Today, in the wake of his passing Monday, The Ringer called Elgin Baylor the “overlooked Prometheus of the Modern NBA,” an on-point, if still appropriately overwritten, description of the pro basketball legend from Bill Simmons’ site.
Baylor deserves his appropriate place in the history of the development of the NBA. Hopefully he’ll receive it in full in his passing cause it got hard to do so while he was aging out the game and more observers of the game came to associate him with the Clippers’ unique brand of dysfunction instead of his brilliant play with the Lakers.
To the Ringer’s point, Baylor is mostly contextualized as the Association’s first high-riser, a great play-maker and prolific scorer who prefaced the more hyped adventures of Dr. J, Jordan, Dominique and so many others who went even further above the rim.
A lot of Baylor’s numbers still rank highly in the NBA record books, but like his most celebrated teammate Jerry West, Baylor had the bad fortune of running into the likes of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain across his 1960s prime, thus he doesn’t have a championship ring to prop his legend on — he and West lost a painful seven times in Finals to Boston and the New York Knicks.
Still, Baylor existed for decades on as a “you had to be there” standard-bearer for real lovers of basketball. No matter what slick or overwhelming offensive force came across the league you can guarantee an old head was there to make sure we all knew that these latter day stars had a ways to go before they could match the exploits of the first guy who likely made them jump out their seats while watching basketball.
As true lovers of the game we should continue to uphold the names and reputations of players like Elgin Baylor, that’s why we’re glad to republish this Facebook post from our guy Chris Pennant, which provides a good outline of how rock-solid “Mr. Inside” was:
Elgin Baylor was in the Army Reserves in 1961-62, which meant he never practiced with the Lakers and could only play when he got a weekend pass. He averaged 35-18 that season.
The same season, he dropped 61 points on the Celtics in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, playing all 48 minutes, a Finals record that still stands. Rick Barry and MJ are second with 55.
His career high of 71 points is still the eighth-highest single-game total in NBA history.
Baylor and his Lakers teammate Jerry West helped lead a boycott of the 1964 NBA All-Star Game, one of the catalyzing moments in the history of the NBPA and sports labor.
Elgin Baylor is one of the five greatest forwards in the history of the NBA. Just thought you should know.
Elgin Baylor was the standard in a gold uniform (The Undefeated)
Elgin Baylor was the most influential basketball player of the past 60 years (Boston Globe)
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