Position : Forward
Spencer Haywood was an Olympian amber medallist at historic period 19 , the AmericanBasketballAssociation Most Valuable Player at 21 , and the NBA ’s preeminent exponent forwards at 23 . Yet as honest as he was in his prime , Haywood is best known as the first " hardship " causa , the first player to sour professional less than four years after enroll college . His jump moderate to a watershed courtroom ruling , submit that to disallow an underclassman from turn pro was a encroachment of free trade .
Haywood played both forward and center during his career . He hone a baseline startle shoot and had good range from the margin . A fluid athlete at 6'9 " , 225 pounds , he relied on quickness more than force , yet he still was one of the best rebounders of his generation . During his one season of collegiate competition , he led the nation with 22.1 rebounds a game . The next season , he led the ABA with 19.5 a game .
Born April 22 , 1949 , in Silver City , Mississippi , Haywood describe his family as " a footmark below hapless . " In his other teens , he picked cotton wool for $ 3 a day . When he was 15 , an uncle brought him to Detroit to showcase his basketball game natural endowment .
After playing one time of year at a next-to-last college , Haywood was thrust into a starting role with the U.S. squad at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City . He play the 1968 - 1969 time of year with the University of Detroit , averaging 32.1 points , then bolted for the ABA . He spent one season with theDenverRockets , lead the ABA in scoring ( 30.0 points per game ) before jumping to the NBA’sSeattleSuperSonics in 1970 - 1971 .
Haywood averaged 24.9 point in time and 12.1 rebounds in five seasons with Seattle and lead the Sonics to the playoffs for the first time in their history . He was traded to the New York Knicks in 1975 and by and by played with the New Orleans Jazz , theLos AngelesLakers , and – after two long time inItaly– the Washington Bullets .
The Lakers loose him in 1980 after Haywood admitted to a cocaine dependence , which he subsequently chronicled in his autobiography , Spencer Haywood : The Rise , the Fall , the Recovery .
