Since its inception in 1946, the NBA has had a four-year college rule for players to become eligible for the NBA Draft. Back then, no college underclassman was allowed to play in the NBA, and players had to be 22 years old before they could join NBA teams.
However, the NBA was forced to change that rule in 1971 after Spencer Haywood challenged it all the way to the Supreme Court with an antitrust case. Haywood spoke about his legacy during his recent appearance on the "All the Smoke" podcast.
"I am the guy who sued the NBA, NCAA, and the Denver Rockets of the ABA all the way to the Supreme Court, so that they could get this ruling, so you guys could make the kind of money, so you could come to the league when you were qualified rather than sitting in a college for four years making the university rich," said Haywood.
Well, actually, Haywood did not sue the NCAA and the Denver Rockets. He sued the NBA with an antitrust case after the league threatened to void his contract and impose penalties on the Seattle Super Sonics, who signed him to a six-year $1.5 million deal despite being a college underclassman.
The case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in Haywood's favor and forced the NBA to change its eligibility rules by adopting the hardship case exception to allow underclassmen to join the NBA Draft. The hardship rule was pioneered by its rival league, the ABA , in 1969, when it allowed the Rockets to sign Spencer despite him playing only two years in college.
"What we're doing here is, we're allowing Haywood to play because he's in dire need," Spencer recalled then ABA public relations head Mike Storen explaining their decision to allow him in the league. "It's called a hardship rule because his mother and family was still picking cotton in Silver City, Mississippi, for $2 a day."
"And he said, "We're gonna give him reparation." So the whole media just shut down like "Oh, God." "So we're going to let him play, and so that's how I ended up playing in the ABA. I was a test case, and right after that test case, we had Julius Erving and George Gervin and all the guys come in."
Erving joined the ABA in 1971, and Gervin in 1973. Meanwhile, four years after Haywood's landmark court win, Daryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby used the hardship rule to enter the 1975 NBA Draft straight out of high school. Then it was Shawn Kemp who enrolled in college but never played a game and turned pro via the 1989 NBA Draft.
Meanwhile, the 90s saw many prep-to-pro stars emerge, including Kevin Garnett , Kobe Bryant , Jermaine O'Neal, and Tracy McGrady. Then came the likes of Tyson Chandler , Amar'e Stoudemire, Kendrick Perkins , Dwight Howard , and, of course, LeBron James .
In 2005, the rule evolved as the NBA changed its eligibility requirement again to the current one-and-done rule, where players are allowed to enter the draft one year removed from high school and at a minimum age of 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft.
Since its inception, there have been more than 100 one-and-done players drafted in the lottery position. Most recently, nine out of the Top 10 picks in the 2025 NBA Draft were one-and-done freshmen, including the Dallas Mavericks ' No.1 overall pick Cooper Flagg .
Ultimately, one can only imagine how different NBA history would have been if Spencer Haywood had not gone against the grain in 1971.
Related: Spencer Haywood said this player was LeBron James with anger issues: "That's who he was!"
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Oct 4, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
