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
I NEVER REGRET ANYTHING I WENT THROUGH... WHATEVER WAS PUT ON ME, WAS BY ME. I MADE THE CHOICES. NO ONE ELSE DID." Dime: I think there's this romantic perception that old-school players didn't care about money. How accurate is that? SH: We cared about money, but it was never the judge of your talent. There were some guys that got paid a lot back then that couldn't play worth a shit. I remember when I was playing with Seattle (1970-75), I was sitting around after a game with Kareem and Lucius Allen in Milwau- kee, just kicking it. And Kareem says, "Damn, isn't it nice that they're paying us all this money, and we would do this for the per diem?" They were paying us for something we did because we loved the sport. We loved playing. It's no disrespect to cur- rent players – they're dealing with what it takes to survive in the world today, and that's a lot of money – but everybody wants to be paid. The owners, the players, the agents, the public relations people, everybody. Dime: What are you doing these days? SH: I'm the owner, president and chairman of the Haywood Group and American Community Builders. We're restoring the old theater at the Bellagio hotel, doing the Army Recruitment Center in Sloan, Nev., doing the Children's Museum in Las Vegas. We've been busy doing flooring for the hotel industry – the MGM Grand, Manda- lay Bay, the Mirage – schools, the practice facility at UNLV. We do tiles, marble, carpeting. I came out here to Las Vegas after taking a beating from the auto industry in Detroit. (laughs) All of the NBA players, the young guys coming in, they have flooring that needs to be done in their personal homes, so I want to get into that. Dime: You managed your money well enough for a successful post-playing career, but we still see too many stories of pro ath- letes who end up broke. What do you tell young players about managing their money? SH: What I tell them is that every dollar you spend, think of it like you're really spending two dollars. If you buy a house for $5 million, that house is gonna cost you $10 million after taxes and maintenance. If you wanna drop $150,000 on this Rolls-Royce, you're really gonna drop $300,000 on it. Most people don't understand that. So if you can put some money away, put it in the bank. Live on a budget, at least for the first six or seven years. You can splurge a little bit – buy a steak instead of eating McDonald's – but it's hard for young guys to understand coming into the league that every dollar they spend, they really spend two. Dime: Mismanaging money is one of the issues that some at- tribute to the influx of younger players going pro without a col- lege education. That said, how then do you feel about the NBA's age limit? SH: I'm actually for the age limit. That might come as a surprise considering I'm the guy who fought to end the four-year rule, but here's the aspect of it that I'm in favor of: It helps veterans stick around for one more year, and every team needs veteran players. You see guys who come right out of high school, or they were in college for one year, and you see them sitting on the bench in the NBA. What good is that doing anybody? Everybody says, "Oh, they're gonna develop in two or three years." Why not have a veteran that can play right now? Why does he have to leave for this young per- 71