Philadelphia 76ers: Hard work pays off for Haywood Highsmith

The 2021-22 season has presented fantastic opportunities for fringe players to make it back into the NBA.

With seemingly every team in the NBA looking for some form of additional support one way or another, 10-day contracts were in abundance, as were the opportunities afforded to players across the association.

For younger players like Charlie Brown Jr., the opportunity to play for multiple organizations ultimately helped them to latch on with a new team long-term, as CBJ did with the Philadelphia 76ers. For older players, like our old pal Nik Stauskas, it kept their names in the NBA conversation and ultimately helped them land a long-term contract when a roster spot opened up after the trade deadline, as Sauce did with the Boston Celtics.

And as for a player like Haywood Highsmith, who didn’t get much run with the Philadelphia 76ers when he was on a two-way contract back in 2018-19 and didn’t have the pedigree of a player like, say, Lance Stephenson, well, it afforded him a chance to finally find a home in the NBA on a full time, one-way contract, even if it came with the Miami Heat.

Haywood Highsmith has come a long way since his initial run with the Philadelphia 76ers.

When the Philadelphia 76ers waived Haywood Highsmith on June 24th, 2019, there was a very real chance his NBA career was over.

A former Division III athlete who paid his way into a tryout with the Delaware Blue Coats after a successful collegiate career with the Wheeling University Cardinals, Highsmith shocked the basketball world by signing a two-way contract with the Sixers alongside ex-Celtic Demetrius Jackson, who had a much more prolific basketball resume. Highsmith appeared in five games for the Sixers, averaging 1.8 points in 8.0 minutes per, but mostly spent his time back in Delaware, where he averaged 12.2 points in 32.3 minutes over 46 appearances with 42 starts.

After watching the Sixers sign Norvel Pelle and Marial Shayok to two-way contracts shortly thereafter, Highsmith signed an Exhibit-10 contract that landed him in Delaware once more, where he spent the entire season. From there, Highsmith signed with the Crailsheim Merlins – cool name – of the BBL in Germany, where he played the entire 2020-21 season, before signing a contract with an NBA-out clause with Vanoli Cremona of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A; a clause which he ultimately chose to exercise for another Exhibit-10 contract with the Sixers heading into the 2021-22 season.

Mind you, Highsmith once again didn’t make the team, but he was undeterred, and once again took up residence in Delaware once more waiting for his next NBA opportunity, an opportunity that came on December 30th, when the Miami Heat came calling about his services on a 10-day contract. Though that particular deal expired and he returned to Delaware in January, Highsmith clearly impressed the Heat brass enough to receive not one but two more 10-day contracts in February before ultimately signing a new, three-year deal with the Heat, which marks his first official one-way NBA contract as a professional basketball player.

Now normally, I don’t get too excited about a former Sixer signing with an Eastern Conference rival – see Stauskas, Nik – but in this case, I’ll make an exception, as Highsmith clearly worked hard to earn this opportunity, and there’s almost no chance he actually takes the court in a playoff series.

For some players, making it to the NBA is easy. They do the AAU circuit, play a year in college, and then wait to hear their name called on draft day. That wasn’t the path Haywood Highsmith took to his first contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and serves as only the start of a twisted journey that eventually brought him back to an NBA court. Whether Highsmith plays a decade in the association or is released once more this summer remains to be seen, but for now, it’s nice to see a player’s hard work and commitment to their craft pay off in a very legitimate way.