Spencer Haywood says he sees 'tinge of slavery' with treatment of college players

Tom Schad | USA TODAY

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Hall of Fame basketball player Spencer Haywood told Sporting News that he sees "a tinge of slavery" in the treatment of college basketball players.

Haywood, the leading scorer on the United States' 1968 Olympic basketball team, told the website that he agreed with a sentiment expressed late last month by Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy, that there's often a racial component to arguments against paying college basketball players.

"Let’s think about it," Haywood told Sporting News in a story published Monday. "If you have 11 blacks on your team and you are say, in Kentucky, and they’re creating all this wealth but not getting paid? It does have a tinge of slavery.

"It is what it is. It is very racist because they’re not helping the communities where those kids come from, Chicago and Detroit and so on."

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Haywood, 68, spent a dozen years in the league with five different teams and was a four-time NBA All-Star. He is perhaps best known for challenging the league's eligibility rules in court, bringing an anti-trust lawsuit against the NBA that was decided by the Supreme Court in 1971.

Haywood told Sporting News that he see a double-standard in college basketball today because coaches are allowed to move freely, and often receive raises, while players are penalized for transferring schools. He also told the website that he views the NCAA's full scholarship offers to men's basketball players as insufficient compensation, given the television and ticket revenues they generate for both their schools and the NCAA.

"You can’t expect people to continue to work for nothing on a false hope of, 'Well this is about education, we are getting you an education, we will feed you,'" Haywood told Sporting News. "It sounds a little like 400 years ago, like slavery. 'Stay in your hut. Stay in that little house. We’ll give you some food. You do all of the work. All of it. And I am telling you that I will take care of you.'"

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.