Haney was mr O at the height of popularity for bbing, when it was cool, and sort of mainstream. Lots of bbers did ads, shows were on espn, bbers in movies, tv shows, Golds was a popular hangout for actors, celebs, etc
And the mid80s were not a transitional dead era , bbing actually evolved then, if anything 80-83 was the transient period. All the guys that were huge in the late 90s had the mid 80s guys as their inspiration. Many turned pro then, and only really got going much later