Biography

Call 1.800.966.1380 to contact Elgin Baylor booking agent, publicist, manager, pr firm, representative and management company for booking Elgin Baylor speaker appearances, autograph signing, endorsement deals or hiring Elgin Baylor as a keynote speaker for your next event. Find Elgin Baylor official website information, speaker fees, booking fees, costs and schedule. Basketball great, Elgin Baylor was born on September 16, 1934 in Washington, D.C.

Elgin Baylor is a retired American basketball player who played 13 seasons as a forward for the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers/Los Angeles Lakers. Elgin Baylor was just recently relieved of the General Manager role for the Los Angeles Clippers after 22 years with the team. Baylor was a gifted shooter, a strong rebounder, and an accomplished passer. Renowned for his acrobatic maneuvers on the court, Baylor regularly dazzled Lakers fans with his trademark hanging jump shots. He is regarded as one of the game's all-time greatest players.

"He was one of the most spectacular shooters the game has ever known", Baylor's longtime teammate Jerry West told HOOP magazine 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 "pound for pound, no one was ever as great as Elgin Baylor." "Elgin certainly didn't jump as high as Michael Jordan", Hawkins told the San Francisco Examiner. "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 Johnson and dribble with the best guards in the league."

The Minneapolis Lakers used the No. 1 overall pick in the 1958 NBA Draft to select Baylor, then convinced him to skip his senior year at SU and instead join the pro ranks. The Lakers, several years removed from the glory days of George Mikan, were in trouble on the court and at the gate. The year prior to Baylor's arrival the Lakers finished 19-53 with a team that was slow, bulky and aging. Baylor, whom the Lakers signed to play for $20,000 per year (a great amount of money at the time), was the franchise's last shot at survival.

"If he had turned me down then, I would have been out of business," Minneapolis Lakers owner Bob Short told the Los Angeles Times in 1971. "The club would have gone bankrupt." Baylor was seen as the kind of player who could save a franchise. And he did.

Elgin Baylor was the last of the great undersized forwards, in a league where many guards are now his size or bigger. Baylor's signature shot was a running bank shot, which he was able to release quickly and effectively over taller players.

In 1977, Elgin Baylor was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame and in 1980 he was named to the NBA 35th Anniversary All-Time Team and again in 1996, he was named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

In 1974, Baylor was hired to be an assistant coach and later the head coach for the New Orleans Jazz, but had a lackluster 86-135 record and retired following the 1978-79 season. In 1986, Baylor was hired by the Los Angeles Clippers as the team's vice president of basketball operations. He stayed in that capacity for 22 years before deciding to resign in October 2008 at the age of 74. In 2006, Baylor was selected as the NBA Executive of the Year.

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