An unbelievable life: The late Elgin Baylor was a human highlight of the NBA: Even Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant copied their tricks from him. And he was a pioneer in the fight against racism. The Los Angeles Lakers would never have existed without Baylor.
When fans and the media discuss the best basketball player of all time, certain names are never missing. First and foremost, of course, is the greatest of them all, Michael Jordan. His legacy LeBron James is sometimes almost mentioned in the same breath. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain are mostly on the list too. Elgin Baylor, who died on Monday at the age of 86, almost never did so.
However, when NBA legends talk about the greatest of their craft, it sounds different – and Baylor is literally showered with praise. Because the forward from the Los Angeles Lakers was a dominant force on the floor in the 1960s. In a stunning run from 1960 to 1963, he averaged 35.3 points and 17.3 rebounds per game. Then there was November 15, 1960, when Baylor set a league record with 71 points (plus 22 rebounds) in a single game. Only Chamberlain, Byant and David Thompson would break it afterwards. Incredible numbers. Especially since the basketball game of those decades was made for center giants like Chamberlain and Russell, not a six-foot winger.
But Baylor didn’t care. He could pass like Magic Johnson, handle the ball like Stephen Curry and he was the strength of LeBron James. With a silky smooth jump shot and beautifully flowing athleticism, he was kind of a predecessor of Michael Jordan. The forward showed a combination of physique and grace like no other player before him and hardly anyone after him. Baylor, that was a highlight made human. The NBA’s first high-flyer. The league’s first hang-time machine. Even before hang-time or spectacular dunkings were even words that found their way into the NBA.
“I stole so many movements from you”
His characteristic style of gliding effortlessly through the air to the basket, his gift of improvising throws and deceptions while still jumping and his uncanny ability to hang in the air for an almost unlimited time – these are the reasons why basketball legends Always have Baylor on their lists of the best of the best. Richie Guerin of the New York Knicks once said: “Elgin Baylor has either three hands or two basketballs out there. Against him it’s like defending against a flood.” Baylor was a pioneer. He changed the direction of basketball, at that time the game was mainly played and thought horizontally. Then came the winger with his groundbreaking flying style and it was only from that moment on that the NBA really got vertical.
If Baylor hadn’t paved the way, basketball would be different today. Years later Michael Jordan, Julius Erving or Kobe Bryant imitated his arts and became international heroes with their similar acrobatic actions. Baylor created the blueprint for the modern superstar. “I stole so many movements from you that it’s no longer fun,” Bryant once said to Baylor. “I got all of this from you.” Every soaring highlight machine in the past 60 years has followed Baylor’s path. But hardly anyone knows that.
Although the winger showed acrobatic tricks every evening and kept floating towards the basket, only about two percent of his many points are said to have been recorded on video. Had Elgin Baylor been born a quarter of a century later, his breathtaking moves would have been seen daily on television (or even shared on social media), his name would have been emblazoned on sneakers, and he would have become one of THE faces of the NBA. His unprecedented 61 points in a game of a final series would have gone around the world.
“A guy from another planet”
But Baylor was unlucky. He played before the days of widespread television exposure. And in an era with the dominant Big Men Wilt Chamberlain (always relegating Baylor to second place in the race for the scorer title) and Bill Russell. Baylor was instrumental in the success of the Lakers, who reached eight NBA finals from 1959 to 1970, but in seven of these finals he was defeated against the Russell dynasty of the Boston Celtics. Almost tragic: Baylor – who averaged 27.4 points and 13.5 rebounds over the course of his illustrious career, which included a Rookie of the Year award and eleven All-Star games – never won an NBA title. And when he ended his career after nine games with a knee injury in the 1971/72 season, the Lakers won the championship at the end of the season.
Nonetheless, his fellow Legends know they have to thank him for his superstar blueprint. Baylor became the sixth Lakers legend in 2018 alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Chick Hearn, Jerry West and Shaquille O’Neal, immortalized with a bronze statue in front of the Staples Center. Magic Johnson said at the time, “You did things to the ball that Dr. J [Julius Erving; d. Red.], Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and myself couldn’t. “He added with a laugh,” And I tried, I just couldn’t hang in the air that long. “
Dr. J judged: “He was like a guy from another planet”. Charles Barkley even considers Baylor to be “the most underrated basketball player of all time”. And Jerry West, the player whose image is the NBA logo, described his former teammate as one of the most spectacular players basketball has ever produced. “In my early years in the league, he looked after me like a father to a son,” said West. “We shared the joy of winning and the heartbreaking losses in the final series. He was a prince both on and off the court.”
Rescuing the Lakers
In the 1961/62 season, Baylor averaged 38.3 points per game, although he only played on weekends because he had to do military service at the same time. But Baylor was more than numbers and records. In short: The Los Angeles Lakers would probably never have existed without him. It was not drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1958, they didn’t even exist at the time. The Minneapolis Lakers picked Baylor first, he hit directly and led the club to the finals in his first year. “If he had rejected me then, the club would have gone bankrupt“then-club owner Bob Short told the LA Times in 1971.
But this way, Baylor saved, even with the tickets sold because of him, the almost bankrupt Lakers, who in their third season became the first NBA team to move to the west coast of the USA. The acrobatic winger was instrumental in helping the Lakers establish themselves in Los Angeles’ sports culture. At a time when the new team was viewed critically or barely noticed. It was Baylor who popularized the club with West Coast fans. Magic Johson, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James would definitely have had a different career without him.
Perhaps Baylor’s most important legacy was, however, not of an athletic nature. Because the Lakers legend wasn’t just a pioneer on the floor. He was the first in the NBA to protest systemic racism and the racial laws prevailing at the time in the United States. Baylor, who was born in Washington DC in 1934, where there was a strict separation of black and white at the time, always believed that the best way to combat segregation was to take a dignified stand.
“I am not an animal that is put in a cage”
Baylor boycotted an away game with the Lakers in the southern states in 1959 because a hotel gave him and his black teammates were denied the night. He told the press at the time that if the Lakers respected him as a man, they would not have booked any games in the south. “I love basketball. I really enjoy playing in the league,” said Baylor, “but not at the expense of my dignity.” He explained to a teammate, “I’m human. I’m not an animal that is put in a cage and let out for the show. They won’t treat me like an animal.”
Baylor’s protests became a turning point for athletic activism during the civil rights movement. His demeanor forced the league’s owners to change. A month after his boycott, they agreed that NBA teams would not play in southern cities unless the organizers organized equal accommodation for all players. Last season’s NBA protest against racial injustice following the police shooting of Jacob Blake was also paved by legend Elgin Baylor. His influence on and next to the parquet will live on forever after his death.
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