The ninth episode of the ten-part HBO show Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty came back this week. During the episode, Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers make it into the NBA playoffs. This is the end of Johnson’s historic rookie season as a point guard. This episode spends a lot of time talking about Spencer Haywood’s relationship with the Lakers. As usual in this series, some things need to be made clear, like whether or not Spencer Haywood hit the Lakers.
Spencer Haywood and his issues with drugs
Spencer Haywood, who Wood Harris plays, tries out illegal drugs in the eighth episode of the series. In episode 9, the story continues with Haywood becoming addicted to cocaine, which worries his teammates, especially Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The Lakers have a team meeting in the episode before the NBA Finals. After the meeting, they decide to let Spencer Haywood go. Still, this isn’t really what happened at all in real life.
After Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Haywood was suspended instead of kicked off the team. This decision was made by the club’s former coach, Paul Westhead, and not by the club itself. Westhead is said to have decided to permanently suspend Haywood after he got into trouble with the team several times and fell asleep during a workout with the team because of his drug use.
Do Spencers try to kill the lakers?
During the show, Abdul-Jabbar tells Haywood the bad news that he won’t be playing in the Finals. We see Haywood getting together with a friend who sells heroin to plan an attack on his fellow soldiers after he thinks he’s been betrayed.
But did Spencer Haywood put out a hit
But the claim made in the episode isn’t entirely true, even though it has some true parts. Haywood hired a gangster from Detroit to kill Paul Westhead because he had banned him, but he did not ask for the whole Los Angeles Lakers team to be killed. Haywood wrote in a letter from the time that was published in People Magazine at the time _______I left the Forum that night and drove home in my Rolls thinking only one thing: Westhead must die.
When I was angry and high on drugs, I called an old friend who was a real, live gangster… ” We talked about it and came up with a plan. We found out Westhead had been living in Palos Verdes, where his street address was.
But the former Lakers star clarified that he changed his mind and didn’t finish the hit. People published an article that said, “The mother of former Olympic basketball player Haywood told him not to go through with the plan and threatened to call the police on him. Haywood finally decided not to go through with the plan.
Did spencer Haywood win a ring with the lakers?
After Game 3 of the 1980 NBA Finals, Haywood kicked off the team. In the end, the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, making them the champions. Haywood was given a title ring, even though he didn’t participate in the series.