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.”
For the full story, visit USAToday.com/Sports/NCAA.
