buckled every time he tried to step. His hamstrings felt so tight as if they were about to pull. 

He was doing whatever he could to get warm inside the Galen Center tunnel. Defensive slides. Jumping. Running, jogging in place. No matter what he did though, his body just wouldn’t respond.

“My body was telling me, ‘No, buddy,’” Baker-Mazara told USA TODAY Sports in an exclusive interview. “‘As bad as you want to play, it’s a no-go.’”

Baker-Mazara took a hard fall while blocking a shot in the opening minutes of the second half against Nebraska on Feb. 28. It would end up being his final play in a USC uniform as everything quickly devolved into one of the most puzzling moments of the college basketball season. 

The next morning, USC announced Baker-Mazara — their leading scorer in the 2025-26 season — was no longer with the team in a two-sentence-long statement with no further details given.

"Chad being Chad" is a common saying among those close to and familiar with Baker-Mazara's energy-driven personality. Perhaps that passion, misconstrued or not, was at play here.

USC senior associate athletic director Cody Worsham told USA TODAY Sports the university won't comment on matters related to student-athlete discipline. But, in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY Sports, Baker-Mazara is ready to tell his side of the story.

The Trojans held a five-point lead at halftime, thanks in large part to Baker-Mazara’s game-leading 14 points, but once he landed on his lower back, the sixth-year senior felt the impact radiate to his hamstrings and knees.

“I never felt this pain before,” he recalled telling the USC training staff.

Baker-Mazara was told he was good to get back into the game, but he physically couldn’t get himself right again.

So instead, Baker-Mazara listened to his body. He walked back out of the tunnel and straight to the coaching staff on the sideline, told them he couldn’t go back in, walked over to the baseline and took his usual seat on the crowded USC bench next to Rodney Rice.

Interesting part of Nebraska vs. USC game yesterday, Chad Baker-Mazara left the game with an injury briefly, came back out to the court but didn't sit on the main bench with the team rather courtside for the rest of the game.

Today, USC moves on from Baker-Mazara.⬇️ https://t.co/PQdAqQco8Ppic.twitter.com/RXt0syRiDE

— Chase Matteson (@ChaseMatteson) March 1, 2026

The Trojans’ lead evaporated throughout the second half and they eventually lost 82-67 to Nebraska. It was their fifth loss in a row, one that a team on the March Madness bubble couldn’t afford.

USC coach Eric Musselman was questioned by reporters about Baker-Mazara’s absence during the postgame news conference.

“He said he couldn’t go,” Musselman bluntly retorted.

And in the locker room postgame, all of that frustration reportedly boiled over.

“People's emotions flared up,” former USC forward Terrance Williams II told USA TODAY Sports. “Trying to figure out what's going on. People want to win at the end of the day, you know. Coaches trying to figure it out, players trying to figure it out.”

According to Williams, Baker-Mazara reportedly called out some of his teammates. 

“Some people were one foot in, one foot out,” Williams said. “CB realized that, a lot of people on the team realized that. CB wasn’t the only one to speak up.”

Baker-Mazara told USA TODAY Sports he was unable to comment on the specifics of the locker room discussion due to pending litigation, but former USC guard Ryan Cornish confirmed Williams’ version of events. Multiple other teammates declined interview requests for this story.

According to Williams, the topics in that discussion included multiple players and coaches — while heated — never went beyond the normal emotions that come with playing the game. It was about some players being perceived as not giving it their all, personnel, game planning and the accumulation of losing one conference game after another in the most important stretch of the season.

“It was all healthy though,” Williams said. “It wasn’t nothing negative.”

So when Evan Brock, Baker-Mazara’s cousin and manager, got a call from David Mincberg — a consultant for the USC men’s basketball program — to inform them that Baker-Mazara had been dismissed from the team, it came as a shock to him. 

“I let my team down, let my boys down,” he said. “ … Felt like I let myself down, my family down, my whole country down, to be honest.”

Baker-Mazara told USA TODAY Sports he has still not heard from Musselman to this day. 

“It’s really hurtful,” he said. “Because I thought I had a strong enough relationship that we could just sit down and talk about anything. At least that’s what it was throughout the whole year. 

“… Me and him didn’t see eye to eye on everything but at the end of the day, I feel like we had a strong enough relationship, or nothing bad enough happened, to where I should’ve been dismissed from the team.”

Williams vouched for the relationship between the two.

“Muss and CB, they’re just two fiery personalities,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “You would think they’re clashing, but at the same time behind closed doors, I know Muss got CB’s back and I know CB got Muss’ back.”

Which made Musselman’s announcement to the team during a film session later that day all the more surprising to Williams.

“That’s our brother,” he said. “We were in this together at the end of the day. Like, we in this together. We had the summers together, the winters together, the end of the season. That’s our brother, so we were sad for him.”

Williams’ empathy was equally rooted in concern.

Baker-Mazara had already been branded as somewhat of a pariah throughout his college basketball career. He played at six schools in five years. In that time, he made headlines when he was dismissed from San Diego State for academic reasons in 2022, and, in 2024 with Auburn, he was ejected four minutes into their first-round NCAA Tournament game after throwing an elbow at Yale guard August Mahoney’s head.

“I already knew the reaction that was gonna happen because of who CB is,” he said. “Everybody got an opinion of who he is, but they don’t know him.”

The first thing a 17-year-old Baker-Mazara did when he got off the plane at Newark Airport in New Jersey after the roughly four-hour flight from his hometown of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, was head straight to Foot Locker to buy a pair of Nike KDs. From there, he went over to Dick’s Sporting Goods, where he bought a basketball. He found a park a couple blocks down, got on the court and started shooting.

In an unfamiliar environment, Baker-Mazara turned to his place of peace.

“I’m here for a reason,” he reminded himself as the ball swished through the net. “... This is gonna plan out for something bigger and better.”

One week earlier, Baker-Mazara was burying his grandmother in Santo Domingo. His dad had casually mentioned the idea of moving to the United States a few times over the previous couple years but because of how sporadically it came up, Baker-Mazara never really paid much mind to it.

But on the day of the funeral, his dad dropped the news on him.

“Since it’s already this type of day, I might as well just tell you this. A week from today, you’re moving with your grandfather to New Jersey.”

“It was probably one of the worst days ever,” Baker-Mazara told USA TODAY Sports. “ ... You got a week to say bye to everything, everybody, and starting a new life.”

The Dominican Republic is known more for baseball than basketball. Even then, the first sport Baker-Mazara gravitated toward was soccer. He played goalkeeper because of his height, until his coach realized the position was not safe for his skill set. He tried to play defense, but found it too boring. 

By the time Baker-Mazara was in seventh grade, he was done with soccer and told his dad he wanted to hoop.

“He had a smile from here to here,” Baker-Mazara said as he pointed at each of his ears. “He never pushed basketball onto me. He always wanted me to play because it was part of the family, but he never really forced it onto me. He always supported me in my soccer career, but I could tell you that day, he was really, really excited.”

But even then, it would be years before Baker-Mazara realized he could go far in the sport. Not even after he moved to the US and led Colonia High School to back-to-back Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament Final Four appearances and was named the 2018-19 Home News Tribune Boys Basketball Player of the Year. 

It wasn’t until his prep year at SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio, that it clicked for Baker-Mazara.

Playing against top-level competition — the Brewsters, the IMG academies — was a motivator. He particularly enjoyed guarding Kenyon Martin Jr., a three-star recruit who averaged 20 points per game in his prep year at IMG after winning back-to-back CIF Open Division championships at Sierra Canyon High School in Chatsworth, California. By his own account, Baker-Mazara “did a pretty decent job with him.”

“That year made me realize I got a dog in me,” he said. “I can do this.”

Things came full-circle for Baker-Mazara when he arrived at USC in the summer of 2025. His first time visiting the U.S. as an 11-year-old, his aunt, who had recently graduated, showed him around campus. There’s a picture somewhere in the family archives of him on the steps of Galen Center, beaming with his trademark smile.

“Being able to put that jersey on, that was the inner kid in me that really wanted to do that,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “That was a proud moment for me.”

That inner kid showed through to his teammates with the energy he approached them with. He would celebrate with pride every time he got a stop on defense in practice. If he caused a shot clock violation, he would scream.

“It’s summer workouts,” Williams said. “And he’s showing energetic energy and things like that when he doesn’t really have to.”

He hypes his teammates up during timeouts. Gives them words of encouragement on the sideline. He even offered Ezra Ausar, who he had just met, a place to stay at his apartment while he figured out his housing situation that summer.

“He’s a brother’s keeper,” Ausar said. “For sure.”

“Everything that I do is with emotion. Passion in life. That’s how I am,” Baker-Mazara said. “I feel like that has something to do with Dominicans, too. We do things with a lot of passion.”

But that passion can have its pitfalls, too. Especially for the uninitiated.

Williams noted Baker-Mazara sometimes butted heads with other players he thought were being lazy, selfish or not giving it their all and would confront them, but he always perceived it as a healthy conversation.

“He cares about winning, he wants to get better,” Williams said. “He wants to be at the highest level. Some people could take that as wrong but at the end of the day, he just wants to win.”

As the season wore on and the losses piled up, however, “Chad being Chad” reportedly started to wear thin. Williams told USA TODAY Sports he noticed the coaching staff start to grow tired of Baker-Mazara's big personality. 

His energy, his willingness to call people out, was becoming a distraction.

“Some of the coaches, they were kind of just fed up,” Williams said. “ … I guess they just thought he was in the way. That’s just my opinion on it.”

The Trojans dropped their final two games of the season without Baker-Mazara and were eliminated in the first round of the Big Ten tournament in an overtime loss.

Not being able to finish what he started was something that ate at Baker-Mazara. Despite the hurt that came with that, and knowing how it all ended, he wouldn’t change anything about how he handled himself because he views it as an overall learning experience.

“See other people’s perspectives other than mine,” Baker-Mazara said. “And just being able to be with people, be around people and handle people.”

Every day before his training session, Baker-Mazara puts on some music. Usually alternative or any one of Bad Bunny, Rod Wave, Drake, Kanye West or Route 94. Anything that can help calm his mind and slow things down as he begins to meditate.

He’ll pray and visualize the future he wants for himself. Right now, that’s achieving his dream of playing in the NBA and becoming just the 15th player with Dominican roots to play at the highest level.

Meditation helps Baker-Mazara focus on the things that he can control.

“Basketball comes with a lot of ups and downs,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “And having that time to reflect, pray, and visualize my goals helps me stay grounded. It gives me clarity, keeps me motivated, and reminds me why I’m working so hard every day.”

He’s preparing for the NBA Draft with Stanley Remy, a renowned development trainer who has worked with Dwyane Wade, Jeff Green and Andre Drummond, among others. Baker-Mazara’s draft odds are slim; multiple NBA scouts declined to comment to USA TODAY Sports, but with his history of jumping around programs and question marks about his exits from each of them, combined with his age (26), he doesn’t seem to be a priority for NBA front offices.

NBADraftRoom.com projects him as a possible second-round pick due to his long, wiry frame and quick hands and feet that help him be a constant presence on both ends of the floor.

“Isn’t on many draft boards but has a chance to make it in the league,” his scouting report on the website reads. “Underrated.”

It’s been a whirlwind three months for Baker-Mazara since his exit from USC. A whirlwind six years, really. While it’s a growing process, he emphasized his desire to stay true to who he is. Whatever the future holds — NBA or not — all he wants is to be the best version of himself off the court.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chad Baker-Mazara opens up about bizarre exit from USC basketball