SEATTLE - He still has a wide grin and a sweet stroke. Spencer Haywood, at 66-year-old, also has a different view on life.
"It's always been home for me," said Haywood about Seattle, while shooting baskets at the Seattle Pacific University gym.
On Sunday, he stood atop CenturyLink Field, soaking it all in, as he raised the 12s Flag.
"The fans, the atmosphere took me back to the days of the Coliseum," said Haywood.
It was here, 45 years ago, Haywood became Seattle's first big sports superstar. He also did it while becoming a national figure who, at 20 years old, took on the National Basketball Association.
Then-Seattle Sonics owner Sam Schulman signed Haywood, who had played only briefly in college in Detroit and in the upstart American Basketball Association. But the NBA rejected the signing, saying it was against league rules.
Haywood claimed hardship. "I wanted to play immediately, and I was ineligible to play because at that time you had to wait four years for your high school class to graduate before you could play in the NBA," he said.
Schulman and Haywood fought court challenges and attempted to play.
"I didn't think the league would have injunctions against me, put me out in the snow, allow the fans to hit me with bottles and all that kind of stuff," said Haywood, who took the case all the way to the Supreme Court. "I didn't think it was going to be that hard."
He won and has since been likened to Jackie Robinson or Curt Flood in baseball and Muhammad Ali in boxing, who all took a stand against established rules and social constructs.
He also had a stellar career, playing more than 11 seasons and averaging close to 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. He was an Olympian in 1968. They were Hall of Fame credentials, but Haywood was not invited in. Some analysts, and even Haywood himself, have even suggested NBA Commissioner David Stern, who was a young lawyer in the Supreme Court case, had a role in keeping Haywood out.
Stern retired in February of 2014. Haywood was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
It has been great theater for NBA fans and those that have followed Haywood's career. After he left Seattle, he played in New York and Los Angeles, married a supermodel and battled drug abuse.
"It is almost a civil rights story, a human rights story," said Dwayne Clark, who is helping produce "Full Court: The Spencer Haywood Story."
Clark, the CEO of Aegis Living, founded a Seattle film production studio earlier this year and found Haywood's life, which started in the cotton fields of Mississippi, to be inspirational. Clark believes Haywood should be known for what he's allowed other aspiring players to do. Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, University Place's Isaiah Thomas, Seattle's Jamal Crawford and Spencer Hawes are just a handful of people who benefited from Haywood's fight.
Clark says the film should debut at SIFF in May of 2016.
Haywood, a man who once had his Sonics Jersey retired to the rafters of KeyArena, says there is only one thing he's missing for his legacy to be complete.
"Where's our team? Where's our Sonics?" he said, with a laugh.
