Ranking the top 10 NBA wings of all time…
6. Elgin Baylor
14 seasons (1958-1972)
Rings: 0
MVPs: 0
NBA Finals series record: 0-7
Playoff record: 72-62 (.537)
Playoff stats: 27.0 PPG (43.9% FG) | 12.9 RPG | 4.0 APG
Regular season games played: 846
Stats: 27.4 PPG (43.1% FG) | 13.5 RPG | 4.3 APG
Other Accolades
- 10x All-NBA
- 11x All-Star
- Rookie of the Year (1959)
NBA.com’s Todd Spehr on Baylor:
“It’s true, Elgin Baylor changed basketball. It’s not something uttered flippantly, it’s something he really did. His arrival in the late 1950s came, appropriately, as the game was leaving its own feet. The jump shot was slowly infiltrating the game. General play was becoming faster and more spontaneous, this several years into usage of the 24-second shot clock. And Bill Russell was doing something most unconventional for the time: He was protecting the basket, armed with a timely leap and sharp intellect. The time was right for the first of the modern offensive stars. And the one that arrived was powerful, graceful, inventive and innovative. He was bigger, stronger, and faster. A forward without weakness. That player was Elgin Baylor.”
“There’s a lineage that exists in the league’s history, one oft-repeated and easily defined. It’s the special group of players who combined athleticism with innovation, taking what had been conjured before and placing their own interpretation on the art, sometimes pushing it further. In reverse chronological order, the line goes a little something like this: LeBron James is the current resident, influenced heavily by Michael Jordan. Before him it was Julius Erving, and his predecessor Connie Hawkins. That lineage undisputedly starts with Baylor.”
But who tops Baylor as the No. 5 greatest NBA wing of all time? Find out below.
