Fact check: Did Spencer Haywood lose out on $2.8 billion and the opportunity to become NBA’s first billionaire?

The money in sports is higher than ever before. PSG footballer Kylian Mbappe may become the highest-paid athlete if he accepts a reported $776 million salary to play in Saudi Arabia.

Very few athletes have reached the billionaires club. Tiger Woods, Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Floyd Mayweather, and Lionel Messi have joined the three comma club. However, former NBA player Spencer Haywood could have beaten them all to the status.

Haywood reportedly had a chance to take a 10 percent stake in Nike, worth $2.8 billion today. However, it was not quite that simple, and the story is a bit more tricky on how Haywood missed out on being a billionaire.

Who prevented Haywood from a fortune?

Haywood was offered a $100,000 or 10 percent equity stake when he signed with Nike in the early 1970s. This was before Nike was an established brand, and Haywood would be one of their first basketball athletes.

Haywood took the 10% equity stake. However, he gave his agent power of attorney over his finances. The agent wanted to get the ten percent of the contract with Nike he was owed as Haywood’s agent.

Haywood’s agent got his $10K share after selling the 10 percent stake of stock for $100,000. Haywood got the lofty sum of $90,000. However, in hindsight, his agent screwed him over by selling all the stock. If Haywood kept that ten percent stake, it would be worth $2.8 billion.

He could have become the first billionaire baller ahead of Michael Jordan. Maybe the Haywood brand would be as big as the Jordan brand nowadays.

Even if Haywood did not sell signature shoes, he would still be wealthier than Jordan just from holding the ten percent stake in Nike.

Haywood is worth around $5 million today. At the peak of his career, he earned $350,000 per season, worth approximately $1.5 million when adjusted for inflation.

He is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He won the NBA title in 1980 with the LA Lakers and was a four-time All-Star.

The NBA Hall of Famer was the MVP of the ABA before the merger in 1970, the season where he led in scoring and rebounding in the league.