NBA legend Spencer Haywood has said the league’s “terribly unfair” draft rules jeopardize the careers of young American basketball stars.
The Hall of Famer, 73, told The U.S. Sun that players should be allowed to enter the league straight after high school — just as they could for years after he won the famous lawsuit against the NBA that helped LeBron James break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record.
LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record this season
Kareem was the highest scorer in NBA history before LeBron surpassed him
In 1971, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Haywood when he argued the NBA violated antitrust laws by making them draft ineligible until four years after high school graduation.
The Mississippi native’s victory allowed him to play for the Seattle SuperSonics despite spending just two years in college – laying down the foundation for the modern one-and-done framework.
Haywood will soon retell the story of his legal battle with the NBA, his journey from the cotton fields of the Deep South through the Olympic podium to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and his tough bout with drug addiction in a biopic titled The Spencer Haywood Rule.
Entire generations of basketball players have benefited from the landmark ruling.
Those include James – who was drafted straight out of high school – as the extra years latched onto the start of his NBA career eventually aided the Lakers superstar’s pursuit of the all-time scoring title.
That’s why during the 2023 All-Star Weekend, Abdul-Jabbar jokingly nudged Haywood and blamed him for losing his record after nearly four decades on February 7.
Haywood has been calling on the NBA and the NBPA to recognize his role in redefining draft eligibility requirements and let it be known that underclassmen can now enter the league thanks to a rule named after him.
But the changes shouldn’t stop there, he says, as the Silver City-born legend thinks the Association should reinstate the pre-2006 criteria and allow high school seniors to turn pro again.
That year, the NBA set the minimum draft age at 19 and re-introduced a pre-draft waiting period by requiring non-international players to be one year removed from high school graduation before they can declare for the draft.
“Let’s move on, bring it back to age 18, and let these young people go out and make money for their franchise, for the NBA, for the unions,” Haywood said before the NBA and the NBPA agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) last week.
League officials and the players’ union discussed the possibility of bringing the one-and-done era to an end for years.
But the two sides reportedly decided against amending draft rules as the CBA talks were nearing the end last week.
And so for the foreseeable future, American players will still have to spend at least a year in college, the G League, or with the Overtime Elite before they can declare for the NBA draft.
“I think it’s terribly unfair,” Haywood said of the rules, saying the restrictions put homegrown players at a disadvantage.
The ex-SuperSonics and New York Knicks forward pointed out young European stars move to the NBA with years of professional experience under the belt, already giving them an edge.
Luka Doncic, for instance, turned pro at the age of 16 and played for Real Madrid in Spain as well as against the best European teams in the EuroLeague for three years before the Dallas Mavericks picked him with the No. 3 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Meanwhile, Haywood continued, American prospects are exposed to unnecessary risks as they wait to gain draft eligibility before starting their professional careers.
“They could get hurt or there could be a shooting on campus with the kid like [Brandon] Miller [being linked],” Haywood said.
“And so your life can be destroyed.”
And he added: “You can send a person to Vietnam, Iraq, or any place else at age 18 to fight for this country and die.
“But yet they can’t make a living for themselves in basketball, which is absurd. It’s insane.”
Young players currently do have opportunities to earn six-figure salaries with the G League Ignite and Overtime Elite programs, and even pocket millions of dollars through NIL deals before entering the NBA.
Still, those sums can’t compare with the money that awaits them in the NBA – even outside of the lottery.
The No. 30 overall pick of last year’s draft, Peyton Watson, signed a four-year, $11.3million contract with the Denver Nuggets, including a fully guaranteed $4.5million in the first two seasons.
In addition to financial considerations, Haywood noted the current framework penalizes those who don’t conform to the norm of dropping out of college after one year and end up finishing their degrees.
“A guy that stayed in college for four years, [scouts] think something is wrong with that player,” he said.
Haywood also pointed out LeBron’s eager anticipation to team up with his son Bronny in the near future and said he simply can’t wait for the young Boozers, Stojakovics, and Jameses to enter the NBA and continue their dads’ legacies.
Speaking of the Lakers All-Star, Haywood said with a great deal of confidence that other players will probably surpass Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387 career point tally.
And just like James, they will do so in big part thanks to his courageous legal action against the NBA from half a century ago, allowing the likes of Doncic and Giannis Antentokounmpo to enter the Association as teenagers.
But Haywood doubts Abdul-Jabbar will react with anything other than another playful nudge if he falls down the all-time scoring list again.
“He’s enjoying himself,” Haywood said with a chuckle, dismissing the claims the Lakers great ever dreaded losing his scoring record.
“He’s just a happy-go-lucky person, but nobody gets a chance to see it because he’s always stoic.”
Haywood recalled trying to make Abdul-Jabbar smile together with Julius Erving when the three NBA legends sat next to one another during the 2023 All-Star Saturday Night in February.
“And then we went to the NBA Legends Brunch and there he’s cracking jokes, and he’s on stage, he’s doing all this stuff.
“And we’re like, ‘Who is this guy? Why are you always hiding this person and not letting us see the real Kareem that we all know and love?’
“Because he’s really a wonderful, wonderful human being.”
Spencer Haywood criticized the NBA’s draft rules
