Elgin Baylor, the Los Angeles Lakers’ first superstar, was considered one of the greatest basketball players in NBA history. He died on March 22 of natural causes at 86, the Lakers confirmed.
Here are five things Black America should know about Baylor.
Lakers owner Bob Short persuaded Baylor, the No. 1 overall pick in 1958, to skip his senior year at Seattle University.
The Lakers had just completed a 19-53 season with a team that was old, slow, and drawing poorly at the gate, The Los Angeles Times reported. Baylor was considered the team’s best hope for survival.
“If he had turned me down then, I would have been out of business,” Short told the Times in 1971. “The club would have gone bankrupt.”
Baylor was Rookie of the Year in 1958-1959 and the team went from last in their division to the finals.
In 1958, the Lakers checked into a hotel in Charleston, West Virginia. The white players could register but the Black players were told to spend the night elsewhere. After the entire team found lodgings somewhere else, Baylor refused to play. “I’m a human being,” Baylor said. “I’m not an animal put in a cage and let out for the show.”
The 10-time all-NBA first-team selection and 11-time All Star was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977. He finished his career with 23,149 points, 3,650 assists, and 11,463 rebounds in 846 games, all with the Lakers in Minneapolis and Los Angeles.
After retiring as a player, Baylor became assistant coach for the New Orleans Jazz for the team’s inaugural 1974-75 season, NBA.com reported. He served two years.
In 1986, the Los Angeles Clippers hired Baylor as the team’s vice president of basketball operations, a position he held until 2008. Baylor was named NBA Executive of the Year in 2006 when the Clippers won their first playoff series since 1976.
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He resigned in L.A. in October of 2008 and filed a wrongful termination lawsuit.
In 2009, Baylor, then 74, sued the Clippers and owner Donald Sterling for $2 million over accusations of racism, age discrimination, and a hostile working environment. Baylor accused Sterling of having a “plantation mentality.”
In 2011, a jury rejected Baylor’s claims, finding in favor of the Clippers.
“Years later, when the NBA banned Sterling for his racist comments about Black players, former Laker great Magic Johnson said it appeared Baylor was right about Sterling,” The LA Times reported.
