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greenfrog
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 Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Chick said to the grave he was the second greatest player he'd ever seen after MJ. Definitely worthy. |
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pio2u
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greenfrog
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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| He should have been the first person to get the statue. |
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Andre2K
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:29 pm Post subject: |
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Congrats to Elgin, def an all time great not sure he should get a statue tho. I remember him mostly for being a Clipper GM
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kwase
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Joined: 21 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Well deserved! |
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Hollywood $winger
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Joined: 24 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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true Laker 
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aka west-magic-kobe |
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activeverb
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Joined: 17 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 2:08 pm Post subject: |
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| RJBaca wrote: | | Eindhoven wrote: | Forgive the ignorance of someone who has never been to LA before, but who has statues at Staples? Magic, Cap, West and the big guy in my avatar?
Anyway, I'm happy they are celebrating Baylor while he is alive. At the age of 83, it must be a great joy for this Laker Legend. |
Chic, Gretzky, Oscar De La Hoya |
Also Luc Robitaille of the kings.
I suspect next they will start putting in some of the women basketball players |
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pio2u
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 2:25 pm Post subject: |
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| greenfrog wrote: | | He should have been the first person to get the statue. |
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RJBaca
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Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 2050
Location: Costa Rica
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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| activeverb wrote: | | RJBaca wrote: | | Eindhoven wrote: | Forgive the ignorance of someone who has never been to LA before, but who has statues at Staples? Magic, Cap, West and the big guy in my avatar?
Anyway, I'm happy they are celebrating Baylor while he is alive. At the age of 83, it must be a great joy for this Laker Legend. |
Chic, Gretzky, Oscar De La Hoya |
Also Luc Robitaille of the kings.
I suspect next they will start putting in some of the women basketball players |
Lisa!
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RobinInHood
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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| greenfrog wrote: | | Gretzky wasn't even that much to watch here. |
Well, he did take the Kings to the Stanley Cup final in 1993. Not to mention that him just being in LA changed the hockey landscape in California. He definitely deserves a statue. If not for his accomplishments on the ice, then for his impact on the sport in LA. |
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tox
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Joined: 16 Nov 2015
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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| He might deserve it, but I can't help but feel the timing of this is to provide another distraction to this losing season. Invoke memories of past glories to distract from the present. |
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greenfrog
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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| SectorSevenG wrote: | | greenfrog wrote: | | Gretzky wasn't even that much to watch here. |
Well, he did take the Kings to the Stanley Cup final in 1993. Not to mention that him just being in LA changed the hockey landscape in California. He definitely deserves a statue. If not for his accomplishments on the ice, then for his impact on the sport in LA. |
I agree with all of that, but as a young fan at the time Robitaille seemed like the better player. |
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JUST-MING
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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| tox wrote: | | He might deserve it, but I can't help but feel the timing of this is to provide another distraction to this losing season. Invoke memories of past glories to distract from the present. |
He definitely deserves it. He saved the franchise. Logo took it to new heights, but Elgin was putting fans in the seats when the Dodgers were the “only” team in town. The attendance in those days was, on average, like 4,000. You should look at old tape. He did it all, like Lebron, grabbed the board, pushed the break, controlled the pace, etc. The Lakers, in those days, fielded the worst centers in the league until Wilt. They were still in the Finals every year. |
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raffi
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Joined: 24 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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| activeverb wrote: | | RJBaca wrote: | | Eindhoven wrote: | Forgive the ignorance of someone who has never been to LA before, but who has statues at Staples? Magic, Cap, West and the big guy in my avatar?
Anyway, I'm happy they are celebrating Baylor while he is alive. At the age of 83, it must be a great joy for this Laker Legend. |
Chic, Gretzky, Oscar De La Hoya |
Also Luc Robitaille of the kings.
I suspect next they will start putting in some of the women basketball players |
And Bob Miller (last Saturday). |
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FanOfFour
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:29 pm Post subject: |
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| SectorSevenG wrote: | | greenfrog wrote: | | Gretzky wasn't even that much to watch here. |
Well, he did take the Kings to the Stanley Cup final in 1993. Not to mention that him just being in LA changed the hockey landscape in California. He definitely deserves a statue. If not for his accomplishments on the ice, then for his impact on the sport in LA. |
Not to mention that AEG owns Staples Center and the Kings. For that reason alone is why Kings legends have statues on the premises. |
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K2
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Joined: 25 Dec 2011
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| JUST-MING wrote: | | tox wrote: | | He might deserve it, but I can't help but feel the timing of this is to provide another distraction to this losing season. Invoke memories of past glories to distract from the present. |
He definitely deserves it. He saved the franchise. Logo took it to new heights, but Elgin was putting fans in the seats when the Dodgers were the “only” team in town. The attendance in those days was, on average, like 4,000. You should look at old tape. He did it all, like Lebron, grabbed the board, pushed the break, controlled the pace, etc. The Lakers, in those days, fielded the worst centers in the league until Wilt. They were still in the Finals every year. |
Well said J-M. Thank you. |
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Cutheon
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Joined: 10 Jul 2009
Posts: 12161
Location: Bay Area
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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| tox wrote: | | He might deserve it, but I can't help but feel the timing of this is to provide another distraction to this losing season. Invoke memories of past glories to distract from the present. |
For sure. Thankfully we have a glorious history for the PR team to mine from. |
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Dr. Laker
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Joined: 12 Apr 2002
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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Amazing, transformational player. Well deserving of a statue.
I have heard from friends who worked with the Big E at the Clippers that he was more of a Big D to work with.
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lakersken80
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Joined: 12 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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| It also makes sense to honor him now before he's gone....plus its a good time as any, he isn't a GM of the Clippers anymore, and he's been seen at more and more Lakers events. |
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activeverb
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Joined: 17 Jun 2006
Posts: 37470
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:00 pm Post subject: |
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| JUST-MING wrote: | | The Lakers, in those days, fielded the worst centers in the league until Wilt. They were still in the Finals every year. |
At the same time, the Lakers road to the finals was pretty easy. For their first seven years in Los Angeles, the league only had 8-10 teams. During those years, the Lakers only needed to win one playoff series to get into the finals.
And in those seven first-round series, the Lakers only faced three teams that were above .500.
In the late 60s, the league expanded it to a second round in each conference. But even in those years, we never faced more than one team with better than a .500 record in the playoffs.
So the Lakers getting into the finals in most of those years only required them to win one series against a team that was about equivalen to this year's Jazz or Clippers. |
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slavavov
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:38 pm Post subject: |
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I never understood why people still talk about Wilt, Russell, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson but they almost never talk about Baylor. It's really a shame they didn't have videotape back then so that my generation could watch entire games instead of 5 second clips of those guys so that we could really understand how great they were.
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activeverb
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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| slavavov wrote: | | I never understood why people still talk about Wilt, Russell, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson but they almost never talk about Baylor. It's really a shame they didn't have videotape back then so that my generation could watch entire games instead of 5 second clips of those guys so that we could really understand how great they were. |
Most of Elgin's success came in the early 60s, which is a period fans don't really care about or trust. The others had success into the 70s, which is when the modern era of basketball began. (Except for Russell, but he had a gadzillion rings).
He put up great stats, but they were dwarfed by Wilt's stats.
He never won an MVP award, like Russell, Wilt and Oscar.
He never won a ring like the other four.
He retired, and the Lakers went on a 33-game winning streak and won a ring, becoming one of the greatest teams of all time without him.
He doesn't have anything people really associate with him. Wilt had stats. Russell had rings. Oscar had the triple-double. West was Mr. Clutch, the Logo, the Finals MVP on a losing team. Elgin was ... people really don't have a strong image of him.
He was a GM for a crappy team and kind of a public doofus, which is what many people remember him for more so than his basketball days.
All that said, he probably ranks for most people around the 25th or so best player of all time. That's impressive, but it's also past the point when people care about the all-time greats. |
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J.C. Smith
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Joined: 23 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:26 pm Post subject: |
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| This is long overdue. Happy to see it happening. |
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CabinCreek44
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| Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:27 am Post subject: |
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Congrats to Elgin and I'm very happy to see the Lakers honor him with a statue.
As a pro, Elgin was brilliant first for the Minneapolis Lakers, almost single-handedly getting them to the NBA Finals, where they lost to Bill Russell and Boston (of course).
Losing money in Minneapolis, the Lakers shortly thereafter followed the trail out west which had been blazed by the Dodgers and baseball Giants in the late 50s. The west was still considered an outpost back then to pro sports, and the migrations of teams like the Dodgers, Giants and Lakers helped usher in a new age in professional sports.
It's true the NBA back then was a very poor cousin to Baseball and Football, but the exploits of Elgin and Jerry West, described to enraptured listeners by the great Chick Hearn (whose hiring was a stroke of genius by Lakers owner Bob Short) slowly but surely gained the team a loyal following in LA. It's true that they were unable to get past the Celtics during that era, but they were a high-scoring, entertaining team, and the city embraced them more and more as the years went by. Then Jack Kent Cooke came along, built The Forum, acquired Wilt Chamberlain, and the Lakers were firmly in the big time of pro sports, which of course paved the way for the greatness of the 1972 team, as well as the 1980s and 2000s Lakers multiple-championship teams.
Baylor's kneecap split in two during the 1965 playoffs, and the sports medicine of the time patched his knee back together as best they could. But he understandably was never the same after that, although he amazingly returned to have five quite productive seasons afterwards, four of which found the Lakers competing in the NBA Finals. He was limited to only 11 appearances in his final two difficult seasons, retiring in late 1971 after Bill Sharman asked him to accept a reserve role to make way for promising young forward Jim McMillian, who contributed mightily to the Lakers' 1972 championship team.
Career averages of 27.4ppg and 13.5rpg, and one unbelievable 4-year stretch in the playoffs during his prime where he averaged 36 and 15, and the undying respect of his peers, tells one all one needs to know about what kind of player he was. It's true, the game did not enjoy the TV coverage then that it has in more recent times, but just because one didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Congratulations to the great Elgin Baylor. |
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pio2u
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Joined: 26 Dec 2012
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| Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:13 am Post subject: |
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| CabinCreek44 wrote: | Congrats to Elgin and I'm very happy to see the Lakers honor him with a statue.
As a pro, Elgin was brilliant first for the Minneapolis Lakers, almost single-handedly getting them to the NBA Finals, where they lost to Bill Russell and Boston (of course).
Losing money in Minneapolis, the Lakers shortly thereafter followed the trail out west which had been blazed by the Dodgers and baseball Giants in the late 50s. The west was still considered an outpost back then to pro sports, and the migrations of teams like the Dodgers, Giants and Lakers helped usher in a new age in professional sports.
It's true the NBA back then was a very poor cousin to Baseball and Football, but the exploits of Elgin and Jerry West, described to enraptured listeners by the great Chick Hearn (whose hiring was a stroke of genius by Lakers owner Bob Short) slowly but surely gained the team a loyal following in LA. It's true that they were unable to get past the Celtics during that era, but they were a high-scoring, entertaining team, and the city embraced them more and more as the years went by. Then Jack Kent Cooke came along, built The Forum, acquired Wilt Chamberlain, and the Lakers were firmly in the big time of pro sports, which of course paved the way for the greatness of the 1972 team, as well as the 1980s and 2000s Lakers multiple-championship teams.
Baylor's kneecap split in two during the 1965 playoffs, and the sports medicine of the time patched his knee back together as best they could. But he understandably was never the same after that, although he amazingly returned to have five quite productive seasons afterwards, four of which found the Lakers competing in the NBA Finals. He was limited to only 11 appearances in his final two difficult seasons, retiring in late 1971 after Bill Sharman asked him to accept a reserve role to make way for promising young forward Jim McMillian, who contributed mightily to the Lakers' 1972 championship team.
Career averages of 27.4ppg and 13.5rpg, and one unbelievable 4-year stretch in the playoffs during his prime where he averaged 36 and 15, and the undying respect of his peers, tells one all one needs to know about what kind of player he was. It's true, the game did not enjoy the TV coverage then that it has in more recent times, but just because one didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Congratulations to the great Elgin Baylor. |
Well said!  |
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