Baylor
Elgin Baylor wins a very special award today, the highest player on the #HCHot50 not* to win a ring award. How he landed in the top 15 without a ring or MVP award is rather incredible. Baylor was a scoring machine, bizarre that he, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West aren’t mentioned more in the top trio’s all time conversation. Even if they only had a two season run. (All three are in the top 15 of this list.)
Baylor was a statistical monster in his era, a freak athlete, and a big time shooter. Yet the ring and the MVP eluded him. He finished in the top six in MVP voting on eight separate occasions. He also went to the Finals during eight different campaigns. Baylor must’ve coined, “close, but not cigar.”
That being said, Baylor still finished 33rd all time in scoring and 26th all time in rebounds. Baylor was quite the rebounder for a 6′ 5″ swing-man. . . A shame he didn’t get to raise the trophy during the 1972 season, retiring mid way through the year.

The Resume:

First Overall Pick 1958 – Minneapolis Lakers

11x All-Star

10x All-NBA

Rookie of the Year

All-Star MVP

Hall of Fame

How did the guys rank him?

The Flag Bearer: Matt Drappel (12).

The Barn Burner: Jacob Noble (44).

How did the other guys rank Baylor: Shane Young (13), Justin Termine (13), Marc Griffin (13), Lang Greene (14), Justin Salkin (14), Brian Geltzeiler (14), Justin Rowan (16), James Holas (17), Will Reeve (17), Robert Littal (18), Adi Joseph (19), and Josh Eberley (26).

Average vote: 17.9.

 

Baylor Wilt West

 

#14 Thursday, September 24th.

 

Don’t like it? Think we got it wrong? Maybe, just maybe we got it right? Let us know using the #HCHot50 hash-tag. Or give the contributors hell, contact info below. Any tweets with #HCHot50 may be featured on the site going forward, tweet us your feedback!

 

Contributors:

Josh Eberley – hoopscritic.com / Host of the @PullUpPodcastHC, @JoshEberley

Jacob Noble – hoopscritic.com / Host of the @PullUpPodcastHC, @JacobNoble_HC

James Holas – hoopscritic.com / BballBreakdown, @SnottieDrippen

Adi Joseph – sportingnews.com, @AdiJoseph

Matt Drappel – sportsnet.ca, @MattyD416

Justin Rowan – fearthesword.com / hoopslounge.com, @Cavsanada

Robert Littal – blacksportsonline.com, @BSO

Shane Young – hoopshabit.com, @YoungNBA

Justin Termine – Sirius XM NBA / cinesport.com host, @TermineRadio

Marc Griffin – hoopslounge.com / sportsnet.ca, @montrealmarc

Lang Greene – basketballinsiders.com, @LangGreene

Justin Salkin – hoopscritic.com / brooklynsbeat.com, @brooklynsbeat

Will Reeve – awfsports.com / Host of the All Weather Fan Podcast, contributor for hoopscritic.com @WillReeveJr

and of course,

Brian Geltzeiler – hoopscritic.com / Sirius XM NBA / the-cauldron.com / 120sports.com, @hoopscritic

 

Links to previous #HCHot50 pages:

HCHot50 Intro / Missed the Cut

#50 Pete Maravich
#49 Dave Cowens
#48 Wes Unseld
#47 Dolph Schayes
#46 Paul Pierce
#45 Kevin Durant
#44 Dominique Wilkins
#43 Chris Paul
#42 Bill Walton
#41 Gary Payton
#40 Elvin Hayes
#39 Clyde Drexler
#38 Allen Iverson
#37 Steve Nash
#36 Willis Reed
#35 George Mikan
#34 Patrick Ewing
#33 Kevin McHale
#32 Jason Kidd
#31 George Gervin
#30 Walt Frazier
#29 Dwyane Wade
#28 Rick Barry
#27 Bob Cousy
#26 Scottie Pippen
#25 John Stockton
#24 David Robinson
#23 Dirk Nowtizki
#22 John Havlicek
#21 Isiah Thomas
#20 Bob Pettit
#19 Kevin Garnett
#18 Charles Barkley
#17 Karl Malone
#16 Moses Malone

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