Elgin Gay Baylor was an American professional basketball player, coach, and executive.
54 Facts About Elgin Baylor
2.
The No 1 draft pick in 1958, NBA Rookie of the Year in 1959,11-time NBA All-Star, and a 10-time member of the All-NBA first team, Elgin Baylor is regarded as one of the game's all-time greatest players.
3.
In 1977, Elgin Baylor was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
4.
In 1996, Elgin Baylor was named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.
5.
In October 2021, Elgin Baylor was again honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
6.
Elgin Baylor spent 22 years as general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers, having managed the team for the majority of the Donald Sterling ownership period.
7.
Elgin Baylor won the NBA Executive of the Year Award in 2006.
8.
Elgin "Rabbit" Baylor was born in Washington, DC, on September 16,1934, the son of Uzziel and John Wesley Baylor.
9.
High, Elgin Baylor was a three-time All-City player in high school.
10.
Elgin Baylor played his first two years of high school basketball at Phelps Vocational High School in the 1951 and 1952 seasons.
11.
Elgin Baylor did not perform well academically and dropped out of school to work in a furniture store and play basketball in the local recreational leagues.
12.
Elgin Baylor reappeared for the 1954 season as a senior playing for the recently opened all-black Spingarn High School.
13.
Elgin Baylor won the SSA's Livingstone Trophy as the area's best basketball player for 1954.
14.
Elgin Baylor finished with a 36.1 average for his eight Interhigh Division II league games.
15.
However, because Wexler was white and Elgin Baylor was black, Elgin Baylor's record did not receive the same press coverage from the media, including the Washington Post, as Wexler's.
16.
Elgin Baylor never played football for the school, however; instead, he was accepted to the college's basketball team without having to try out.
17.
Elgin Baylor outperformed the other players on the team that season, averaging over 31 points and 20 rebounds per game.
18.
The Minneapolis Lakers drafted him in the 14th round of the 1956 NBA draft, but Elgin Baylor opted to stay in school instead.
19.
The next season, Elgin Baylor averaged 32.5 points per game and led the Seattle University Chieftains to the NCAA championship game, Seattle's only trip to the Final Four, falling to the Kentucky Wildcats.
20.
Over three collegiate seasons, one at College of Idaho and two at Seattle, Elgin Baylor averaged 31.3 points per game and 19.5 rebounds per game.
21.
The Minneapolis Lakers used the No 1 overall pick in the 1958 NBA draft to select Elgin Baylor, then convinced him to skip his senior year at SU and instead join the pro ranks.
22.
Elgin Baylor immediately exceeded expectations and ultimately saved the Lakers franchise.
23.
Elgin Baylor scored 55 points in a single game, then the third-highest mark in league history behind Joe Fulks' 63 and Mikan's 61.
24.
On January 16,1959, Elgin Baylor refused to play in a road game in Charleston, West Virginia, after the hotel the team booked denied lodging to the team's three black players.
25.
Elgin Baylor won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and led the Lakers to the NBA finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in the first four-game sweep in finals history, kicking off the greatest rivalry in NBA history.
26.
Elgin Baylor held the record until 1962, when Chamberlain scored 100 points.
27.
Elgin Baylor was unable to practice with the team before or during the season, and had to fly coach across the country on weekends to join the team at whichever arena they were appearing.
28.
Later that season, in a Game Five NBA Finals victory against the Boston Celtics, Elgin Baylor set the still-standing NBA record for points in an NBA Finals game with 61.
29.
Elgin Baylor told the press that he could no longer play at the highest level of the sport and wanted to free up room on the Lakers' roster for other players.
30.
In 14 seasons as the Lakers' forward, Elgin Baylor helped lead the team to the NBA Finals eight times, but the team lost each time.
31.
In 1986, Elgin Baylor was hired by the Los Angeles Clippers as the team's vice president of basketball operations.
32.
Elgin Baylor was selected as the NBA Executive of the Year in 2006.
33.
Elgin Baylor stayed in that capacity for 22 years until October 2008.
34.
In 2009 Elgin Baylor filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against the Clippers, team owner Donald Sterling, team president Andy Roeser, and the NBA.
35.
Elgin Baylor alleged that he was underpaid during his tenure with the team and then fired because of his age and race.
36.
Elgin Baylor later dropped the racial discrimination claims in the suit.
37.
In 2011, a jury decided in the Clippers' favor on Elgin Baylor's remaining claims, finding Elgin Baylor's termination was based on the team's poor performance.
38.
However, Elgin Baylor felt vindicated when Sterling was banned for life from the NBA in 2014 after recordings of him making racist comments were publicized by the press.
39.
Elgin Baylor died in a Los Angeles hospital of natural causes on March 22,2021, aged 86.
40.
Elgin Baylor is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills.
41.
Elgin Baylor was surrounded by his wife Elaine and their daughter Krystle; two children from a previous marriage, Alan and Alison; and a sister, Gladys.
42.
Elgin Baylor was known as an all-around player, excelling at defense, offense, rebounding, and passing.
43.
Elgin Baylor had an on-court facial twitch that he used as a head fake.
44.
Elgin Baylor credited his success to a talent for jumping and the creativity to spontaneously react to the defense.
45.
Since the beginning of his NBA career, Elgin Baylor has been considered one of the best basketball players in the world, and his reputation as one of the greatest in history has endured.
46.
Elgin Baylor introduced a creative and acrobatic playing style that would later be emulated by other NBA superstars such as Julius Erving and Michael Jordan.
47.
Elgin Baylor was the last of the great undersized forwards in a league where many guards are now his size or bigger.
48.
Elgin Baylor finished his playing days with 23,149 points, 3,650 assists and 11,463 rebounds over 846 games.
49.
Elgin Baylor's signature running bank shot, which he was able to release quickly and effectively over taller players, led him to numerous NBA scoring records, several of which still stand.
50.
The 71 points Elgin Baylor scored on November 15,1960, was a record at the time; it was a team record that would not be surpassed until Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006.
51.
Elgin Baylor was named to the NBA 35th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1980, the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.
52.
Elgin Baylor is often listed as the greatest NBA player never to win a championship, although this is not technically true.
53.
Fifty-one years after Elgin Baylor left Seattle University, they named its basketball court in honor of him on November 19,2009.
54.
The first biography of Baylor was written by Slam Online contributor Bijan C Bayne in 2015, and published by Rowman and Littlefield.