Spencer Haywood (born April 22, 1949) is an American former professional basketball player and Olympic gold medalist. Haywood is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2015. Early life Spencer Haywood was born on April 22, 1949, in Silver City, Mississippi, USA. He grew up in poverty and his family worked as sharecroppers, which meant that they lived on someone else's land and worked the land for a share of the crops. High school career In 1964, Haywood moved to Detroit, Michigan residing in the Krainz Woods neighborhood. In 1967, while attending Pershing High School, Haywood led the school's basketball team to the state championship. College career and Olympics Haywood attended Trinidad State Junior College in Trinidad, Colorado, during the 1967–68 college season, where he averaged 28.2 points and 22.1 rebounds per game. Due to his exceptional performance and talent, Haywood made the 1968 U.S. Olympic team at age 19, becoming the youngest American basketball player in Olympic history. Haywood was the leading scorer on the gold medal winning team at 16.1 points per game, and he set a Team USA field goal percentage record of .719. Haywood transferred to the University of Detroit in the fall of that year, and led the NCAA in rebounding with a 21.5 average per game while scoring 32.1 points per game during the 1968–69 season. Haywood decided to turn pro after his sophomore year, but National Basketball Association (NBA) rules, which then required a player to wait until four years after his high school class graduated, prohibited him from entering the league. The American Basketball Association (ABA) had a similar rule, but league executive Mike Storen came up with the idea for a hardship exemption. With his mother raising 10 children while picking cotton at $2 per day in Mississippi, Haywood met the criteria. He joined the Denver Rockets after they selected him in the ABA draft. Professional career ABA rookie season In his 1969–70 rookie season, Haywood led the ABA in both scoring at 30.0 points per game and rebounding at 19.5 rebounds per game, while leading the Rockets to the ABA's Western Division Title. In the playoffs, Denver defeated the Washington Caps in 7 games in the Western Division Semifinals before falling to the Los Angeles Stars in the division finals, 4 games to 1. He was named both the ABA Rookie of the Year