Happy 76th Birthday, Spencer Haywood

Photo: Spencer Haywood goes for a jump shot against the Philadelphia 76ers. Photo courtesy Bettmann, Getty Images.

An NBA legend celebrates a birthday on April 22 as Hall of Fame forward Spencer Haywood turns 76. 

Haywood, born in Silver City, Miss., played his high school ball at Pershing High School in Detroit, a school that also produced NBAers Mel Daniels, Ralph Simpson, Steve Smith, and Kevin Willis. 

Beginning his college career at Trinidad State College in Trinidad, Colo., Haywood then played at Detroit Mercy, where he averaged 32.1 points and 22.1 rebounds in his sophomore college season of 1968-69. 

After his sophomore season, Haywood decided to make the leap to the pros, but he was unable to enter the NBA because of a league rule that prohibited a player from entering the league unless they were four years removed from graduating high school. 

For the 1969-70 season, Haywood received a hardship exemption to play in the American Basketball Association, and as a rookie playing for the Denver Rockets averaged 30.0 points and 19.5 rebounds, both of which led the league and allowed him to garner MVP honors along with the Rookie of the Year award. 

In 1970, Haywood signed a six-year, $1.5 million contract with the Seattle SuperSonics, which launched a legal battle between him and the NBA because of the four-year rule. The US Supreme Court ruled in Haywood’s favor, which allowed him to enter the NBA. Inevitably, this created the pathway for future stars to make the jump directly from high school to the NBA. 

A 6’8 forward with a good face-up game and turnaround jump shot, Haywood played 33 games in 1970-71 for the Sonics, and averaged 20.6 points and 12.0 rebounds on 45% shooting. In four more seasons in Seattle, the forward averaged 26.2 points, 29.2 points, 23.5 points, and 22.4 points (rebounding averages of 12.7, 12.9, 13.4, and 9.3). He was an All-Star in each season. 

On October 24, 1975, Haywood was acquired by the New York Knicks for forward Gene Short and $1.3 million. He played 210 games with the Knicks (179 starts) over the next three-and-a-half seasons, with averages of 17.1 points and 8.6 rebounds on 46.3% from the field.

On January 5, 1979, Haywood, 29 years of age, was traded to the New Orleans Jazz for center Joe Meriweather. In 24 games with the Jazz, he averaged 24.0 points and 9.6 rebounds on 49.7% shooting. 

Haywood was then dealt once more, in September of 1979 to the Los Angeles Lakers for guard Adrian Dantley, a fellow Hall of Famer who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. 

In 1979-80, the Lakers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in six games in the NBA Finals. During that regular season, Haywood played 76 games (20.3 minutes per game) and averaged 9.7 points and 4.6 rebounds. 

Haywood spent the 1980-81 season playing in Italy before his return to the NBA in 1981-82, where he enjoyed a productive season with the Washington Bullets in which he averaged 13.3 points and 5.6 rebounds in 27.4 minutes per game, shooting 47.6% from the field in 76 games (63 starts). In his final NBA season with the Bullets in 1982-83, he averaged 8.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in 20.4 minutes per game. 

Over the course of his 12 NBA seasons (760 career games), Haywood averaged 19.2 points and 9.3 rebounds on 46.5% shooting. He was an All-NBA 1st Team performer in 1972 and 1973 while making 2nd Team in 1974. A four-time All-Star, he put up 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists in the 1974 All-Star Game, played in Seattle in which the Western Conference won 134-123.  Add in his ABA career, and his 13 years of professional basketball yielded a double-double average of 20.3 points and 10.3 rebounds.

Haywood’s No. 24 was retired by the SuperSonics in 2007, and in 2015 he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. In retirement, he also served as the chairman of the National Basketball Retired Players Association, and currently serves on the NBRPA’s Board of Directors. 

Happy 76th Birthday, Spencer Haywood.