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Haywood played just 33 games his rookie year. But the following season, he averaged 26.2 points and 12.7 rebounds per game, leading Seattle to a 47-35 record and landing in the 1972 NBA All-Star Game and on the All-NBA first team. Around this time, an athletic shoe company making a meteoric rise made the star center an offer that had the potential to make him a billionaire.