In Black America; Spencer Haywood: Drugs Destroyed My Career

thank you. From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is In Black America. How would this guy get involved in cocaine and why? Well, it's pure pressure, pure pressure and not an ignorance in a sense that not knowing

what these drugs are about and what they will do to you. This in alcohol, take it from me or take you under, by that I mean this. When I was treated from New Orleans Jazz, out to Los Angeles with the Lagos, all of a sudden life was in my imagination, was not as great as I wanted it to be, I could add more zest to my life, more, more gusty. And then all of a sudden I went to a Hollywood party and everyone at this party was doing cocaine. Spencer Haywood, former National Basketball Association star. In 1979, Spencer Haywood was at the top of his game, but he also began to use cocaine. The white powder became an obsession.

This led to the loss of an opportunity to win the National Basketball Association Championship and the respect of his Los Angeles Lakers teammates. Elisa Drugs have long plagued this American society, particularly cocaine and marijuana, once viewed as being fashionable. But the fat has faded in the wake of the days more potent and devastating drugs such as crack, the cheap and highly addictive form of cocaine and the potential danger of crack and a synthetic amphetamine that is reputed to be even more harmful than crack. I'm John L. Hanson Jr., and welcome to another edition of In Black America. This week, Spencer Haywood drug destroyed his professional basketball career in Black America. And I continue to use drugs during the course of my year with the Lakers.

And by mid-season, by mid-season with the Lakers, I had watched my game deteriorate down from a 25 points and 10 rebounds down to 16 points and 5 rebounds, arguing with teammates, magic Johnson and Karine, over, passes. Am I going to use stick them the next game? So by the end of the season, I was down to 5 points and 3 rebounds. And I was really used to sticking because cocaine and alcohol takes the balance out of your life, takes so much drain so much from your body because I had lost so much weight, I had lost 25 pounds. And the reason I lost 25 pounds because I'm a vegetarian, not because I'm using cocaine, even though I wasn't a vegetarian, that's the denial part of it. In 1965, Spencer Haywood moved to Detroit, Michigan, to live with Ida and James Bale.

In 1967, Spencer was without a doubt the best basketball player in Detroit and in the country. His senior year at Purging High School, he led the doughboys to his first state basketball championship and received scholarship offers from over 400 colleges and universities. Spencer went on to leave the 1968 U.S. Olympic basketball team to a gold medal. Spencer Haywood was the first player to petition a National Basketball Association to allow him to enter before his senior year in college. The ABA didn't want to have a court battle, so they allowed Spencer to enter, making him the first player to enter the National Basketball Association under the hardship rule. Spencer Haywood became an instant star. His rookie year, he became the only NBA player to win the most points scored in the season, the most blocked shots in the season, the most rebound in the season, the most assist in the season, and the highest percentage

average in one season. In 1979, Spencer received a dream come true. He was traded from the New Orleans Jazz to the Los Angeles Lakers, but also that year, he began to use as much as $4,000 a week of illicit drugs. In all, Spencer estimate the loss to $8 to $10 million because of cocaine. Today, Spencer has recovered and spends much of his time encouraging young people not to repeat his mistakes. Recently, Spencer was in Austin, Texas, explaining his anti-drug message. Anyway, one would ask himself, how would, how did this guy get involved in cocaine, and why? Well, it's peer pressure, peer pressure, and not, and ignorance in the sense that not knowing what these drugs are about and what they will do to you.

Drugs and alcohol, take it from me, will take you under, by that I mean this. When I was traded from the New Orleans Jazz out to Los Angeles with the Lakers, all of a sudden life was in my imagination, it was not as great as I wanted it to be, I could add more zest to my life, more, more gusto, and then all of a sudden I went to a Hollywood party and everyone at this party was doing cocaine, quay loads, etc. And I walk in this party and I say, well, you know, gosh, how can I fit in? I want to fit in. I want to be like these people, but I don't want to snort cocaine and I don't want to drink alcohol, so I walk on through the party and everything, I'm looking, oh gosh, do you

see who this is? This is wow, you know, oh man, look who's there, look who's here, whoa, this is great, this is out of sight. So you know, that peer pressure and that hero worshipping, and there was, and all of a sudden I go into this room and this was back in the day's 1979 in 80, there was this guy with his big chef had on and he says, chef had says, the best cook and the apron he had around his way said, the best baseball player, I'm curious, the dodges across town, the angels are down in Anaheim, so what is this guy doing with a baseball apron on? Baseball at that time was called, playing baseball was free-basin, free-basin cocaine, so he says, look, you don't have to worry about putting the pollution in your body, they're

cooking it out, how you got to just put some bacon soda in it, shake it up real well, and put it on this pipe and smoke it. And you're going to get a real great high and it's organic, it's real nice. Obviously, I had failed for the hook when I walked in the door because I really wanted to be part of this Hollywood set, so I took a puff off this pipe and another puff and another puff and another puff and that night went by as if it were some kind of a blur and I continued to use drugs doing a course of my year with the Lakers and by mid-season, by mid-season with the Lakers I had watched my game deteriorate down from a 25 points and 10 rebounds down to 16 points and 5 rebounds, arguing with teammates, Magic Johnson and Kareem over, passes, am I going to use stick them the next game?

So by the end of the season, I was down to 5 points and 3 rebounds and I was really using stick them because cocaine and alcohol takes the balance out of your life, takes so much drain from your body because I had lost so much weight, I had lost 25 pounds and the reason I had lost 25 pounds because I'm a vegetarian, not because I'm using cocaine even though I wasn't a vegetarian, that's the denial part of it. And then one night I was using so much stick them, I came off of a pick and dropped the drum pass to Kareem, he turned around for the patented sky hook and a ball stuck to his hand where there is 12 years, 10 years, 2 years, 1 year down the line because that's how it works, that's how that disease works.

So when someone is saying that they're working the program and they're making their meetings they've had, such as myself five years, I know people who've had 10 years or if they make one stop, they will fall right back into that same pit of snakes and there's a lot of venom floating around there. So I decided well look, I got to do something about this but at first I want to get high some more. So I wrote a note out to my young daughter and gave it to the housekeeping said listen if I ever get involved with drugs and alcohol again I want you to turn this note over to her and eventually I got to a state where she did turn the note over to and I was still using drugs and alcohol and my daughter confronted me and after that I looked in her eyes and I said boring, look at what I'm doing, not only am I destroying myself, I am destroying

an opportunity for my child. Now what kind of person am I, or what kind of father am I to do this? So right away I go and check in to get some help, again not convinced that I have a problem. So after my first 28 days my counselor came up to me and said you know what, you're going to be getting high in about three days if you don't work the program. So that frightened me and I went back in for another 28 days and I turned it over something happened in that second stage. I began to understand what they were talking about when he was speaking of a higher power. I began to understand that God is the controlling force. I began to look at my career and say what had happened, I mean how did I get here, I mean here I am a struggling player from a little tiny town in Mississippi, people adopted

me along the way, I'm getting placed in the right situation, the American boycott of the Olympics allowed me the opportunity to go out and save the United States in terms of the US Olympics being in the right place and being the first to go into the pros, what was the reason for all of this, again the higher power was in control of my life but when I realized what I've done in recovery is that I realized that I started thinking that it wasn't God, it was me, you know, I am the God that was doing all of this, you know, I am in control of it all and that's what got me into trouble. So I started working the program, making my A meetings, living a clean life, being with clean and good people and wonderful people and then I started thinking well how can I get this out to my best friends, my best friends today are you, high schools and junior high school students, to whom I have the greatest respect for, to whom I have the greatest

love for, that love transcends all boundaries, all races, that love because I know that you are the future, you hold the key to all of our well-being, you and I know that you cannot win if you are crooked, if you are out here selling your soul for a rock album, selling your soul for wine coolers, for beers and believe me, I know the pressures you're going through because for some strange reason everyone wants to attack your soul, they want you, they want to be a close-associated with you just like I do because you are the greatest because you are special and you are the future.

I look at the commercials that I see on television today, you got an ugly little dog and three women in a bikini telling you this bird, it's not for me but for you. And then you got, you flick on your TV again, you have athletes telling you, listen, you can have a great time and plan but when it's all over with, you know what time it is, it's miller time. And in case you are getting a little bit of pusher on the waist, we got another one for you, miller life. It feels you up and you don't blow you out. And then we got different videos coming at you saying, well listen, if you have the rhythm, the sex and you know all of this stuff, you got that coming at you.

And then you got the rappers are going, spitting and twisting and doing this and coming out to you know what I'm saying. So man, I'll tell you, and the next thing they want is our children and that is our future. So I want you to pay close attention, very close attention to your teachers, to the counselors here and most importantly, listen to your parents, spend time with your parents, get to know your parents. My mother saved my life from making all kinds of madness because I had a work in relationship or human relationship with her. My daughter saved my life because I had a relationship with her and you have the right to demand that your parents be drug free and alcohol free so that you can get the best

opportunity in life. You have that right and vice versa. Your parents have the right to demand that you be drug and alcohol free too. So you must get a work in relationship with your parents because you're going into the game of life and this big game, this big basketball game of life, you're going to need to have a coach on your side and that coach is going to have to be your parents, your teachers and the adults in your life because you can't make the decision to win the game when you haven't had but less than a quarter of an experience. So you've got three quarters left to go and with one quarter you can't win a game. So please do not fall out in this great game of life because you are the only hope and the only future we got and all of my time in love is devoted to you and these fine young

players here, Michael Jordan, Isaiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Mark Price, Karine, Dominique, all of these players sends their heart out to you because they care and they can't be here and they say, word, speak to them for me. I said, put it on tape and let me see if we can get it to them and they've helped me getting it out here to you because they really care and there's a lot more adults out here that care about you. You have Captain Blitz here who is constantly trying to help you to understand the dangers that you're facing. It's a lot of love out here, look forward and open up your heart and enjoy it and enjoy it and enjoy it and enjoy it. Thank you. To show you, I'm not a square, but I'm okay, I'm an okay dude, I would like to open up

for some questions and answers and we can just talk about it right now and I'm pretty okay so we can relax and just talk about it. There's a gentleman over there in the shirt over there that's looking at his watch, you just turn it around, green shirt, do you have any questions? Look like you placed a basketball, no, okay, come on, let's have some questions, you got any questions, anyone? Oh, okay, yes dear, my wife did not know what I was doing at the time because we had different careers and she was in New York as a model in actress and my daughter was there in school in kindergarten so I thought I was on my own, I thought I was out there getting

away with something and as all jokes and alcohol, you think you're tricking the world and you're in and up, the world is tricking you, yes? Of course I knew what I was smoking. I was in denial, I denied the idea that it was cocaine, I said well because it's washed out and it's been cooked and it's purified, it's okay, that's how I lied to myself. But you know, free base to get you to understand what's the difference, free base is the father to crack, it's the same form of crack as crack. The only crack is a lot cheaper, more addictive and it's available for you to take yourself right out and they have another one that's coming out now called ice, it's on the Hawaiian islands, it has taken over the islands, I mean imagine the attentiveness that I showed

you here on the paranoidness because you see all of these weird things happening. Imagine that there's a drug that, I mean a cocaine high is about 15 to 20 minutes, 30 minutes maximum, whereas this drug, your high is from two to eight hours of total madness and there's so many people running into the psychiatric awards in Hawaii and just falling dead on the street because the heart can't take it, so again it's a lot of devastation playing for you, yes sir, how much money do I spend on drugs? Let me give you the big picture, I would say that my drug addiction cost me $10 million. Hello, yes, $10 million, I'll tell you why, I missed about nine years of professional ball and at that time I was at the highest paid players, one of the highest paid players

in the game, I missed nine years of endorsement so I figured that it's about $8 million worth of blood basketball, about $2 million worth of endorsements and that's just the beginning. I have since been divorced from my wife that I don't have, I spend half the time with my daughter, to whom I love dearly, I have friendships that I'm just now recovering back, I have lost something away from me but in recovery I have gained more because you know why, and this is why I'm here today because you, you have made it all possible for me, this is my high, you are my high, you make everything seems worthwhile because where was dark you have brought the light because I see such great future in you, and I see and I feel a need to tell you what is going on, what's going to happen if you go down

that dark road, and you can, you don't have to go down that dark road, and this is what I'm getting $20 million in feelings and emotion from back and forth from you, so thank you for that, yeah I did because he asked me what was the reason for quitting basketball, my reason for quitting basketball was that I didn't want to go through the humiliation that I'd faced on the lakeers, doing mid-season, doing just about the final season with the Washington bullets, my wife was in an automobile accident, I said ah, this is something I can cling to, so immediately I said well I got to go home to be with my wife and child, so I retired at that stage and I have not went back, the NBA rule is that if you could caught the first time they give you treatment, I disagree with that treatment span, they are treating cocaine addiction as if it was alcohol addiction, you need more time in treatment,

they are treating it as if you get 20 days, 30 days you okay, and you go right back to the same environment as you go into, I am in disagreement with that and I'm a little big expressing that thought to the NBA, because I think that you have, you need more time in treatment, you need more time to understand because this is a devastating drug that we're dealing with, this cocaine, so in the second time I think you get a, what is it, one year suspension, and in the third time you get banned for life, but you can petition to come back after a while, after two years or three years I think it is, but you know you got also understand that any addiction is like life, it's a disease, and here we start to think that it's something else that this person is a bad person, he did the wrong thing, or she did the wrong thing, we are overlooking the problem, and we have to really deal with it as a disease, and it's curable, was my family alcoholics, no, I don't know how I got

involved with this thing, no one in my family was drinking at the time, and you know the funny thing about it, I suppose someone down the line was getting stone on something there, and what I do now is I know that my child will be affected with my addiction, she's a prime candidate, so I now have her involved in all the teen, and we have a lot of conversation, in fact she's on this tape, yeah, Barronne cocaine, and if she had listened to the, she had been, she had been in debt programs at her school, and they have the dog, McGroff going around explaining to kids what cocaine was bought, and so she was so hurt by this, this idea that I would tell her, and secondly, you know, but I knew that was the last straw for me, so I was somewhere, God was really looking over my shoulder and said man you better write a note, you better do something else to back it up, and that your child is the

answer, again I keep saying to you all, you all are the answers, you know, you hear so much about the kids are the problem, y'all are the solution, we are the problem, you know, because we brought all of this madness into your life, we brought all of this stuff up on you, so we have to correct ourselves, and then y'all can help us correct ourselves, and we can work as a team, and we can win a big victory, a big victory of life, what do I think I would be today, if I was not have been, if I hadn't gotten into drugs, I would have been dead, I really would have been, is it our time? Okay, thank you, thank you for having me, enjoy. Mr. Spencer Haywood, former National Basketball Association star, if you have a question or

comment, write us, remember views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station, or the University of Texas at Austin, for a production assistant Betty Ratrigas, an in black America's technical producer Cliff Hargrove, I'm John L. Hansen Jr., please join us again next week. Reset copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in black America cassettes, Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building V, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712, that's in black America cassettes, Longhorn Radio Network, Communication Building V, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712, from the Center for Telecommunication Services, the University

of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network. I'm John L. Hansen Jr., join me this week on in black America. Mr. Spencer Haywood drugs destroyed his professional career this week on in black America.