Elgin Baylor
Teams
Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers - 1958-72
Playoffs
Appearances - 12 (1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970)
Conference Finals - 10 (1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1965,1966,1968,1969,1970)
NBA Finals - 7 (1959,1962,1963,1966,1968,1969,1970)
Championships - 0
Awards and Honors
Rookie of the Year - 1959
All-NBA First Team - 10 (1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1967,1968,1969)
All-NBA Second Team - 0 (1964,1965,1967)
Hall of Fame - 1977
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Points Per Game - #3
Rebounds Per Game - #11
Total Rebounds - #28
Total Points - #36
League Leads
Points Per Game (#2-1961,1963, #3-1960,1968, #4-1959,1965,1967,1969)
Total Points (#2-1961,1963,1968, #3-1960, #4-1959, #5-1965,1967)
Total Rebounds (#3-1959, #4-1960,1961, #5-1963)
Rebounds Per Game (#3-1959, #4-1960,1961, #5-1963)
Total Assists (#5-1963)
Free Throw Percentage (#3-1963)
Elgin Baylor played one season at the College of Idaho, averaging 31.3 points and 18.9 rebounds per game, before his scholarship was rescinded and he was forced to move on. He enrolled at the University of Seattle, taking the first year off from playing basketball due to academics, and was drafted by the Lakers as a 14th round pick, but he decided to stay in school. He ended up playing 2 years for Seattle, and led them to the championship game for the only time in their history in 1958, before being drafted by the Lakers again, this time with the #1 overall picks, and he decided to leave school before his senior year to join the team.
Baylor was already one of the best players in the league as a rookie. He averaged 24.9 points, #4 in the league, and 15.0 rebounds, #3 in the league, making him the obvious Rookie of the Year. He also took the Lakers from last place the previous year clear to the NBA Finals, where they were swept by the Celtics in their first of 8 straight championships.
He raised his averages to 29.6 points and 16.4 rebounds in his second season, and he broke the single-game scoring record by pouring in 64, a record he would break again the next year with 71, before Wilt Chamberlain broke it one year later with 100. The Lakers lost to the Saint Louis Hawks in the Conference Finals in 7 games in each of those 2 seasons, with the team moving from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in between the two years.
In Baylor's 4th season, he was called to active duty with the Army Reserve, which kept him from playing on weekdays, so he would travel to wherever the Lakers were each weekend to play. He finished the season with a career high 38.3 points per game while also grabbing 18.6 rebounds, which was down slightly from his career high of 19.8 the year before.
He led the Lakers back to the Finals that year, and in Game 5 he set a Finals record with 61 points, which is still the highest in history, while also grabbing 22 rebounds, but the Lakers ended up falling to Boston in 7 games. Baylor averaged 40.6 points and 17.9 rebounds in the Finals, the highest average in history at the time, though it has been surpassed twice since then.
He led the Lakers to the Finals for the third time the next year, but they lost to the Celtics again, then began to slow down a bit due to knee issues the next year. In the first game of the 1965 playoffs, he suffered a severe knee injury that required him to have surgery, and as a result he missed the team's 4th Finals loss to the Celtics.
He played most of the next season after recovering from surgery, but he was not the same player and may have come back too early. He averaged only 16.6 points, far below his previous low season of 24.9 per game as a rookie, but he was healthy by the time the playoffs came around, and he and Jerry West led the Lakers back to the Finals again, where they lost to the Celtics for the 5th time in Baylor's career.
Baylor had 4 more healthy seasons with the Lakers, averaging at least 24 points in each one, and the Lakers reached 3 more NBA Finals in a row, losing to the Celtics in each of Bill Russell's final 2 seasons, then to the Knicks the year after Russell retired. That brought Baylor's total to 8 NBA Finals in 12 years, playing in 7 of those series (he missed the 1965 series due to injury) and losing each time.
Baylor tore his Achilles just 2 games into the next season, and after spending the entire season rehabbing from the injury, he returned for the 1971-72, but after being slowed by knee problems, he decided to retire after just 9 games. The very next game after he retired was the first in the Lakers' record 33-game win streak, and the team finally won a championship that season. Baylor was given a championship ring by the team, but he never played on a winning championship team.
Baylor averaged 27.4 points per game during his career, which is currently #3 on the all-time list, behind only Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. He averaged at least 24 points and 10 rebounds per game in 11 of his 12 full seasons, and was named to the All-NBA First Team in all but the last of those seasons. He never won a championship while he was playing, but he was the reason the Lakers became a contender again, and was a huge part of teams that reached 8 Finals, and is one of the greatest players of all time.
No comments:
Post a Comment