Hall of Famer since 2015, Spencer Haywood was one of the best players in the NBA in the early 1970s. First devastating in ABA with a monstrous first season punctuated by 30 points and 19.5 rebounds on average as well as with the trophies of MVP and Rookie of the year, this 2m03 interior landed in the NBA in 1970 after a legal mess.
Indeed, at that time, the league did not allow players to come to the NBA if they had not finished their university course. Spencer Haywood then argued that he was the only employee in his family and that he had to start earning a living for himself and those close to him. The argument hit the nail on the head, he ultimately won against the NBA and changed the history of the league.
But he was also sort of on the wrong side of the story a few years later. His early career with the Sonics is excellent. In 1972-1973, he had his best season with 29.2 points and 12.9 rebounds per game. Like the previous year, he is logically elected in the All-NBA First Team with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry West.
Nike offers $ 100,000 and shares
After this great season, an executive of a small brand, Nike, based in Oregon, approaches it. The world of sneakers is not what it is today and the dominant brands are Converse, Adidas and Puma. The comma mark, which has just been born, needs to make its place and for that it is looking for a face.
This young interior which achieves feats in Seattle, therefore not far from its head office, seems perfect.
“We were in the northwest – Portland, Seattle – and Nike wanted to get out of that region. The brand needed a superstar to do that “, remembers Spencer Haywood. “I was an All-NBA player, so they contacted me to offer me a deal. It was 1973, so the company was not where it is today. I gave my consent to sign a contract with them. Adidas paid me more and I basically wore Converse, but they hurt my feet. “
Obviously, Nike is not yet ten years old and there is no question of a multi-million dollar deal like Michael Jordan, LeBron James or Zion Williamson would later sign. We are so far from that that the brand offers Spencer Haywood actions.
“The figure I remember was 10% shares”, he specifies. “I spoke to Nike later, and they told me it wasn’t that much. But I had actions. “
“My agent did not know how he was going to be able to be paid with shares, because he was resourceful and shares, for him, were nothing”
Except that Michael Jordan has yet to explode the sneaker market and Nike does not weigh much. Such an offer represents only a few dollars for Spencer Haywood. It doesn’t seem to bother him, but for his agent, it’s a different story. “My agent didn’t know how he was going to be able to get paid with stocks, because he was resourceful and stocks, to him, were nothing. “
And since the player has given his agent power of attorney, he is no longer consulted and it is the latter who takes control of operations and does everything in his interest. He therefore accepts $ 100,000 for his client, as well as the shares, which he sells very quickly.
“I was always on the move and we had to take care of all these negotiations. So he had power of attorney. He sold my shares and told me I needed to take the money in cash because it was going to run dry. In addition, he kept my salary at a certain level to prevent me from paying taxes. Thus, he prevented my income from increasing. “
Bad advice, Spencer Haywood therefore lost his shares, which will be so valuable and would have been so lucrative in the decades to come. Nevertheless, like others (Moses Malone, George Gervin or Elvin Hayes) he participated in the rise of Nike in the 1970s, which CEO Phil Knight will admit, but the former Sonics player will never be able to recover his “lost” shares, which would have been worth millions of dollars a few years later. “We are not talking about billions of dollars. I didn’t lose that much money, it was overkill. But I would have been rich, that’s for sure. “
“We didn’t see sports shoes as possible cash cows at the time”
But besides the questionable attitude of his agent, how to blame Spencer Haywood? Times were different, but it was a good lesson for the following generations.
“We didn’t see sports shoes as possible cash cows at the time. And do you know what I did with that money? I bought myself a Mercedes. I feel so dumb. I didn’t pay attention to the paperwork because I was playing basketball. I was young and had a bunch of legal affairs. I wanted to play and have fun. I was far away, so he negotiated and took his money. No matter what I hit, he had to get his 10%. He insisted on the money he had to get, so he wanted those sums to be taken. “
Almost 50 years after this story, Nike is a multi-billion dollar brand that fits the majority of NBA players, including the biggest stars in the league.
