Elgin Baylor, the NBA’s Forgotten Superstar
He may have defied gravity during his playing days, but since retiring, the Lakers’ star has flown under the radar.
Elgin Baylor is a basketball pioneer. He’s a player with so many accolades that it’s seemingly easier to list the things he did not achieve in his storied career than those he did. An 11-time All-Star and 10-time member of the All-NBA first team, Baylor used his aerial acrobatics and improvisational nature to attack helpless defenders from the wing, and laid the framework for followers such as David Thompson and Michael Jordan, who took his innovations further than anyone could have imagined when Baylor joined the Minneapolis Lakers in 1958. Baylor turned a horizontal game into a vertical one, raising the level of play, and defying gravity on a nightly basis as he seemed to hang in the air just a tiny bit longer than he should have been able to. There was also a craftiness that went along with his athleticism, and a brutishness mixed with dexterity that made him a uniquely gifted player, able to score and rebound as well as anyone.
Yet for some reason, Elgin Baylor has receded from the memory of many modern basketball fans. He lacks that iconic achievement that would’ve cemented his place in the public consciousness: he’s not the model for the NBA logo, he never scored 100 points in the game, he didn’t win 11 championships in 13 seasons, and he failed to average a triple double for an entire season. He’s also shied from the public eye in recent years, never making a case for his own greatness, and only just releasing his autobiography earlier this year.
Perhaps this forgetfulness comes from the lack of footage from the 1960s, or maybe it’s the lack of historical awareness that is typical of all too-many NBA fans who seem to believe that anyone who played before the 1980s is hardly worth talking about. Regardless of the reason, his relative anonymity among NBA legends is entirely undeserved.
Apart from being a pioneer on the court, Baylor was also an advocate for justice off of it. In 1959, Baylor refused to play a game against the Cincinnati Royals in Charleston, West Virginia after he and his black teammates were refused lodging at a hotel. While his teammates urged him to play, Baylor remained strong in his convictions, opting to sit on the bench in his streets clothes. Five years later, he participated in the near-boycott of the 1964 All Star Game as the players came together to force the owners to offer a long promised pension plan. Also, after his tenure as GM of the Los Angeles Clippers ended, he sued Donald Sterling for discrimination — years before he was banned from the NBA.
Hopefully, with the release of his autobiography and the recent unveiling of an Elgin Baylor statue outside Staples Center, younger NBA fans will come to learn what a revolutionary, and thrilling, player Baylor was.
In the latest episode of the Pros & Prose Book Club, I had the pleasure of speaking with Bijan C. Bayne, a cultural critic and the author of the first major biography of Elgin Baylor, about his book and Baylor’s life and career. We discussed Baylor’s legacy, what he discovered while researching Baylor’s life, why Baylor isn’t celebrated today, and much, much more.
Show Notes:
Why tell the story of Elgin Baylor?
Why has Baylor been relatively forgotten among modern NBA fans?
What was the relationship between Elgin Baylor and Jerry West like?
What role did Baylor play in the popularization of the NBA?
What lessons could modern athletes take from Baylor’s activism?
What was the symbolic importance of Baylor’s style of play?
Additional Reading:
“Dr. J on Elgin Baylor: ‘He was just ballet in basketball” (The Undefeated)
“Elgin Baylor, Uncelebrated Pioneer” (Jack McCallum)
“Elgin Baylor, in bronze, gets place of honor” (LA Times)
