I found out on Wednesday that I didn’t make it into the Hall of Fame, so I won’t be going to Dallas for the Final Four.
And I am saddened that I’m not going to be there in person to watch the games with the Hall of Fame and marched out at halftime.
You know, I’ve been down this road before. But I was really assured in my heart and soul that it wasn’t going to repeat. I was on my way. I was thinking positively. My whole world is a world of positive thinking. So when I got the call, I just had to go lay down for a little bit. And my wife and kids were devastated again. They were all packed up and ready to roll to Dallas.
But it was always in the back of my mind, what if it didn’t happen … again?
Sometimes people can break under these circumstances, but I’ve learned that the most important thing is staying healthy. And in time, on God’s time, it will come. And I’ve decided that it is what it is.
This is my first time really discussing this, but I had prostate cancer last year. Cancer. Wow. Now that will make you realize the importance of life, family, friends, goals. It will make you sit up in your chair and decide what is important and what really is not. The C word. That’s another ballgame. Getting the call about the Hall of Fame on Wednesday was small compared to not knowing if the cancer had spread throughout my body, wondering if we caught it in time. Now that’s some serious drama. Wednesday was a bad day, but it wasn’t the end of the world because I have my health now.
But the amazing thing is that the Spencer Haywood story aired on NBA TV on Wednesday night. (It’s going to be on for the next several days, but in case you don’t catch it, you can watch it here). What the NBA put together is – as my mother would say – nothing to be trifled with … it was beyond.
When that Spencer Haywood special came on, it made the Hall become secondary for me this year. I want the NBA players, current and former, to know what I did and what I took a stand for for the betterment of the game. I thank the NBA for putting it together. It took 45 years, but they got it right.
It is beyond anything that’s ever been done on Spencer Haywood. It reminds me of my mother’s favorite song by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. She said, “He may not come when you want him, but he’s always right on time.”
And I realize it is my destiny to go through extreme weird harsdships before tasting the cake. But that’s how the great spirit works in my life. On Wednesday, I had the lowest of low blows and the highest of highs on the same day. And you ask if there’s a God? That is God.
I ended my day feeling on top of the world. I’m perched on the catbird seat right now, and it’s going to take a lot to get me off of this. I guess it’s been confirmed to me that in my life, I must stay the course.
And that, right there, is the lesson to me.
Spencer Haywood was a member of the gold medal-winning Team USA at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. This column first appeared on www.legendscorner.sportsblog.com