NBA Athlete Number 22 - Elgin Baylor

Tough call here between Clyde Drexler and Elgin Baylor.  Baylor, having played with the Lakers for his entire NBA career, gets the nod here though.

Elgin Baylor, taken with the number 1 overall pick in the 1958 NBA draft by the Minneapolis Lakers, was a scoring and rebounding force in both Minneapolis and L.A.  In his rookie season, Baylor put up a hefty 1,742 points in merely 70 games.  He also reached the quadruple-digit rebound plateau in that first season, pulling down 1,050 boards.

Baylor would continue to steadily improve offensively. His sophomore campaign with the Lakers saw him score 2,074 points and rip down 1,150 boards.  Season 3 would be even more impressive.  That season, in which he played in just 3 more games than he had in each of his previous 2 seasons, Baylor scored a monstrous 2,538 points while accumulating 1,447 rebounds.

His fourth season was quite a remarkable one.  Baylor, an Army reservist, was called to duty and stationed in Washington state during the 1961-62 season.  He was able to play with the Lakers only with a weekend pass, limiting him to 48 regular season games.  That didn't limit him while on

the court however.  In just those 48 games, Baylor 1,836 points.  That's 38.5 points per game!

Baylor would also score a record 61 points against the Celtics in game 5 of the NBA finals in that fourth season.

All told, Baylor accomplished the following:

• - 23,149 points
• - 11,463 rebounds
• - .431 field-goal percentage
• - 1958-59 Rookie of the Year
• - 27.4 points per game

Did you know........Baylor scored 70 points against the Knicks in 1970?

sources:  basketball-reference.com, wikipedia.com