41 years ago today, Spencer Haywood was probably thinking
about how he would celebrate the upcoming anniversary of his successful lawsuit
against the NBA. Maybe he was thinking about some jazz music in his beautiful
apartment overlooking Downtown Seattle, or having a few friends over, some good
food, or perhaps just a toast to the fact that a young black man from the rural
South had knocked off those high-priced NBA lawyers.
What he surely wasn’t thinking was how the unending Seattle
rains were going to seriously screw up all that he had won in that contentious
lawsuit.
It was Sunday, March 5, 1972. President Richard Nixon had
just completed his historic trip to China and the Sonics were gearing up to
cruise into the NBA Playoffs for the first time in the team’s history. Entering play that Sunday the Sonics had won
12 of their last 14 games. They hadn’t lost at home in more than a month; their
quest with Golden State for second spot in the Pacific Division was a tough
one, but certainly attainable. With the dismal Atlanta Hawks in town the only
question was whether the Sonics would use the opportunity to nudge Golden State
aside.
As always, it was raining like crazy in Seattle (more than
20 inches of rain had fallen since the beginning of the year, and a torrential
rain storm on Sunday didn’t help matters), and it was dripping again inside the
Seattle Center Coliseum, but that’s just how it was in Seattle, right? Okay,
they were starting to call the place “The Leaky Tepee” and “The World’s Largest
Shower Bath,” but, after all, the city had spent north of $100,000 to caulk the
6,000 aluminum panels that made up the roof of the building, so it wasn’t that
big of a deal, really.
Well, it became a big deal. A very big deal.
That Sunday was an especially leaky day at the tepee (so
much so that no fewer than five ball boys were on hand to mop up the puddles), but
as any Seattleite with a basement will tell you, there’s only so much you can
do when you’re fighting water.
A mere six minutes into the first period Haywood was headed
down the court on a fast break when his left foot and a massive puddle at
half-court greeted one another. The result?
A stretched right medial collateral ligation in Haywood’s
leg.
Amazingly, game reports glossed over Haywood’s injury. “Not
expected to be serious,” the AP said, focusing more of its efforts on the
broken ring finger of Sonic Captain Dick Snyder – suffered in a fall during the
same game. More amazingly, the Sonics had beaten the Hawks, putting them into a
tie with the Warriors for second place. Playoffs, here we come!
Two days later, though, the news was grim: Haywood was out
for the season. Playoffs, there we go.
Suffice it to say the Sonics did not rebound well from
seeing Haywood (26 ppg) and Snyder (16 ppg) sidelined. The Seattle dropped
eight of their final nine games, putting them a full four games behind Golden
State in the road to the playoffs.
Worse, the leak further poisoned the relationship between
the city and the team. A week after the incident, the Sonics had filed a claim against
Seattle for “gross negligence” in not repairing the leaky roof. Eventually, the
Sonics and Haywood would enjoin to ask the city for more than $400,000 for the
injury (roughly $280,000 for Spencer, $162,000 for the Supes), although the
parties would settle for a lesser amount (according to one account, Haywood got
about $50,000).
“After many requests and complaints about the leaks in the
roof, which not only make the playing surface of the basketball floor unsafe but
also brings great discomfort for our fans,” team owner Sam Schulman said in a
statement. “I am very bitter that I find it is necessary to make an issue every
time I need assistance from officials.”
A spokesman for the team even implied that the fiasco was
causing the Sonics to think seriously about leaving the Coliseum, perhaps to
that nifty domed facility the county was working on (something the team wound
up doing just a few years later, before returning to the Coliseum in the 1980s,
then onto KeyArena, then onto … I’ll just stop now).
Luckily for Spencer Haywood, the injury did not turn out to
be career-ending. After finishing in the top five in scoring in 1971-72, Haywood
returned the next year and averaged 29 points per game, earning him four votes
for MVP and a top-ten finish in the voting, and 10.2 win shares, both of which
would be career highs for him, certifying that while the injury may have hurt
his health in the long run, it certainly didn’t hurt it in the short run.
(Information gathered from: Associated Press, The Great Book
of Seattle Sports Lists, UPI, and The
Rise, the Fall, The Recovery, by Spencer Haywood and Scott Ostler).
