Heyward Harrell Dotson (July 12, 1948 – May 1, 2020) was an American professional basketball player, attorney, and civil servant.

[1] He played basketball for Stuyvesant High School before attending Columbia University on a scholarship.

[6] He declined to join either franchise and studied European history at Worcester College, Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship.

He ran for the New York City Council in 2001 but lost in the primaries, and worked as a substitute teacher in Harlem.

[9] Dotson sued the New York City government in 2012, when courthouse guards forced him to pass through a metal detector and caused his defibrillator to go haywire.