Spencer Haywood (1970 – 1983)
Regular Season: 20.3 PPG, 10.3 RPG, 1.8 APG, 0.6 SPG, 1.1 BPG, 46.9% FG, 79.6% FT
Playoffs: 19.6 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 1.8 APG, 0.4 SPG, 1.1 BPG, 47.9% FG, 80.6% FT
Accolades (ABA): MVP (1970), ROY (1970), All-ABA 1st Team (1970), ASG (1970)
Accolades (NBA): 2 All-NBA 1st Team (1972-73), 2 All-NBA 2nd Team (1974-75), 4 ASGs (1972-75)
Regular Season: 20.3 PPG, 10.3 RPG, 1.8 APG, 0.6 SPG, 1.1 BPG, 46.9% FG, 79.6% FT
Playoffs: 19.6 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 1.8 APG, 0.4 SPG, 1.1 BPG, 47.9% FG, 80.6% FT
Accolades (ABA): MVP (1970), ROY (1970), All-ABA 1st Team (1970), ASG (1970)
Accolades (NBA): 2 All-NBA 1st Team (1972-73), 2 All-NBA 2nd Team (1974-75), 4 ASGs (1972-75)
Spencer Haywood was an offensive terror on the court as an agile, explosive PF who could also fill in at center for a spell. In his lone season at the University of Detroit, Haywood delivered an astonishing 32 points and 22 rebounds per game on 56.7% shooting from the field on his way to the AP All-America 1st Team. The next year in his lone ABA season he nearly replicated his collegiate performance with 30 points and 19.5 rebounds per game. His phenomenal one-and-done stints in college and the ABA were a result of his on-court talent and courtroom legal battle with the NBA.
Haywood challenged the NBA’s rule that draft entrants needed to be 4 years removed from their high school graduating class. The ABA provided a nice stopgap for Haywood where his stellar performance for the Denver Rockets garnered him both, the MVP and Rookie of the Year, awards. However, Haywood’s ABA contract turned out to be a byzantine affair and is best summed up by David Friedman.
In the meantime, the NBA acquiesced to Haywood’s suit (which eventually went to the Supreme Court) and allowed “underclassmen with financial hardship” to enter the league. Haywood was off to the Pacific Northwest and the Seattle SuperSonics. In his abbreviated first season (33 games), Haywood managed 20ppg and 12rpg. The following four seasons, Haywood would hit his stride and produce the best seasons of his NBA career peaking in 1973 with 29ppg and 13rpg. During this run he made the all-star team each season (starting three times) and would the All-NBA 1st and 2nd teams (twice a piece).
But for all of his personal, statistical success, Haywood led the Sonics to the playoffs just once during this run. With Bill Russell at the helm (a much better player than coach), the 1975 Seattle team finished 2nd in the Pacific Division at 43-39 and beat the Detroit Pistons 2 games to 1 in the first round. Next up was the Pacific Division champs and eventual NBA Champs, the Golden State Warriors. Although the series went 6 games, it wasn’t as close as it appeared with the Warriors winning their 4 games by an average of 17 points and with one of their losses being by just a point. Tellingly, Haywood only averaged 15.7ppg and 9rpg for the playoffs. Facing Bob Lanier in the first might account for some of that, but the Warriors had no interior defender on Lanier’s level and yet Haywood shot 36% from the field for the playoffs.
In the meantime, the NBA acquiesced to Haywood’s suit (which eventually went to the Supreme Court) and allowed “underclassmen with financial hardship” to enter the league. Haywood was off to the Pacific Northwest and the Seattle SuperSonics. In his abbreviated first season (33 games), Haywood managed 20ppg and 12rpg. The following four seasons, Haywood would hit his stride and produce the best seasons of his NBA career peaking in 1973 with 29ppg and 13rpg. During this run he made the all-star team each season (starting three times) and would the All-NBA 1st and 2nd teams (twice a piece).
But for all of his personal, statistical success, Haywood led the Sonics to the playoffs just once during this run. With Bill Russell at the helm (a much better player than coach), the 1975 Seattle team finished 2nd in the Pacific Division at 43-39 and beat the Detroit Pistons 2 games to 1 in the first round. Next up was the Pacific Division champs and eventual NBA Champs, the Golden State Warriors. Although the series went 6 games, it wasn’t as close as it appeared with the Warriors winning their 4 games by an average of 17 points and with one of their losses being by just a point. Tellingly, Haywood only averaged 15.7ppg and 9rpg for the playoffs. Facing Bob Lanier in the first might account for some of that, but the Warriors had no interior defender on Lanier’s level and yet Haywood shot 36% from the field for the playoffs.
That offseason, Haywood was shipped off to the New York Knicks where he would join Bob McAdoo, Earl Monroe and Walt Frazier. Over the next 3.5 seasons, Haywood hovered around 16ppg and 8rpg and would receive no league-wide honors. And in a duplication of his Sonics days, Haywood only made the playoffs once (1978) with the Knicks in a 43-39 season with a legendary center as coach (Willis Reed). And just like before his team won a first round series before losing in the 2nd round, except this time in sweeping fashion to the 76ers. The presence of cocaine in Haywood’s life at this point no doubt contributed to his disappointing Big Apple showing and his general career decline.
The following year, 1979, the Knicks realized they were going nowhere fast and dumped Haywood on the New Orleans Jazz in a midseason trade. Haywood’s half-season in New Orleans saw him drop 24 points and 9.5 rebounds, but New Orleans being New Orleans, they missed the playoffs. Now a full-fledged vagabond, Haywood was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers to backup Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. As a 30-year old sixth man, Haywood had serviceable bench production in the regular season, but vanished, as usual, in the postseason. He played only 13 minutes a game, but thanks to the heroics of Kareem and a rookie named Magic Johnson, Haywood got himself a championship ring.
The following year, 1979, the Knicks realized they were going nowhere fast and dumped Haywood on the New Orleans Jazz in a midseason trade. Haywood’s half-season in New Orleans saw him drop 24 points and 9.5 rebounds, but New Orleans being New Orleans, they missed the playoffs. Now a full-fledged vagabond, Haywood was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers to backup Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. As a 30-year old sixth man, Haywood had serviceable bench production in the regular season, but vanished, as usual, in the postseason. He played only 13 minutes a game, but thanks to the heroics of Kareem and a rookie named Magic Johnson, Haywood got himself a championship ring.
Unfortunately for Haywood, the offseason brought yet more change as he was cut by L.A. following a drug binge and was banned from the NBA for a season. Upon his return he signed with the Washington Bullets. Finding himself as a starter once again for the 1982 Bullets, Haywood rebounded with a respectable season (13 points, 5.5 rebs in 27 mins). And for the third time in his career, he found himself on a 43-39 team that made the playoffs. The Bullets dismissed the New Jersey Nets 2-0 in the 1st round before being trounced by the Boston Celtics 4-1 in the semi-finals. Haywood, for once, upped his postseason play averaging 20 points on 50% shooting. The next year, Washington missed the playoffs and cut Haywood from the team in the 1983.
Haywood’s Hall of Fame credentials are solid yet shaky. He was an outstanding college player but only for a year. He won an MVP and ROY in the same season but it was in the ABA. The first decade of his career he averaged 20 and 10 but his teams hardly ever made the playoffs and he routinely shrank when they did. And it's truly hard to untangle Haywood's true character and desire to win at this time from the drug abuse or whether they can be at all. In the end, I say that his on-court production (along with a 1968 Olympic Gold medal) gets him to the borderline and his legal contributions to free agency and the draft gets him just across the Hall of Fame line. Just.
(PS - check out this fine article which helps untangle the enigma of Haywood)
Haywood’s Hall of Fame credentials are solid yet shaky. He was an outstanding college player but only for a year. He won an MVP and ROY in the same season but it was in the ABA. The first decade of his career he averaged 20 and 10 but his teams hardly ever made the playoffs and he routinely shrank when they did. And it's truly hard to untangle Haywood's true character and desire to win at this time from the drug abuse or whether they can be at all. In the end, I say that his on-court production (along with a 1968 Olympic Gold medal) gets him to the borderline and his legal contributions to free agency and the draft gets him just across the Hall of Fame line. Just.
(PS - check out this fine article which helps untangle the enigma of Haywood)
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