50 Greatest NBA Players Without A Championship (Updated Through 2015-16)
By Phil Watson
6. Elgin Baylor
Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers 1958-71
The Minneapolis Lakers chose Elgin Baylor, who had led Seattle University to a NCAA Tournament championship game, with the first overall pick in the 1958 NBA Draft, two years after trying to land him in the 1956 draft when Baylor left the College of Idaho to transfer to Seattle.
Baylor was the Rookie of the Year in 1958-59 and was named to 10 All-NBA teams and 11 All-Star games. He was also in the top-10 of the MVP voting eight times, finishing second in 1962-63.
As a rookie, Baylor dragged the 33-39 Lakers to the NBA Finals with upsets of the Detroit Pistons and defending champion St. Louis Hawks in the Western Division semifinals and finals before they were swept by the Boston Celtics.
Losing to the Celtics in the Finals would become something of an unfortunate career theme.
In 1960, Minneapolis swept the Pistons in the Western semifinals before losing a Game 7 in the Western Division Finals to the Hawks.
That offseason, the team was relocated to Los Angeles and in 1961, the Lakers took a Game 5 from Detroit in the division semifinals before dropping a Game 7 at St. Louis in the Western Division Finals.
Los Angeles returned to the Finals in 1962, earning a bye to the Western Division Finals by winning the regular-season title. The Pistons went down in six games before the Celtics posted a Game 7 win for their fourth straight championship.
The Lakers won the West again in 1962-63, needing a Game 7 to get past St. Louis in the Western Division Finals before losing to Boston in a six-game NBA Finals.
Los Angeles was bounced by the Hawks in a Game 5 in the division semifinals in 1964, but returned to the top of the division in 1964-65. They beat the Baltimore Bullets in six games in the Western Division Finals and lost to the Celtics in five games the NBA Finals.
The Lakers were West champs again in 1965-66, beating St. Louis in Game 7 to win the Western Division Finals before losing at Boston in Game 7 of the NBA Finals as the Celtics won their eighth straight title.
In 1967, Los Angeles was swept by the San Francisco Warriors in the division semifinals, but in 1968, beat the Chicago Bulls in the division semifinals and swept the Warriors in the Western Division Finals. Once again, however, there were the Celtics in the NBA Finals and … well … yeah.
The Lakers beat the Warriors in the division semifinals and the now-Atlanta Hawks in five games in the Western Division Finals. This time getting Game 7 at home in the NBA Finals, the result was the same as Boston won another championship.
Los Angeles needed a Game 7 in the 1970 division semifinals to get past the upstart Phoenix Suns, but swept the Hawks in the Western Division Finals. In the NBA Finals, there was a new opponent, but the New York Knicks won Game 7 to capture their first championship and again deny Baylor his.
Knee injuries limited Baylor to just two regular season games in 1970-71, so he wasn’t around for their Western Conference Finals loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and in 1971-72, Baylor retired after just nine games because the knees were too far gone.
In a cruelly ironic twist, the Lakers won the championship that season.
Baylor is 25th on the NBA’s all-time rebounding list with 11,463. Despite never winning a scoring title, his average of 27.4 points per game is fourth-best in league history and his 13.5 rebounds per game is ninth.
Baylor was an assistant coach and later head coach of the New Orleans Jazz from 1976-79 and later spent 22 years as general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers, earning Executive of the Year honors in 2005-06. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977.
The final tally on Baylor’s playoff career:
NBA Finals: 0-8
Division Finals: 8-2
Division Semifinals: 6-2
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