Elgin Baylor

Elgin "Rabbit" Baylor had two basketball-playing brothers, Sal and Kermit. After stints at Southwest Boys Club and Brown Jr. High, Baylor was a three-time All-City player in High School. Elgin played his first two years at Phelps Vocational High School in the 1951 and 1952 seasons where he set his first area scoring record of 44 points vs. Cardozo. During his two All-City years at Phelps, he averaged 18.5 and 27.6 points per season. He did not perform well academically and dropped out of school (1952–53) to work in a furniture store and play basketball in the local recreational leagues. Baylor reappeared for the 1954 season playing for the newly-opened Spingarn High School, and the 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m), 190 lb (86 kg) senior was named first-team All-Met and won the SSA's Livingstone Trophy as the area's best basketball player for 1954. He finished with a 36.1 average for his eight Interhigh Division II league games. On February 3, 1954, in a game against his old Phelps team, he scored 31 in the first half. Playing with four fouls the entire second half, Baylor scored 32 more points to establish a new DC-area record with 63 points. This broke the point record of 52 that Western's Jim Wexler had set the year before when he broke Rabbit's record of 44.

Baylor at Seattle

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. A Seattle car dealer interested Baylor in Seattle University, and Baylor sat out a year to play for Westside Ford, an AAU team in Seattle, while establishing eligibility at Seattle.[4] The Minneapolis Lakers drafted him in the 14th round of the 1956 NBA Draft, but Baylor opted to stay in school instead.

During the 1956–57 season, Baylor averaged 29.7 points per game and 20.3 rebounds per game for Seattle.[5] The next season, Baylor averaged 32.5 points per game and led the Seattle University Chieftains (now known as the Redhawks) to the NCAA championship game, Seattle's only trip to the Final Four, falling to the Kentucky Wildcats. Following his junior season, Baylor was drafted again by the Minneapolis Lakers with the No. 1 pick in the 1958 NBA Draft, and this time he opted to leave school to join them for the 1958–59 NBA season.

Over three collegiate seasons, one at College of Idaho and two at Seattle, Baylor averaged 31.3 points per game and 19.5 rebounds per game. He led the NCAA in rebounds during the 1956–57 season.[6]

Fifty-one years after Baylor left Seattle University, they named its basketball court in honor of him on November 19, 2009. The Redhawks now play on the Elgin Baylor Court in Seattle's KeyArena. The Redhawks also host the annual Elgin Baylor Classic. In June 2017, The College of Idaho had Baylor as one of the inaugural inductees into the school's Hall of Fame.[7]

Baylor standing next to teammates Jerry Chambers (center) and Jerry West (right), circa 1966

The Minneapolis Lakers used the No. 1 overall pick in the 1958 NBA draft to select Baylor, then convinced him to skip his senior year at SU and instead join the pro ranks. The team, several years removed from its glory days of George Mikan, was in trouble on the court and at the gate. The year prior to Baylor's arrival, the Lakers finished 19–53 with a squad that was slow, bulky and aging. Baylor, whom the Lakers signed to play for $20,000 per year (equivalent to $180,000 in 2019), was the franchise's last shot at survival.

With his superb athletic talents and all-round game, Baylor was seen as the kind of player who could save a franchise, and he did. According to Minneapolis Lakers owner Bob Short in a 1971 interview with the Los Angeles Times: "If he had turned me down then, I would have been out of business. The club would have gone bankrupt."[8]

Middle years

The cover of the Los Angeles Lakers program for "Elgin Baylor Night" on March 21, 1969

From the 1960–61 to the 1962–63 seasons, Baylor averaged 34.8, 38.3 and 34.0 points per game, respectively. On November 15 of the 1960–61 season, Baylor set a new NBA scoring record when he scored 71 points in a victory against the New York Knicks, while also grabbing 25 rebounds.[11] In doing so, Baylor had broken his own NBA record of 64 points that he had set in the previous season. Baylor, a United States Army Reservist, was called to active duty during the 1961–62 season, and being stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington, he could play for the Lakers only when on a weekend pass. Despite playing only 48 games during the 1961–62 season, he still managed to score over 1,800 points. Later that season, in a Game Five NBA Finals victory against the Boston Celtics, Baylor grabbed 22 rebounds and set the still-standing NBA record for points in an NBA Finals game with 61.

Baylor began to be hampered by knee problems during the 1963–64 season. The problems culminated in a severe knee injury suffered during the 1965 Western Division playoffs. Baylor, while still a very powerful force, was never quite the same, never again averaging above 30 points per game.

Career achievements and legacy

A letter from California Governor Ronald Reagan to Elgin Baylor

Baylor was the last of the great undersized forwards in a league where many guards are now his size or bigger.[14] He finished his playing days with 23,149 points, 3,650 assists and 11,463 rebounds over 846 games. His 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.

The 71 points Baylor scored on November 15, 1960, was a record at the time. The 61 points he scored in Game 5 of the NBA Finals in 1962 is still an NBA Finals record. An underrated rebounder, Baylor averaged 13.5 rebounds per game during his career, including a remarkable 19.8 rebounds per game during the 1960–61 season—a season average exceeded by only five other players in NBA history, all of whom were 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) or taller.

A 10-time All-NBA First Team selection and 11-time NBA All-Star, Baylor was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977. He was named to the NBA 35th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1980 and the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996. in 2009, SLAM Magazine ranked him number 11 among its Top 50 NBA players of all time. He is often listed as the greatest NBA player never to win a championship.[15][16][17]

The first biography of Elgin Baylor was written by SLAM Online contributor Bijan C. Bayne, and published by Rowman and Littlefield.

On April 6, 2018, Baylor appeared at Staples Center as a VIP guest during the Lakers vs. Timberwolves game. A statue was unveiled in his honor prior to the event.

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. He stayed in that capacity for 22 years before reportedly[18] resigning in October 2008 at the age of 74. During his tenure, the Clippers managed only two winning seasons and amassed a win-loss record of 607 and 1153. They also won only one playoff series during this time.

Baylor was selected as the NBA Executive of the Year in 2006. That year the Clippers won their first playoff series since 1976, when the franchise was located in Buffalo, New York, and named the Buffalo Braves.

In February 2009, Baylor filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against the Clippers, team owner Donald Sterling, team president Andy Roeser, and the NBA. He alleged that he was underpaid during his tenure with the team and then fired because of his age and race.[19] Baylor later dropped the racial discrimination claims in the suit.[20] Baylor's remaining claims were rejected by a Los Angeles state court jury on March 30, 2011, by a unanimous 12–0 vote.[21]

• No. 5 all-time with 88 40-point games.[22]

• List of National Basketball Association career scoring leaders
• List of National Basketball Association career rebounding leaders
• List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders
• List of National Basketball Association career playoff scoring leaders
• List of National Basketball Association career playoff rebounding leaders
• List of National Basketball Association career playoff free throw scoring leaders
• List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
• List of National Basketball Association players with 50 or more points in a playoff game
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season rebounding leaders
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career rebounding leaders
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 30 or more rebounds in a game
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 2000 points and 1000 rebounds
• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
• Ginuwine, born Elgin Baylor Lumpkin

• Career statistics and player information from NBA.com  or Basketball-Reference.com
• NBA.com bio
• Elgin Baylor at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame