Elvin Hayes
Teams
San Diego/Houston Rockets - 1968-72, 1981-84
Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets - 1972-81
Playoffs
Appearances - 10 (1969,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1982)
Conference Finals - 3 (1975,1978,1979)
NBA Finals - 3 (1975,1978,1979)
Championships - 1 (1978)
Awards and Honors
Rookie of the Year - 1969
Finals MVP - 1978
All-NBA First Team - 3 (1969,1970,1971,1974,1975,1977,1979)
All-NBA Second Team - 3 (1973,1974,1975,1976,1978,1979)
Hall of Fame - 1990
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Total Rebounds - #6
Total Points - #13
Rebounds Per Game - #14
Blocks Per Game - #24
Total Blocks - #28
Points Per Game - #46
League Leads
Total Rebounds (#1-1970,1974, #2-1971, #3-1978, #4-1969,1977, #5-1975)
Total Points (#1-1969, #2-1971, #3-1970, #5-1972,1975,1977)
Total Blocks (#2-1977, #3-1976, #4-1975, #5-1974,1980)
Blocks Per Game (#3-1976,1977, #4-1975, #5-1974,1980)
Rebounds Per Game (#1-1970,1974, #3-1971, #4-1978)
Points Per Game (#1-1969, #3-1970,1971)
After leading the University of Houston to the Final Four in back to back seasons, where they lost to UCLA and the future Kareem Abdul-Jabbar both times, and averaging 36.8 points and 18.9 rebounds as a senior, Elvin Hayes was the #1 overall pick in both the NBA and ABA Drafts. He chose to join the San Diego Rockets of the NBA.
Hayes was unstoppable as a rookie, leading the entire league in scoring with 28.4 points per game while grabbing 17.1 rebounds per game, becoming the last rookie to date to lead the league in scoring. However, he lost the Rookie of the Year vote to Wes Unseld, who averaged 13.8 points and 18.2 rebounds. It wouldn't be the last time he lost an award he deserved to Unseld.
The next year he won the league rebounding title with 16.9 per game, becoming the first player besides Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain to lead the league in 13 years. The next year he averaged a career high with 28.7 points per game, but the team missed the playoffs for the second straight year, and the team was sold after the season and moved to Houston, where Hayes had played in college.
Hayes averaged 25.2 points and 14.6 rebounds per game in the team's first season in Houston, but he didn't like playing in new coach Tex Winter's system, and requested a trade after the season. He got his wish and was sent to the Baltimore Bullets.
Baltimore was in transition when he arrived, getting ready for a move to Washington DC, moving to a temporary home just outside DC in 1973, then changing officially to the Washington Bullets in 1974. Hayes led the league in rebounds with 18.1 per game in the season the team was known as the Capital Bullets, the second time he had done that.
In their first season finally settled in Washington, the Bullets finished with a 60-22 record and were able to advance to the NBA Finals, the first time Hayes had even won a playoff series in his career. They were heavy favorites to win the championship after knocking off the defending champion Celtics in the Conference Finals, but were upset in a 4-game sweep by Rick Barry and the Warriors.
The Bullets were somewhat disappointing over the next couple of years, but Hayes was still playing well, though he was starting to show signs of age. He averaged 19.7 points in 1977-78, his career low at the time, and Washington barely made the playoffs, but Hayes and the Bullets suddenly came alive in the playoffs and advanced all the way to the NBA Finals, where they beat the Seattle SuperSonics in 7 games, with Unseld winning the Finals MVP with averages of 9.0 points and 11.7 rebounds, even though Hayes averaged 20.7 points and 11.9 rebounds in the same series.
After a resurgent season of 21.8 points and 12.1 rebounds per game from Hayes in 1978-79, the Washington Bullets were among the favorites to win the title once again, with the top record in the East, and they reached the NBA Finals just like the year before, and faced Seattle again, but this time the SuperSonics knocked out the Bullets in 5 games.
Hayes played two more seasons in Washington, and could tell that his skills were declining, so he requested a trade back to Houston, where he could finish his career closer to home. He played 3 final seasons with the Rockets, who were sinking toward the bottom of the standings, and Hayes retired in 1984 just as the Rockets were drafting Hakeem Olajuwon.
Hayes was a very durable player, missing only 9 games in his 16-year career, and when he retired he had played more minutes than any other player in history, with a total of exactly 50000. He won the scoring title as a rookie and scored at least 20 per game in 10 different seasons, and he is still #13 on the all-time scoring list. He's even higher on the rebounding list, sitting at #6 overall, and he owns 2 rebounding titles as well. Factor in the Rookie of the Year and Finals MVP that were stolen from him, and you are looking at one of the greatest players of all time.
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