The Haywood Affair

Spencer Haywood, a prodigious jumper under the boards, has just taken the longest leap of his life--from the American Basketball Association to the rival National Basketball Association. In so doing, he stirred up a flurry of lawsuits, restraining orders, injunctions and protests that struck at the very structure of pro basketball. Federal Judge Warren Ferguson, who last week postponed a ruling in the case until Jan. 29, knifed through the complex legal questions to the heart of the matter. "Everyone," he said, "is after this kid's money."

Pro-basketball scouts have been after Haywood ever since he led the U.S. basketball team to victory in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. At the University of Detroit, the 6-ft. 9-in. forward became an All-America in his sophomore year. Then he quit school to sign a contract with the Denver Rockets of the A.B.A. Teams from both pro leagues complained that the Rockets had violated the so-called "four-year rule," which prohibits the recruitment of a college player until his class graduates; in Haywood's case, that would be June 1971. Explaining that Haywood was the sole means of support for his mother and nine younger brothers and sisters, the Rockets claimed that he qualified for an A.B.A. proviso waiving the four-year rule for "hardship cases." The league, locked in a bitter recruiting war with the N.B.A. (which has no such proviso), agreed.

There was no question about Haywood's qualifications on the court. Last season he lifted the Rockets to first place in their division, led the league in scoring with an average of 29.9 points a game and in rebounding with a 19.4 average, set new league records for total points in one season (2,519) and in one game (59). He was named both Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player. During the offseason, Haywood declared himself unhappy with his contract because "I'm not getting half of what I was supposed to get from them." Last November, backed by lawyers from an athletes' management firm, Haywood filed suit to have his Rocket contract nullified. Then two weeks ago, he signed a $1.5 million contract with the Seattle SuperSonics in the N.B.A. Haywood and the Sonics gained a temporary injunction from Judge Ferguson that forbids the N.B.A. to apply the four-year rule to Haywood. Last week Haywood was used as a substitute in two games for the Sonics, scoring 14 points in each contest. Though Seattle lost both games, their opponents lodged official protests against the appearance of an "illegal player."

Two crucial possibilities raised by the Haywood affair are that 1) the four-year rule will be abolished or redefined, and 2) the A.B.A. and the N.B.A. will be forced into a speedy merger. Like most team owners, Franklin Mieuli of the San Francisco Warriors feels that the four-year rule "is the guts of our player-acquisition program. Without it, we'd have a no man's land of finances in which a kid would be bombarded by offers. It would certainly make a mockery of the draft." As for the merger, Owner Bill Daniels of the A.B.A.'s Utah Stars says that the two leagues must end their warring ways--or else. "Whether we sign the top players or whether they sign them," he says, "it's going to cost ten times as much. If we don't merge, the bidding war will kill pro basketball."

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