Spencer Haywood is one of the most interesting basketball players of all-time, but he seems lost to history. The Hall-of-Famer won an Olympic gold medal at 19, then paved the way for players to turn pro early in what became known as “The Spencer Haywood Rule.” He won the ABA Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season by scoring 30 points and pulling down 19.5 rebounds per game and went on to a long, productive career in the NBA.
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Haywood was almost the first athlete to become a billionaire, but a selfish decision by his agent cost him the chance. The movie Air chronicles how Nike landed Michael Jordan and created the iconic Air Jordan brand of sneakers. That was very nearly Spencer Haywood’s story.
Nike founder Phil Knight offered Haywood a sponsorship deal and gave him a choice. He could either be paid $100,000 or get a 10 percent share of the company. Smartly, Haywood chose the 10 percent share, but his agent got greedy.
The agent wanted his pay up front, so he sold Haywood’s stock for $100,000 and took his 10 percent share. Haywood got $90,000 out of the deal, but with Nike’s current market cap of about $113 billion, he lost out on what would be valued today at over $11 billion.
The situation calls to mind Rocky V, where Rocky loses his fortune after Paulie gives power of attorney to an accountant who ends up stealing it all. Except this, sadly, isn’t fiction.
Despite losing out on billions, Spencer Haywood is at peace with how things turned out
Haywood had an outstanding career, and he didn’t let the loss of billions consume him, even though today’s players have made millions due to the advances he helped pave the way for. He was once quoted in an interview with Click on Detroit as saying, “Bitterness will eat you up. Let it go.”
Haywood may have missed out on a vast fortune, but he’s lived an interesting and full life:
- His parents were sharecroppers, and he had nine siblings, which is why he applied for a hardship exemption to turn pro early. The Spencer Haywood Rule came about after the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and he won.
- Spencer was married to the model Iman for over 10 years (before she eventually married David Bowie).
- He holds the record for most rebounds per game in a single ABA season.
- The Seattle SuperSonics retired his jersey.
- The rapper Common is his godson.
- Haywood was portrayed by Wood Harris of The Wire fame on HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. His time with the Lakers came late in his career, and he was eventually kicked off the team because of a drug problem. He got clean, though, and returned to the league after playing one season in Italy.
There’s a tendency with modern sports fans to think only about contemporary players, but that does a disservice to all who came before. Haywood is just one example of what those fans are missing.
