Dime is the premier basketball magazine, covering the NBA, NCAA, High School, Playground and International basketball - as well as sneakers, fashion and music.
Issue link: http://dimemagazine.epubxp.com/i/56522
SPENCER HAYWOOD'S LINE OF WORK, VICTORIES COME BEAUTIFULLY, YET QUIETLY. They come in the reflection of his 62-year-old face on a spotless marble floor; in the soft embrace of plush carpet under the gunboats he calls feet; in the simplistic symmetry of perfectly-placed tiles from wall to wall; in the rhythmic clicking and clacking of stiletto heels and Stacy Adams soles across a Las Vegas hotel lobby. The thing is, Spencer Haywood is not wired to win quietly. The man who averaged 19.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game during a 12-year career in the NBA – not to mention 30.0 points and 19.5 rebounds in his one-year reign in the ABA – will gladly relay those stats to you. He'll remind you that he made four NBA All-Star teams and four All-NBA teams, that he won a championship with the 1980 L.A. Lakers, that he won an Olympic gold medal in 1968, and that he collected regular-season MVP, All-Star Game MVP and Rookie of the Year in his lone ABA season. He can tell you so much that he might not have time to mention his four daughters, or his 21-year marriage to his second wife, Linda, or that his first wife was supermodel and fashion icon Iman. There are two additional bullet points of his career – mere chapters in his story that could each comprise the entire book of a less eventful life – that define our All-American concept of rags and riches: Haywood was the highest-paid player in the NBA in 1975 when he made $500,000 for the Seattle Supersonics; five years later he was kicked out of the league for a season due to a cocaine addic- tion that he couldn't kick until 1986. He'll tell you about those, too. More importantly, Haywood will remind you that his road to pro- fessional basketball meant more to the sport than any of his ac- complishments on the court. He will remind you that he was the plaintiff in Haywood v. National Basketball Association, the antitrust action he filed that went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971 and forced the NBA to eliminate its rule barring any player from entering the league before their col- lege class graduated. Haywood – the 6-8 power forward who first attempted to go pro following his sophomore year at the University of Detroit – will remind you that he is one of the most important historical figures in sports. "I want my legacy to be two things," says Haywood from his office at Haywood Group LLC, his Vegas-based company specializing in floor installations. "In 1968, when America was struggling and she didn't know what to do, I stepped up," he goes on. "Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] decided he wasn't going to play in the Olympics. Elvin Hayes wasn't going. Wes Unseld wasn't going. We were gonna lose to the world for the first time in the history of basketball. But I stepped up and said, Dime: As a former player… Spencer Haywood: Well, let me stop you there. I'm not just a for- mer player. I am the case that paved the way for all the young players who came to the NBA as early entries, from Julius Erving to Michael Jordan to Magic Johnson to Kevin Garnett. Haywood v. NBA. All of those guys came in under my rule. I am that guy. 'No you won't. I'll lead you.' They were like, 'What are you, crazy? You're 18 years old!' But I saved America in 1968." And the second thing? "I created wealth and opportunity in the NBA by breaking the four- year rule," says Haywood. "There were only 16 teams back then, and now we have 30. It's a larger pool of talent because of me. They also used my ruling to change the NFL. I've been implanted in history, man. I want people to remember that … that somebody made a sacrifice." But before you write off these declarations of grandeur as the typical war-story exaggerations or harmless embellishments of an old-timer, do your research. Look it up. Then believe. Because everything Spencer Haywood is saying is true. 70