PHILADELPHIA– Spencer Haywood belongs in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Hopefully, the honors committee doesn’t let the 64-year old retired star forward fall through the cracks again in this year’s balloting.
Haywood has the credentials for induction. Not only was he a great player in both the ABA and NBA, he was also an historical figure, much like Curt Flood of professional basketball, who was willing to sacrifice a year of an extraordinary career to serve as a test case for free agency and risk being ostracized so hundreds of future pro players– many who don’t even know his name– could join the NBA out of high school or, as is the case now, once they turn 19 or have completed their freshman season in college.
Haywood was a pioneer who should have be celebrated. Instead, he is still the victim of an antiquated system that is insistent on punishing him by failing to acknowledge his contributions to the sport and the obstacles he had to overcome in his professional and personal life to because an athletic success.
Haywood took the long way to the top from a racist deep South.
He was born into a family of 10 in Mississippi during the Civil Rights upheaval in the ’60’s and worked his way out of the cotton fields to become a 6-8 junior college star from Trinidad, Colo. Junior College and the unlikely 19-year old hero for the 1968 U.S. men’s basketball team in the Olympics. Haywood became the leading scorer for the Americans and led his country to a gold medal in Mexico City after college All Americans Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Elvin Hayes, who listened to the logic of activist and University of California professor Harry Edwards and boycotted the competition as a protest against racial segregation in the United States.
“Those were the Games where Tommie Smith and John Carlos did their black-fist salute,” Haywood told ESPN. “I was an 19-year-old boy … what did I know? When Hank first picked me for the team, I said ‘Me?’ He said, ‘You’re going to save America from those commie Russian bastards. You can’t let those bleepin’ commies win, can you?’ Then, while everyone was still talking about the boycott and all that, Olympic triple gold medalist Jesse Owens came in and said, ‘How would all of you have felt if you had run before Hitler?” And that was that. A lot of us said, ‘Man, it’s time to go play basketball now.”
Haywood didn’t realize it at the time, but his personal cold war was just beginning.
Haywood transferred to the University of Detroit in the fall of that year where he scored 32.1 points and 21.5 rebounds, leading the country in both categories. He decided to turn pro after his sophomore year, but National Basketball Association rules, which then required a player to wait until his class graduated, prohibited him from entering the league. As a result, he joined the Denver Rockets in the rival American Basketball Association. In his rookie season, Haywood led the ABA in scoring at 30.0 points per game and rebounding at 19.5 rebounds per game while leading the Rockets to the ABA’s Western Division Title. He was named the league’s Rookie of the Year and MVP as a 21-year old rookie. It was almost too good to be true. It was. Haywood got into a contract dispute with the Nuggets’ ownership after the season when, according to his agent Tom Ross, the franchise tried to lock him into a six year deal without guaranteeing him the $1.6 million they had promised him.
In 1970, despite the NBA’s eligibility rules, Haywood joined the Seattle Supersonics in 1971 over a roar of protest from the NBA, the ABA and even the NCAA, which felt he could potentially damage their product with early declarations by underlassmen. He, along with owner Sam Shulman launched an anti-trust suit against the NBA.
Despite waving the flag for his country during a combustible, revolutionary era in American history, Haywood bore the backlash from two rival pro leagues squabbling over his rights and a legal system that wanted to make him invisible. Haywood played only 33 of Seattle’s 82 games his first year. He was often served court papers just as he took the court for warm ups with the Sonics that prevented him from playing. Arena announcers would introduce him by saying, “We have an illegal player with Seattle tonight.” Another evening, he was served with an injunction and had to leave Cincinnati Gardens. “I had to wait outside in the snow for hours before I could rejoin my team,” he said.
The journey was painful. He was heckled and punched by a unforgiving fan base who saw him as just another an angry black man instead of someone who was only trying to provide for his family.
The Supreme Court ruled in March of 1971 that the NBA’s reserve clause and attempts to prevent him from earning a living were unconstitutional. Haywood claims that Thurgood Marshall, one of the Supreme Court justices who ruled on his case, later warned him to expect more mistreatment in years to come, the same as Flood or baseball union president Marvin Miller eventually received. Like Haywood, neither is in their Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and Flood died in poverty.
Haywood became an instant star once he was released from his personal purgatory and allowed to play full-time in Seattle. He was named the All-NBA First Team in 1972 and 1973 and the All-NBA Second Team in 1974 and 1975. Haywood’s 29.2 points per game in the 1972–73 season and 13.4 rebounds per game in 1973–74 are still the single-season record averages for the SuperSonics. Haywood played in four NBA All Star Games while with Seattle, including a strong 23 point 11 rebound performance in 1974. In the 1974–75 season, he helped lead the SuperSonics to their first playoff berth. Overall, during his five seasons with Seattle, Haywood averaged 24.9 points per game and 12.1 rebounds per game
Haywood played six more years with the Knicks, New Orleans the Lakers and the Washington Bullets. His personal struggles led to a cocaine addition that may haunt him with some conservative voters, who may be less than tolerant of substance abuse. Lakers coach Paul Westhead summarily dismissed Haywood from the team during the 1980 Finals because Haywood fell asleep at a practice. The Lakers went on to win without him and his career ended on a sour note.
Haywood has apologized for his mistakes and says he speaks openly about his fall from grace during his rookie transition program talks to the NBA’s incoming players. He’s said he’s been sober for more than two decades. He can only hope no one is blackballing him for taking the NBA to the Supreme court, some 42 years ago..
Just last spring, Haywood received word from “someone in the NBA” who claimed he finally had enough voted for induction. He pressed his suit in anticipation of a trip to Atlanta for the official announcement. But the call from the Hall never came and he was left on the outside again, hurt and embarrassed and the victim of an ongoing cruel joke that needs to be corrected.
