Elgin Baylor

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Elgin Gay Baylor (born September 16 1934 in Washington, DC) was one of the most graceful and acrobatic forwards to ever play the game of basketball playing 13 seasons for the NBA's Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers.

Baylor played college basketball at the College of Idaho and Seattle University, leading the SU Chieftains to the NCAA championship game in 1958 (where they lost to the Kentucky Wildcats). Following his junior season, Baylor joined the Minneapolis Lakers for the 1958-1959 season and moving with them to Los Angeles in 1960.

"He was one of the most spectacular shooters the game has ever known," Baylor's longtime teammate Jerry West told HOOP magazine in 1992. "I hear people talking about forwards today and I haven't seen many that can compare with him."

Bill Sharman played against Baylor and coached him in his final years with the Lakers. "I say without reservation that Elgin Baylor is the greatest cornerman who ever played pro basketball," he told the Los Angeles Times at Baylor's retirement in 1971.

Tommy Hawkins, Baylor's teammate for six seasons and opponent for four (and later a basketball broadcaster) declared to the San Francisco Examiner that "pound for pound, no one was ever as great as Elgin Baylor."

Strong and graceful at 6-5 and 225 pounds, Baylor averaged 27.4 points and 13.5 rebounds during his 14-year career with the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers. In 134 playoff games, he averaged 27.0 points and 12.9 rebounds.

At one time Baylor owned records for most points in a game, in a playoff game, and in one half of a playoff game. In 1962-63, he became the first NBA player to finish in the top five in four different statistical categories -- scoring, rebounding, assists, and free-throw percentage.

While he was one of the first flashy performers in basketball, many of his best acrobatic plays were never captured on film. Many observers mention his moves in the same breath with those of Connie Hawkins, Julius Erving and Michael Jordan. Baylor played the game with midair body control, employing his ability to change the position of the ball and the direction of his move while floating toward the basket.

"Elgin certainly didn't jump as high as Michael Jordan," Tommy Hawkins told the San Francisco Examiner. "But he had the greatest variety of shots of anyone. He would take it in and hang and shoot from all these angles. Put spin on the ball. Elgin had incredible strength. He could post up Bill Russell. He could pass like Magic [Johnson] and dribble with the best guards in the league."

Elgin Baylor was born in 1934 in Washington, D.C., and was named for his father's favorite watch. A high school sports star, he didn't perform well academically and even dropped out for a while to work in a furniture store and to play basketball in the local recreational leagues.

An inadequate scholastic record kept him out of college until a friend arranged a scholarship at the College of Idaho, where he was expected to play basketball and football. After one season, the school dismissed the head basketball coach and restricted the scholarships. Seattle car dealer Ralph Monroe interested Baylor in Seattle University, and Baylor sat out a year to play for an amateur team while establishing eligibility at Seattle.

Baylor played for Seattle University in 1956-57 and 1957-58, taking the Chieftains to the 1958 NCAA Championship Game, where they lost to the Kentucky Wildcats. In his three collegiate seasons, one at Idaho and two at Seattle, Baylor averaged 31.3 points. The Minneapolis Lakers used the No. 1 overall pick in the 1958 NBA Draft to select Baylor after his junior year, then convinced him to pass up his final college season and join the pro ranks.

The Lakers, several years removed from the glory days of George Mikan, were in trouble on the court and at the gate. The year prior to Baylor's arrival the Lakers finished 19-53 with a team that was slow, bulky and aging. Baylor, whom the Lakers signed to play for $20,000 per year (a huge amount of money at the time), was the franchise's last shot at survival.

"If he had turned me down then, I would have been out of business," Minneapolis Lakers owner Bob Short told the Los Angeles Times in 1971. "The club would have gone bankrupt." Baylor was seen as the kind of player who could save a franchise. He was and he did.

As a rookie in 1958-59 Baylor was sensational. He finished fourth in the league in scoring (24.9 ppg), third in rebounding (15.0 rpg), and eighth in assists (4.1 apg). He registered 55 points in a single game, at the time the third-highest mark in league history behind Joe Fulks's 63 and Mikan's 61.

In 1959, Baylor won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and from the 1960-61 to the 1962-63 seasons, he averaged 34.8, 38.3 and 34.0 points per game, leading the Lakers to the NBA Finals eight times (although never winning). Baylor was a 10-time All-NBA First Team selection and went to the NBA All-Star Game 11 times.

Baylor began to be hampered with knee problems during the 1963-64 season and, while still a very powerful force, was never quite the same player, never averaging above 30 points per game again. During Baylor's career, the Lakers were a consistently powerful team, but were continuously overshadowed by the Boston Celtics dynasty of the time. Image:Elgin.jpg Baylor finally retired during the 1971-72 season because of his nagging knee problems. His retirement resulted in two great ironies. First, the Lakers' next game after his retirement was the first of an NBA record of 33 consecutive wins. Second, the Lakers went on to win the NBA Championship that season, something that Baylor never achieved. He finished his career with an astonishing 23,149 points, 3,650 assists and 11,463 rebounds over 846 games.

At 6'5" and 225 pounds, Baylor was the last of the great undersized forwards, in a league where many guards are now that size or bigger. Baylor's signature shot was a running bank shot, which he was able to release quickly and effectively over taller players.

In 1974, Baylor was hired to be an assistant coach and later the head coach for the New Orleans Jazz, but had a lackluster 86-135 record and retired following the 1978-79 season. In 1986, Baylor was hired by the Los Angeles Clippers as the team's vice president of basketball operations, where he still is today.

In 1977, Baylor was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame and in 1980 he was named to the NBA 35th Anniversary All-Time Team and again in 1996, he was named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Baylor ranked #11 on SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time in 2003.

Since Seattle University lost the NCAA Championship Game with him and has never returned to the Final Four, the Lakers moved out of Minneapolis after drafting him and never won an NBA Championship in Los Angeles until the season he retired, the Jazz moved out of New Orleans after he coached them, and the Clippers have become synonymous with NBA futility while he has been their general manager, it has been suggested that a Curse of Elgin Baylor exists.

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Pro Playing Highlights

NBA Rookie of the Year (1959)
All-NBA First Team 10 times (1959-65, 67-69)
Eleven-time NBA All-Star (1959-65, 1967-70)
NBA All-Star Game Co-MVP (1959)
Holds NBA Finals single-game record for most points (61) on April 24, 1962 against the Boston Celtics
Scored 71 points (8th best in history) against the New York Knicks (Nov. 15, 1960)
Scored 23,149 points in only 846 games (27.4 ppg, third best all-time) and averaged 30 points or more three times (1961-63)
Retired as NBA's third all-time leading scorer
Retired as fifth leading scorer in All-Star Game history (19.8 ppg)
Ranked sixth in NBA Finals all-time scoring (26.4 in 44 games)
Ranked seventh in NBA playoffs all-time scoring (27.0 in 134 games)
NBA 35th Anniversary Team (1980)
NBA 50th Anniversary Teams (1996)

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