Los Angeles Lakers: All-Time NBA Finals team
By Amaar Burton
Small Forward: Elgin Baylor
Elgin Baylor never won a championship in his 14 seasons with the Lakers, losing eight times in the Finals.
A lot of people would use that to automatically disqualify him from any kind of all-time Finals roster, but you can’t overlook Baylor’s production in the Finals, even if the result didn’t go his way.
Baylor averaged 26.3 points per game in the Finals, which ranks No. 10 all-time. His Finals scoring average tops the likes of Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Larry Bird.
Seven of Baylor’s eight Finals losses came at the hands of the Celtics, a team loaded with Hall of Fame players like Bill Russell and John Havlicek, and led by Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach.
In Game 5 of the 1962 Finals, Baylor poured in 61 points against the Celtics, which is still a Finals record. He added 22 rebounds in that game. The next year, he had a 43-point, 20-rebound Finals game against the Celtics.
Early in the 1971-72 season, Baylor retired due to injuries. The Lakers went on to make the Finals again that season, but this time they won it all by beating the Knicks. Baylor didn’t play in the postseason, but he was rewarded with a championship ring.