Haywood v. National Basketball Association

1971 United States Supreme Court case

Haywood v. N.B.A.

Supreme Court of the United States

Decided March 1, 1971
Full case name| In re Spencer Haywood v. National Basketball Association
Citations| 401 U.S. 1204 (more)

91 S. Ct. 672; 28 L. Ed. 2d 206

Holding
Haywood was granted an injunction pendente lite which allowed him to play for Seattle and forbade the NBA to impose sanctions on the Seattle team.
Court membership

Chief Justice
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
Hugo Black * William O. Douglas
John M. Harlan II * William J. Brennan Jr.
Potter Stewart * Byron White
Thurgood Marshall * Harry Blackmun
Case opinion
Majority| Douglas
All other justices took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
Sherman Antitrust Act

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Haywood v. National Basketball Association

Haywood v. National Basketball Association, 401 U.S. 1204 (1971), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled against the NBA's requirement that a player could not be drafted by an NBA team until four years after graduating from high school. Justice Douglas, in an in-chambers opinion, allowed Spencer Haywood to play in the NBA temporarily until the litigation could proceed further. The case was settled out of court, Haywood continued playing, and the NBA modified its four-year rule to allow players to enter the league early in cases of "hardship".

## Background

[edit]

Spencer Haywood turned pro after his sophomore season at the University of Detroit, joining the American Basketball Association’s (ABA) Denver Rockets in 1969. While both the NBA and the ABA required players to be at least four years removed from their high school graduation, the ABA offered a hardship exemption. With his mother raising 10 children while picking cotton at $2 per day (equivalent to about $17 per day in 2024), Haywood met the criteria.[1][2]

Haywood led the ABA in scoring (30.0 per game) and rebounding (19.5 per game) in 1969-70, before jumping to the NBA the following season. Seattle SuperSonics owner Sam Schulman signed Haywood to a six-year, $1.5 million contract, ignoring the four-year rule. As a result, the NBA threatened to disallow the contract and implement various sanctions against the SuperSonics.[3]

## Procedural history

[edit]

Haywood challenged this decision by commencing an antitrust action against the NBA.[4] As part of his claim against the NBA, Haywood argued that the conduct of the NBA was a "group boycott" and a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The central issue that had to be determined was whether the NBA draft policy was a restraint on trade and therefore was illegal in accordance with the Sherman Act. Violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act had also previously played a factor with the NBA due to the league allowing for early talks of a NBA-ABA merger to follow suit in exchange for the ABA to drop a potential lawsuit on their end.[5]

The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, which issued an injunction in Haywood's favor, ruling:

> If Haywood is unable to continue to play professional basketball for Seattle, he will suffer irreparable injury in that a substantial part of his playing career will have been dissipated, his physical condition, skills, and coordination will deteriorate from lack of high-level competition, his public acceptance as a super star will diminish to the detriment of his career, his self-esteem, and his pride will have been injured and a great injustice will be perpetrated on him.

The NBA appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which stayed the injunction. Joined by the SuperSonics, Haywood appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the District Court, reinstated that court's injunction against the NBA, and remanded the case to the District Court for further proceedings.

## Impact

[edit]

Shortly after the Supreme Court's decision, the league and Haywood reached an out-of-court settlement which allowed him to stay with the Sonics permanently.[3]

The decision allowed a significant number of high school graduates and college attendees to make themselves eligible for the NBA draft without waiting until four years after high school.[4] The ABA would also host a similar type of draft during this period of time called the "special circumstances draft" in 1971 and 1973 following the results of this case. The NBA would also allow for the "hardship draft" to exist under that nature for a few years before abolishing that effort by the 1976 NBA draft in relation to the NBA-ABA merger in exchange for allowing college underclassmen (and later, high school players during a certain period of time) to join the rest of the draft eligible players so long as they declare their intent to enter the draft and stay in it during the period of time they're allotted to before potentially being selected by a team of interest.

## See also

[edit]

* List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 401
* Toolson v. New York Yankees, 346 U.S. 356 (1953)
* Silver v. New York Stock Exchange, 373 U.S. 341 (1963)
* Robertson v. National Basketball Association 556 F.2d 682 (2nd Cir. 1977)
* Clarett v. National Football League, 369 F.3d 124 (2d Cir. 2004)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ McGregor, Gilbert (April 22, 2021). "Spencer Haywood: The story of a groundbreaking NBA legend, through his words". Sporting News. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
2. ^ Kosmider, Nick (September 26, 2019). "Fifty years later, it's time for Denver to give Spencer Haywood his due". The Athletic. Retrieved May 29, 2022. "But they had a hardship exception, and Haywood, whose mother raised 10 children while making $2 per day picking cotton in Mississippi, met the criteria."
3. ^ a b Friedman, David (April 18, 2005). "Excerpt, "Chocolate Thunder and Short Shorts: The NBA in the 1970s"". Basketball in America: From the Playgrounds to Jordan's Game and Beyond. Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. Retrieved November 13, 2008.
4. ^ a b Rhoden, William C. (June 29, 2016). "Early Entry? One and Done? Thank Spencer Haywood for the Privilege". The New York Times. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
5. ^ Pluto, Terry, Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association (Simon & Schuster, 1990), ISBN 978-1-4165-4061-8, p. 426

## Further reading

[edit]

* Allison, John R. (1973). "Professional Sports and the Antitrust Laws: Status of the Reserve System". Baylor Law Review. XXV (1).
* Spears, Marc J.; Washburn, Gary (2020). The Spencer Haywood Rule: Battles, Basketball, and the Making of an American Iconoclast. Chicago: Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1-64125-387-1.
* Wise, Aaron N.; Meyer, Bruce S. (1997). International Sports Law and Business. New York: Kluwer Law International. pp. 47–48\. ISBN 90-411-0977-3.

## External links

[edit]

* Text of Haywood v. National Basketball Association, 401 U.S. 1204 (1971) is available from: CourtListener Findlaw Justia Library of Congress

* v
* t
* e

United States antitrust law

* History
* Interstate Commerce Commission (1887–1996)
* Bureau of Corporations (1903–1915)
* Pujo Committee (1912–1913)
* Federal Trade Commission (1914–)
* U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division (1919–)
* U.S. Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee
* U.S. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee

Statutes and
regulations|

* Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
* Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
* Elkins Act (1903)
* Expediting Act (1903)
* Publicity In Taking Evidence Act (1913)
* Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914
* Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914
* Webb–Pomerene Act (1918)
* Willis Graham Act (1921)
* Capper–Volstead Act (1922)
* Robinson–Patman Act (1936)
* Wheeler–Lea Act (1938)
* McCarran–Ferguson Act (1945)
* Celler–Kefauver Act (1950)
* Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961
* Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970
* Tunney Act (1974)
* Hart–Scott–Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (1976)
* National Cooperative Research and Production Act (1993)
* Executive Order 14036 (2021)

Supreme Court
case law|

| Sherman Antitrust Act
Section 1 case law|

* United States v. American Tobacco Co. (1911)
* United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. (1940)
* International Salt Co. v. United States (1947)
* United States v. Line Material Co. (1948)
* Kiefer-Stewart Co. v. Seagram & Sons, Inc. (1951)
* United States v. New Wrinkle, Inc. (1952)
* United States v. Loew's Inc. (1962)
* United States v. Wise (1962)
* Silver v. New York Stock Exchange (1963)
* United States v. Singer Mfg. Co. (1963)
* Albrecht v. Herald Co. (1968)
* United States v. Glaxo Group Ltd. (1973)
* Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar (1975)
* Continental Television, Inc. v. GTE Sylvania, Inc. (1977)
* Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois (1977)
* Arizona v. Maricopa County Medical Society (1982)
* Rice v. Norman Williams Co. (1982)
* Copperweld Corp. v. Independence Tube Corp. (1984)
* Jefferson Parish Hospital District No. 2 v. Hyde (1984)
* NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma (1984)
* Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp. (1986)
* State Oil Co. v. Khan (1997)
* Texaco Inc. v. Dagher (2006)
* Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly (2007)
* Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc. (2007)
* American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League (2010)
* Ohio v. American Express Co. (2018)
* National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston (2021)

|

Sherman Antitrust Act
Section 2 case law|

* Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States (1911)
* Lorain Journal Co. v. United States (1951)
* Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machinery & Chemical Corp. (1965)
* Otter Tail Power Co. v. United States (1973)
* Aspen Skiing Co. v. Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp. (1985)
* Spectrum Sports, Inc. v. McQuillan (1993)
* Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko, LLP (2004)
* Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co. (2007)
* Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. linkLine Communications, Inc.  (2009)

Other Sherman
Antitrust Act cases|

* United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895)
* United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Association (1897)
* Addyston Pipe & Steel Co. v. United States (1899)
* Northern Securities Co. v. United States (1904)
* Swift & Co. v. United States (1905)
* Loewe v. Lawlor (1908)
* Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons Co. (1911)
* United States v. Terminal Railroad Association (1912)
* Chicago Board of Trade v. United States (1918)
* United States v. Colgate & Co. (1919)
* Federal Baseball Club v. National League (1922)
* United States v. General Electric Co. (1926)
* Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. United States (1939)
* Ethyl Gasoline Corp. v. United States (1940)
* Fashion Originators' Guild of America v. FTC (1941)
* United States v. Masonite Corp. (1942)
* United States v. Univis Lens Co. (1942)
* Parker v. Brown (1943)
* United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Ass'n (1944)
* Associated Press v. United States (1945)
* Hartford-Empire Co. v. United States (1945)
* Bigelow v. RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. (1946)
* United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948)
* United States v. United States Gypsum Co. (1948–1950)
* Besser Manufacturing Co. v. United States (1951)
* Times-Picayune Publishing Co. v. United States (1953)
* Toolson v. New York Yankees, Inc. (1953)
* United States v. International Boxing Club of New York, Inc. (1955)
* Radovich v. National Football League (1957)
* Klor's, Inc. v. Broadway-Hale Stores, Inc. (1959)
* United States v. Parke, Davis & Co. (1960)
* Haywood v. National Basketball Association (1971)
* Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc. (1971)
* Flood v. Kuhn (1972)
* Broadcast Music, Inc. v. CBS Inc. (1979)
* California Retail Liquor Dealers Ass'n v. Midcal Aluminum, Inc. (1980)
* American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Inc. v. Hydrolevel Corp. (1982)
* Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc. (1985)
* Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services, Inc. (1992)
* Hartford Fire Insurance Co. v. California (1993)
* Illinois Tool Works Inc. v. Independent Ink, Inc. (2006)
* North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC (2015)

Interstate Commerce Act
case law|

* United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Association (1897)
* United States v. ICC (1970)

Clayton Antitrust Act
case law|

* Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering (1921)
* Fashion Originators' Guild of America v. FTC (1941)
* Mercoid cases (1944)
* Hartford-Empire Co. v. United States (1945)
* Bigelow v. RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. (1946)
* United States v. National City Lines Inc. (1948)
* Standard Oil Co. v. United States (1949)
* Tampa Electric Co. v. Nashville Coal Co.  (1961)
* Silver v. New York Stock Exchange (1963)
* United States v. Philadelphia National Bank (1963)
* United States v. Continental Can Co. (1964)
* FTC v. Consolidated Foods Corp. (1965)
* Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machinery & Chemical Corp. (1965)
* FTC v. Dean Foods Co. (1966)
* Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc. (1971)
* Hawaii v. Standard Oil Co. of California (1972)
* Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois (1977)
* Pfizer Inc. v. Government of India (1978)
* Brooke Group Ltd. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. (1993)
* Apple Inc. v. Pepper (2019)

FTC Act case law|

* Fashion Originators' Guild of America v. FTC (1941)
* FTC v. Motion Picture Advertising Service Co. (1953)
* FTC v. Sperry & Hutchinson Trading Stamp Co. (1972)
* FTC v. Actavis, Inc. (2013)

Robinson–Patman Act
case law|

* Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp. (1986)
* Brooke Group Ltd. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. (1993)

Other cases|

* Continental Paper Bag Co. v. Eastern Paper Bag Co. (1908)
* Black & White Taxicab & Transfer Co. v. Brown & Yellow Taxicab & Transfer Co. (1928)
* Watson v. Buck (1941)
* National Broadcasting Co. v. United States (1943)
* Dawson Chemical Co. v. Rohm & Haas Co. (1980)
* District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman (1983)
* Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC v. Billing (2007)
* Comcast Corp. v. Behrend (2013)
* Animal Science Products v. Hebei Welcome Pharmaceuticals (2018)

Other federal
case law|

* United States v. Motion Picture Patents Co. (1915)
* United States v. Consolidated Music Corporation (1922)
* United States v. Vehicular Parking Ltd. (1944)
* United States v. Alcoa (1945)
* Gamco, Inc. v. Providence Fruit & Produce Building, Inc. (1952)
* United States v. Morgan (1953)
* United States v. Krasnov (1956)
* United States v. Huck Mfg. Co. (1965)
* Robertson v. National Basketball Ass'n (1977)
* SmithKline Corp. v. Eli Lilly & Co. (1978)
* United States v. Westinghouse Electric Co. (1981)
* United States v. AT&T (1982)
* Mid-South Grizzlies v. National Football League (1983)
* United States v. Syufy Enterprises (1990)
* Wilk v. American Medical Association (1990)
* A.D. Bedell Wholesale Co., Inc. v. Philip Morris Inc. (2001)
* United States v. Microsoft Corp. (2001)
* Fraser v. Major League Soccer (2002)
* LePage's, Inc. v. 3M (2003)
* Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. v. Intel Corp. (2005)
* United States v. Dentsply Int'l, Inc. (2005)
* Tritent International Corp. v. Kentucky (2006)
* Wallace v. International Business Machines Corp. (2006)
* De Beers antitrust litigation (2008)
* Redbox Automated Retail LLC v. Universal City Studios LLLP (2009)
* Princo Corp. v. ITC (2010)
* United States v. Adobe Systems Inc., et al. (2011)
* United States v. Apple Inc. (2013)
* O'Bannon v. NCAA (2015)
* United States v. AT&T (2015)
* FTC v. Qualcomm (2020)
* New York v. Deutsche Telekom (2020)
* Epic Games v. Apple (2021)
* Burnett v. National Association of Realtors (2023)
* Epic Games v. Google (2023)
* FTC v. Microsoft (2023)
* United States v. Google LLC (2024)
* United States v. Google LLC (2025)

Ongoing
litigation ‡|

* FTC v. Meta (2020)
* FTC v. Amazon (2023)
* United States v. Apple Inc. (2024)
* United States v. Live Nation Entertainment (2024)

Related topics|

* Block booking
* Breakup of the Bell System
* Bulk-sale restriction
* Bundling
* Civil investigative demand
* Consent decree
* Consumer welfare standard
* Dividing territories
* Essential facilities doctrine
* Exclusive dealing
* Hub-and-spoke conspiracy
* Kingsbury Commitment
* Merger guidelines
* Modification of Final Judgment
* New Brandeis movement
* Noerr–Pennington doctrine
* Osteopathic Physicians & Surgeons v. California Medical Ass'n (1964)
* Parker immunity doctrine
* Patent misuse
* Post-sale restraint
* Raising rivals' costs
* Relevant market
* Report on Chain Broadcasting
* Reverse payment patent settlement
* Rule of reason
* Second request
* Successors of Standard Oil
* Unfairness doctrine
* Unilateral policy

‡ date of filing

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