ELGIN'S PROFILE
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NBA LEGENDS |
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Had Elgin Baylor
been born 25 years later, his acrobatic moves would have
been captured on video, his name emblazoned on sneakers, and his face
plastered on cereal boxes. But he played before the days of widespread
television exposure, so among the only records of his prowess that remain are
the words of those who saw one of the greatest ever to play. "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-foot-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. From 1960-61 through 1962-63 he averaged 34.8, 38.3, and 34.0
points, respectively. He led the Lakers to the NBA Finals eight times, was a
10-time All-NBA First Team selection, and played in 11 NBA All-Star Games. 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. Because his career paralleled the succession of juggernaut
Boston Celtics teams in the 1950s and 1960s, Baylor never played on a club
that won an NBA Championship. His best years as a scorer coincided with Wilt
Chamberlain's peak years, and Baylor never captured a scoring title. Moreover, 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 had to pay $20,000 per year (a huge amount
of money at the time), was the Lakers' 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. The Lakers finished second in the Western Division at 33-39, 14
victories better than the previous season. They surprised everyone by making
it to the NBA Finals after playoff victories over the Detroit Pistons and the
defending NBA-champion St. Louis Hawks. However, Boston's young dynasty swept
the Lakers in four games. Baylor appeared in the NBA All-Star Game and shared
the game's Most Valuable Player honors with the Hawks' Bob Pettit. At
season's end, he was an easy choice for the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. In 1959-60 Baylor's scoring and rebounding improved. He
averaged 29.6 points, good for third place in the league, and 16.4 rebounds,
which ranked him fourth. The Lakers finished the regular season at 25-50 but
still made the playoffs as the third-place finisher in the four-team Western
Division. They upset the Pistons in the division semifinals, then lost to the
Hawks in a seven-game division finals. Baylor averaged 33.4 points during the
postseason. Then came the move west. The Lakers opened up basketball to the
other half of the country when they shifted to Los Angeles for the 1960-61
season, and Baylor was essential to the club's early success with West Coast
fans. He averaged 34.8 points in that first California season, second in the
league behind Wilt Chamberlain's 38.4. On November 15, 1960, Baylor scored 71
points against the Knicks in New York, setting a new record for the most
points scored in a single contest. He also snared 25 rebounds that night. "Elgin did nothing
unusual in that game," former Knicks player Johnny Green told Hoop
magazine. "It was just a typical Baylor performance. He just came down
the floor, his teammates would clear out an area, and he'd shoot-a jump shot
or a driving layup, followed up by a rebound if he missed. Each particular
shot had nothing amazing about it. It was just that Elgin was such an amazing
player." The Lakers lost to St. Louis in seven games in the Western
Division Finals that season, dropping Game 6 in overtime, 114-113, and Game
7, 105-103. In 1961-62 Baylor hit his stride along with hotshot second-year
guard Jerry West. Unfortunately, Baylor was playing at a time when eligible
males were required to perform military service, and his season was
curtailed. He spent half of the year stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington,
playing only when he could obtain a weekend pass. He appeared in 48 games
that season. Still, with Baylor (38.3 ppg) and West (30.8 ppg) combining for
almost 70 points per game, the Lakers won the Western Division by 11 games
and advanced to the NBA Finals. In what would become a familiar matchup, the
Lakers played the Celtics for the championship-and lost. Boston won Game 7 in
overtime, 110-107, to claim a fourth consecutive title. Baylor was phenomenal
in the playoffs. He scored 61 points in Game 5 of the title series, setting a
single-game playoff record that would stand for 24 years until Michael Jordan
scored 63 against the Celtics in a first-round contest in 1986. In 1962-63 Baylor was no longer spending half his time marching
with a rifle, and he improved his overall game, finishing second in the
league in scoring (34.0 ppg), fifth in rebounding (14.3 rpg), third in free-throw
percentage (.837), and sixth in assists (4.8 apg). The first player to finish
in the NBA's top five in four major categories, Baylor helped the Lakers win
the Western Division that year, but they fell to the Celtics again in the NBA
Finals. Knee troubles began plaguing Baylor during the 1963-64 season,
and many said he was never quite the same player afterward. Although he would
never again average more than 30 points after 1962-63, he had five more
All-Star seasons ahead and was a major scoring force for six of the next
seven years, averaging at least 24 points in every season except 1965-66,
when his output fell to 16.6 points per contest. The Lakers remained a winning team throughout those years,
although they were constantly overshadowed by the Celtics, who won 11
championships in 13 seasons from 1956-57 through 1968-69. After a disappointing 1963-64 campaign, the Lakers won the
Western Division and made it back to the NBA Finals the following season.
Baylor averaged 27.1 points during the regular season, second on the team to
West's 31.0, and made his seventh consecutive appearance on the All-NBA First
Team. True to form, the Lakers lost to the Celtics in the Finals, four games
to one. In 1965-66 Baylor's knee problems limited him to 65 games and a
16.6 scoring average. But West (31.3 ppg), Rudy LaRusso (15.4), and Walt
Hazzard (13.7) picked up the slack as the Lakers won the Western Division and
advanced to the NBA Finals for the third time in four seasons. Once again
they ran into the Celtics who were poised for a rout after taking a
three-games-to-one series lead. In Game 5 Baylor ripped the net for 41 points
and led the Lakers to a 121-117 win in Boston. After taking Game 6, the
Lakers ran out of steam as the Celtics escaped with a 95-93 Game 7 win and
another title. The 1966-67 Lakers finished in third place in the Western
Division and lost in the playoffs to the San Francisco Warriors and Rick
Barry, who led the league with 35.6 points per game. Baylor ranked fourth
with a 26.6 scoring average and returned to both the All-Star Game and the
All-NBA First Team after a one-year absence. With Baylor, West, Gail Goodrich, and Archie Clark, the Lakers
finished second in the Western Division in 1967-68, then blitzed through the
playoffs all the way to the NBA Finals. However, Los Angeles lost to Boston
in six games. Baylor came as close as he ever would to a scoring title that
season, averaging 26.0 points, second to Dave Bing's 27.1. The 1968-69 season, Baylor's last full campaign, brought
another seven-game Lakers-Celtics Finals, but still no title for Los Angeles.
The Lakers had picked up Wilt Chamberlain during the offseason, and he,
Baylor, and West -all future Hall of Famers-each scored more than 20 points
per game. Baylor averaged 24.8 points, helping Los Angeles to a 55-27 record
and the Western Division title. The Lakers actually held a three-games-to-two
lead in the Finals before the Celtics pulled out Games 6 and 7, clinching the
series with a 108-106 victory in Los Angeles. In 1969-70 the Lakers finished second in the Western Division,
then advanced to the NBA Finals against New York. The Knicks featured a
lineup of Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dick Barnett, Dave DeBusschere, and Bill
Bradley. The Lakers countered with Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West,
Happy Hairston, and Mel Counts. Games 3 and 4 went into overtime, and then a
hobbling Reed, who had missed Game 6 with a leg injury, emerged dramatically
from the locker room just prior to Game 7, inspiring the Knicks to a lopsided
win. During the regular season Baylor's knee problems had limited him to 54
games, although he made his 11th All-Star appearance and contributed 24.0
points per game. Two games into the 1970-71 season Baylor went down with a knee
injury that all but ended his career. He missed the rest of the campaign and
then returned for only nine games in 1971-72 before retiring at age 37.
Ironically, later that season the Lakers won their first championship since
moving to Los Angeles. Baylor had ended an illustrious 14-year career without
a championship ring. Shortly after his playing career came to a close, Baylor tried
his hand at coaching. He was hired by the expansion New Orleans Jazz as an
assistant coach for the team's inaugural 1974-75 season. He served two full
years in that capacity before replacing Butch van Breda Kolff as head coach
early in the 1976-77 campaign. Baylor guided the young Jazz for the rest of
that season and for the next two seasons, compiling an 86-135 record. His
teams failed to reach the playoffs and finished no better than fifth in the
Central Division. Baylor stepped down after the 1978-79 season. During his coaching stint with the Jazz, Baylor was elected to
the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1980 he was named to the
NBA 35th Anniversary All-Time Team, and in 1996, he was named to the NBA 50th
Anniversary All-Time Team. In April 1986 the Los Angeles Clippers hired Baylor to serve as
the team's vice president of basketball operations, a position he continues
to hold. After a disastrous 12-70 season in 1986-87, Baylor slowly molded his
squad into a playoff contender. Los Angeles improved slightly in each of the
next five seasons, peaking at 45-37 in 1991-92 and earning a playoff berth
for the first time since the franchise was known as the Buffalo Braves in
1975-76. The Clippers reached the postseason again in 1993 before tailing off
the past several seasons.
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