Local and national basketball legend Elgin Baylor is being remembered as one of the greatest players in NBA history. Baylor died Monday at the age of 86.
Baylor played at Seattle University before becoming an 11-time All-Star with the Lakers, both when they were in Minnesota and when they moved to Los Angeles. Baylor was also the first major league sports star to sit out a game because of racial discrimination.
He told NPR in 2018 that when the Lakers played in Charleston, W.Va., in 1959, he and his fellow Black teammates weren't allowed to check-in at the hotel.
"I was really hurt by that," Baylor explained. "And as I thought about it, I said, you know, it's like, 'Hey, I'm not going to go out there. You know, we're not like some animals, you know, the circus or something, and then go out there and put the show on for them.' So I said, you know, I'm just not going to play. Then I thought about it. I'm the captain of the team. What are you going to do to me? What are you going to do?"
On the court, Baylor was the first NBA player to surpass 70 points in a game. The Hall of Fame member is credited with revolutionizing the sport of basketball with spectacular aerial moves.
"He also helped change the style in which the game is played, that we take for granted today - moves such as spin dribbles, changing the ball from one hand to the other in midair, reverse moves, the move that people commonly call today the Eurostep, things of that nature he brought to the game, in terms of people seeing those moves in the mainstream as opposed to in the schoolyard," explains Bijan Bayne, author of the book "Elgin Baylor: The Man Who Changed Basketball."
One opponent said guarding Elgin Baylor was "like guarding a flood."
While at Seattle U, Baylor led the team to the 1958 NCAA championship game, where they lost to Kentucky.
After a long and successful NBA career, Baylor was a coach for the New Orleans Jazz. He was general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers from 1986 to 2008.
NPR contributed to this report.
