Many of NBA’s youngest, richest stars have one man to thank

Saturday, Feb. 10, 2007 | 7:10 a.m.

Born: April 22, 1949, in Silver City, Miss.

Residence: Las Vegas and Canton, Mich.

College: Averaged 32.1 points and 21.5 rebounds (which led the country) at the University of Detroit in 1968-69

Olympics: Led the U.S. to the gold medal in Mexico City in 1968

Pros: Averaged 30 points and 19.5 points, both ABA bests, for the Denver Rockets in 1969-70, winning Rookie of the Year and MVP honors ... the following season, played in only 33 games for Seattle because of court injunctions declaring him ineligible ... averaged 19.2 points and 9.3 boards over 12 NBA seasons ... played in one ABA and four NBA All-Star games.

Las Vegas becomes the playground for young, rich and famous basketball players next week when the NBA's All-Star Game and its flurry of peripheral festivities are staged in a non-NBA city for the first time.

Many of those rich roundballers should go across town to thank Spencer Haywood, a Las Vegas resident for almost three years. But they don't know how he paved the way to their multimillion-dollar contracts with a landmark U.S. Supreme Court victory 36 years ago.

Thanks to Haywood, players can be drafted before their collegiate classes graduate.

Of the 26 players picked for this year's All-Star Game, only three played all four years in college. Seven signed big-bucks pro contracts straight out of high school.

Haywood, 57, tells the many clueless players he frequently meets that he's the guy who "had a little bit of effect" on what they're doing today.

"OK, excuse me. You can read, can't you?" Haywood says before pulling a piece of paper from his wallet and unfolding it. He slaps down a dog-eared copy of the March 1971 ruling - officially 401 U.S. 1204 - on the table.

"Bam! Here is what I did. Bam! So now we can move on."

They act like they're interested. Oh, OK. Now I got you, they say. I know who you are now. I feel you.

"But they don't really feel me," Haywood says. "They just like to be blase. They say, 'I feel you.' Then it's, 'There's Jay-Z. Hey, see you later.' They don't understand what I did."

Jerry Colangelo, the former owner of the Phoenix Suns and current director of USA Basketball, wishes Haywood wouldn't take those slights so personally.

"Because life is cruel in that sense," Colangelo, 67, says. "It doesn't take long for those who may have made a great impact on society, on a sport, whatever, to be forgotten.

"My advice to Spencer is, you made your mark, your contribution. There are still many of us around who are aware of that. Your legacy is set."

Haywood came to Las Vegas in an ill-fated ABA coaching venture. He has stayed to build a successful real estate and construction business. He sponsors free basketball clinics for kids, and his foundation helps wayward youths learn trades and obtain general equivalency degrees.

He battles the NBA Players Association for increased benefits and pensions for players who kept the league afloat from 1948 to 1964. He winces when talking about players from that era who break pills in half to stretch their budgets.

"It's just not fair," Haywood says. "It's horrible."

He has come a long way from the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, where he was born.

In 1968, after playing one season at Trinidad Junior College in Colorado, he led the U.S. to Olympic gold in Mexico City when Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld joined a boycott movement.

"I will save America, just get me a passport," Haywood said. In Mexico, he said, fans yelled that he was nothing but a cotton picker for the man.

"Thanks for knowing about my history," Haywood said back. "I thought nobody knew about my little adventure."

He has no patience with players who would rather play on the French Riviera than represent the U.S. in the Olympics.

"That hurts my pride as an American. That's the most cowardice thing I've ever heard. That, to me, is very personal."

He played one season at the University of Detroit before signing with the Denver Rockets of the ABA. A year later he inked a deal with the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA.

Sonics owner Sam Schulman defied the league by signing Haywood and then bankrolled his court battle against the NBA, whose lawyers challenged Haywood's right to work in most of the league's 17 cities.

He played in only 33 of 82 games in 1970-71. He would be introduced as a Seattle starter, then he would be served with a court injunction prohibiting him from playing. He would walk to the cold team bus.

With sports writer Scott Ostler, he wrote a book about his life in 1994. Now, he is working with Maloof Productions to bring his story to the big screen.

The league he defeated in the Supreme Court also keeps him busy. Haywood has made three goodwill missions to Iraq for the NBA and leaves for Taiwan this month.

He recently helped kids plant a new garden and paint a wall at Mabel Hoggard Elementary School in conjunction with the NBA Cares Legacy Project.

He's friends with NBA Commissioner David Stern. Haywood likes the strict dress code that was enforced before last season and favors the new rule in which players can only be drafted if they're 19. Haywood was 20 with Denver; 21 during his epic legal struggle.

Although Stern has balked at Haywood's lobbying to have the one-time "hardship" rule officially called "The Spencer Haywood Rule," the commissioner is just a speed dial away.

"If I get a pain in my stomach, I can call Stern and say, 'I have a pain in my stomach, can you help me out?' " Haywood says. "That's where I get my help: the NBA. I can't call Magic."

Earvin "Magic" Johnson left Michigan State two years early, in 1979, courtesy of Haywood's landmark case. The two were teammates in Los Angeles when the Lakers beat Philadelphia in the NBA Finals in May 1980.

Before the end of that series, though, Lakers coach Paul Westhead booted Haywood off the team for falling asleep at a practice.

He had been regularly freebasing cocaine.

The drug made him so irrational he tried hiring a Detroit hit man to kill Westhead. Haywood's mother talked him out of it. He says that "85 percent" of the league, at that time, was using drugs.

Haywood says he's been sober since 1985.

He once tried to call Johnson.

"He's like, 'Yeah?' " Haywood says, before slamming down an invisible phone receiver. "He came into the league under my rule, so he can't hold anything against me."

Not all the NBA stars are unappreciative. Kevin Garnett of Minnesota thanked Haywood in his MVP acceptance speech. Haywood almost fell over backward in his chair.

LeBron James of Cleveland and Carmelo Anthony of Denver both have said, "Bow down, brothers," to fellow players when Haywood appears. Alonzo Mourning of Miami and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers also revere him.

Still, Haywood felt for years as if many were plotting against him. The five-time All-Star is not a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, a secretive selection process compared to other major sports halls.

Colangelo, a 2004 inductee, said it's difficult to even know who's on the Naismith selection committees. "It's pretty well kept undercover," Colangelo says, "for the right reasons."

Haywood said NBA officials have told him he was "too controversial," but he's no longer bitter or hopeless.

He is a lean 6 feet 9 and moves easily, thanks to a diet tasteless shakes, proteins, fruit and beans. He hasn't touched red meat in 28 years.

He wants to be around when that call eventually comes from the Hall - only a 40.5 percent probability, according to Basketball-Reference.com.

"I have to stay healthy and strong," Haywood says. "I have to stick around for 101 years. In time, all is forgiven."

Colangelo doesn't believe Haywood will be forgotten, despite what a few 20-something, basketball-dribbling millionaires may not know.

"That's one of the major milestones, if you will, that changed our future," Colangelo says. "The infamous Spencer Haywood decision. That opened the floodgates."

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