Let's take a look at pick 43...
Career stats: 27.4 PPG, 13.5 RPG, 4.3 APG
Accolades: 11x NBA All-Star, 10x All-NBA First Team, NBA Rookie of the Year
Slam magazine's 11th greatest player of all-time in 2009
Sounds insanely impressive right? That's because it is. This guy should not have slipped this far and was Julius Erving before Julius Erving. Who could this versatile, superbly athletic, well-rounded, elite basketball player be?
Ladies and gentleman...
With the fifth selection of the fourth round, and #43 overall, QuinSnydersHair selects...
ELGIN BAYLOR!!!!!!!
"Official" position: Small Forward
Other position(s) played: Shooting Guard, Power Forward
Read these quotes about him.
***"He was
one of the most spectacular shooters the game has ever known", Baylor's longtime teammate Jerry West told HOOP in 1992. "I hear people talking about forwards today and I haven't seen many that can compare with him."
***Bill Sharman played against Baylor and coached him in his final years with the Lakers. "
I say without reservation that Elgin Baylor is the greatest cornerman who ever played pro basketball", he told the Los Angeles Times at Baylor's retirement in 1971.
***Tommy Hawkins, Baylor's teammate for six seasons and opponent for four (and later a basketball broadcaster) declared to the San Francisco Examiner that "
[P]ound for pound, no one was ever as great as Elgin Baylor." He also said, "
Elgin certainly didn't jump as high as Michael Jordan. But he had the greatest variety of shots of anyone. He would take it in and hang and shoot from all these angles. Put spin on the ball. Elgin had incredible strength. He could post up Bill Russell. He could pass like Magic and dribble with the best guards in the league."
A look at Elgin Baylor's career stats would indicate that this was a player who spent much of his time in the paint, doing the dirty work against other teams' unathletic grunts. However, at 6'5", Baylor was no power forward; the Lakers' athletic small forward simply played like one, dominating at the rim while simultaneously excelling on the perimeter. Baylor not only averaged double-digit rebounds 11 times, but he also finished in the top five in scoring eight times during his 14-year career. If there was a player from the 1960s who would undoubtedly still be a star in today's NBA, it just might be Baylor. He was the first of his kind and the blueprint for guys like Dr. J and Kobe Bryant.
