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Looking forany autographSpencer Haywood
One collector is trying to find a single signature from every man who ever played for the Jazz — all 370 of them, from the 1974 New Orleans team to today. For many of them, this page is the only one on the internet. Here is Spencer Haywood: what he did on the floor, a few things most people never knew, and every card that carries his name. If you own something he signed — or you know who might — there is a note at the foot of this page.
Born to Mississippi sharecroppers three months after his father died, Haywood picked cotton for two dollars a day before he headed north, first to Chicago and then to Detroit. At 19 he became the youngest American basketball Olympian ever, leading the 1968 gold-medal team in scoring. He won ABA MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season in Denver, and his antitrust suit against the NBA opened the door for players to turn pro early. His Jazz chapter came in New Orleans in 1978-79, where he averaged 24.0 points and 9.6 rebounds in 34 games — the best scoring of his post-Seattle career.
HOW HE CAME & WENTThirty-four games into 1978-79 the Knicks traded him to New Orleans for Joe Meriweather. The club moved to Utah that summer and sent him on to the Lakers for Adrian Dantley.
- New Orleans Jazz tenure
- 1978–79
- Position
- Forward
- Born
- 1949, Silver City, Mississippi
- Height
- 6′8″ (203 cm)
- Weight
- 225 lb (102 kg)
- College
- Detroit Mercy
- Drafted
- 1971, 2nd round (No. 30), Buffalo
A card. A photo. A program. A page from an old autograph book. Anything he put his name on.
You do not need to know what it is. Take a photo with your phone and send it to me. I will tell you what you have, for free, whether or not anything comes of it. I pay the postage both ways. I answer every message myself, usually the same day.
With the Jazz
SPENCER HAYWOOD · 1978–79 · PER GAME| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978–79 | NOJ | 34 | 39.4 | 24.0 | 9.6 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 1.6 | .497 | — | .849 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 1 SEASON | 34 | 39.4 | 24.0 | 9.6 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 1.6 | .497 | — | .849 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Did you know
SPENCER HAYWOOD · 9 NOTES- His 1971 Supreme Court case ended the NBA rule barring players who had not been out of high school four years, opening the door for every early entrant since.
- Elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2015.
- Was married to supermodel Iman before she met David Bowie.
- Born at home to Mississippi sharecroppers, he never received a birth certificate — his birth was recorded in the family Bible.
- As a high school senior he averaged a quadruple-double — 25 points, 13 rebounds, 14 assists and 12 blocks per game.
- His 145 points at the 1968 Olympics stood as the American tournament record until Kevin Durant passed it in 2012.
- At fourteen he saved up bus fare and rode alone from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago to live with an older brother.
- He bought the Seattle radio station KYAC and hosted a weekend jazz show there for four years, then another one in New York.
- He is godfather to the rapper Common, whose father Lonnie Lynn was his teammate on the Denver Rockets.