organization from the consequences of its violation of state law." Salerno v. American League In 1970, the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Salerno v. American League, a case brought by two umpires who contended that their terminations for incompetence actually resulted from their attempts to organize their colleagues, held that their antitrust claims were largely irrelevant to a case they had failed to make even if baseball were not exempt. But on that matter, Judge Henry Friendly wrote for the court, "[t]he ground upon which Toolson rested was that Congress had no intention to bring baseball within the antitrust laws, not that baseball's activities did not sufficiently affect interstate commerce. We freely acknowledge our belief that Federal Baseball was not one of Mr. Justice Holmes' happiest days, that the rationale of Toolson is extremely dubious and that, to use the Supreme Court's own adjectives, the distinction between baseball and other professional sports is 'unrealistic,' 'inconsistent' and 'illogical'". But it remained the Supreme Court's prerogative to overrule those cases, and "[w]hile we should not fall out of our chairs with surprise at the news that [they have] been overruled, we are not at all certain the Court is ready to give them a happy despatch." Spencer Haywood cases After leading the U.S. team to a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, 19-year-old Spencer Haywood sought to play professionally but was stymied by a National Basketball Association (NBA) rule that players were not eligible to be drafted until four years after their high school class had graduated. He chose to instead play for the rival American Basketball Association's (ABA) Denver Rockets for two seasons, then attempted to switch to the NBA with the Seattle SuperSonics for the 1970–71 season when he was dissatisfied with the Rockets' latest salary offer. The league fined Sonics owner Sam Schulman; individual teams formally protested the result of every game Haywood played in regardless of the outcome. Haywood filed suit, seeking an injunction against the NBA on the grounds that its actions were a group boycott illegal under antitrust law. The case came before Justice Douglas for an expedited appeal after the Ninth Circuit stayed the injunction pendente lite Haywood had won in the Central District of California, in order to allow him to take the floor for the Sonics in the impending playoffs. "The college player draft binds the player to the team selected", Douglas