Baylor was not a all around player. But he was all round on offense. Plus greatest SF rebounder On defense he was poor/average. Jerry West was great all around

@@Johnkoth What did West do that was better than Baylor????

​@@dwightlove3704West was a better defender. But then West was one of the very best defensive guards as well.

@@Johnkoth Well Julius Erving has been on record saying that Baylor alongside Connie Hawkins played a major role in his career.

Who was "The Gunner" labeled by Elgin Baylor at Seattle Umiversity in 1958.

I have a throwback jersey of Baylor's University of Seattle!!!!!!

@@dwightlove3704 Cool. I have two of his M & N throwbacks. The rookie & 61 home whites. And I got to share that with Elgin prior to his passing. Incredibly, I was told that Elgin’s brother, John, was THE BALLER of the family! He served in the military before becoming a pastor.

@@markgaston4416 Wow how come he didn't think about playing ball????

@@dwightlove3704 I think a handful of factors played a part. While I never got the full download as to why, it MIGHT’VE had to do with these factors: one, military service, two, it still wasn’t a sure to support a family; pro draft quotas (back then, blacks were drafted in even numbers, so many weren’t given consideration), the ministry was his destiny; knee issues. He was several years older than Elgin.

History says Bill Russell dominated all the centers the Lakers fielded. Each year they tried to get better at center. Each year Bill Russell was reason why Celtics beat Lakers. Bill Russell was scoring more than more and his FG% wss high and he was rebounding great. 1968 Finals Lakers finally got a solid center. Mel Counts. Mel held Bill Russell to 43%. Celtics won series 4-3. Wilt held Bill Russell to 38% in their first finals met. Plus outscored and our rebounded him. Wilt with a Baylor/West in 68 would won Finals. Plus a couple other years. Wilt was light years better scorer, rebounder and passer than any center Lakers had in the time period before them. Only Mel Counts was close to Wilt with defense. But Wilt was better. Celtics would have had to guard Wilt 1 on 1. They would not have been able to double team him and he could have scored less and at higher FG%. Then got more APG by passing to Baylor/West. Wilt was a center and he lowered multiple players FG% every game. Baylor was a SF and played man defense and was a poor/average defender. West was a great defender but played man vs other PG. Wilt would have lowered layup FG% as he always did. Control middle on offense and defense and Lakers win. Celtics controlled middle on offense ande defense in all those Finals they beat the Lakers. Bill Russell dominated them easily.

As for Wilt changing his game. The roster the Lakers had was loaded with good and great shooters. Jerry West and Goodrich being great scorers. With that sort of roster passing to the open man works best. Thats what Wilt did. He scored less and set up the shooters and West/Goodrich. Then outrebounded everyone and was the best defensive center in the league at the time. His defensive was already very good. But as Laker it was great because he used less energy on scoring and could play harder on defense. Announcers recognized and praised his great defense. He controlled the key like how Bill Russell did. But Bill Russell was somewhat a better defender. Wilt was the most talented and physically blessed big man all time. Plus he was super smart. But he had multiple bad coaches. The good coaches got him to Finals and worked things out to use Wilt properly based on the roster they had. Being able to know how to use a player best is a talent. Not all coaches are good at it. As for me I coach by having a player as a leader and that player accomplishs what I want. The player that does it is very well respected and is talented on defense and offense. He is smart. Coach Red had players that were very smart and they could coach the team themselves and the chemistry was great. He would put things on autopilot. The players on court called the plays. He motivated the players and trained them. Used them to the best of their abilities. After Cousy retired Celtics offense was ran differently but accomplished the same sort of results. The Celtics roster was deep and the deep could replace the guys that retired. 1 exception was they could not replace Bill Russell. He was #1. Put a average center on Celtics they would not have won 11 finals. Not even 4.

@@Johnkoth damn you know your stuff good read 👍👍

He dunked on Russell!!!!!!!

Problem was Baylor defense was poor. They never had a top 5 center until Wilt. Bill Russell was over performing against their centers.

@@Johnkoth ❤️ george miken, neil johnson , bob petitt, ,willis reed, walt bellamy, etc etc , center wilt said connie hawkin couldn"t play defense,,young connie hawkin was unstoppable on offense

Baylor and west until wilt joined

And Elgin’s passing was probably as impressive (or more impressive) than his offensive arsenal.

Godfather of walking on air:: better jump shooter than dr.j

​@@MiRi-zi4wponly about 2 - 3 seasons with Wilt. It was mostly he and West most of his career. Some help from Dick Barnett and Rudy Larusso a few yrs.

@Dr.JohnnyJ, Worthy won 3 Rings, and led his team in scoring all 3 of those 3 championship years while winning a finals MVP. Big players play their biggest when it matters the most. During the season Worthy was a very unselfish team first player contributing as needed and his stats did suffer from that unselfish team first player mentality, but when it matter the most Big Game James stepped up, I'm sure this is why the Committee felt Worthy was a very deserving NBA Hall of Famer.

You would have added Maurice Stokes in there if he hadn't been injured. He was the first vision of what would become LeBron James. Very few people remember how powerful and skilled he was at 6'8", 260.

Nah, you forgot Connie Hawkins in between Elgin Baylor & Dr. J. 💡

He couldn't as good as he was he's not athletic enough

@@montbrink4700 gen z bot. 😴 Elgin Baylor was more athletic than 98% of the SF today and more skilled. The rules were more strict especially dribbling and only being allowed 1.5 maybe 2 steps not like 3-4 steps like today

Baylor was strong, could jump high, had Dr J skills. Sure he would not score as much today. But he would still be a 20 per game player. His rebounds would be 5 to 7 per game.

After the brand of basketball I’ve seen in recent years during the playoffs, I like the former players chances of getting theirs better than ever. Besides, for all of the players whose ball handling skills were questioned, maybe it would mean a greater number of minority players who were excluded from the pro ranks would’ve been drafted to accommodate today’s skill levels. Drafting guys who run fast 40’s and leap 40” means nothing to me when these players can’t execute fundamentally in a half court game. How many of today’s successful teams would beat the older juggernauts without a dominant center or defensive commitment? You pick up their point guard in the back court and drop three low post scorers on them and what happens? Believe me, if James Harden & Paul George can score like they do, I know Elgin Baylor, Adrian Dantley, and many others would FOAM at the mouth to play today. And if Draymond Green is considered a center and a stopper at 6’7”, Chamberlain, Russell, and Willis Reed would BEG to play now.

Baylor at 6-5 220 would have been a shooting guard in the modern era of basketball.

Keep in mind that Elgin played the last eight years of his career on one kneecap. Made the All Star team five of those eight years. So you haven’t seen the Elgin before that surgery in all of these clips. Even on his last knees, he had a reverse dunk in traffic vs the Knicks. His first five years were the most telling. And yes, Jerry was indeed a superb athlete. Fast, great quickness, and he was a good leaper, too.

@@markgaston4416 interesting

Compare him to doc dre

He idolized Elgin

No sir. Old tape makes players look less athletic.