Elgin Baylor

The Man Who Changed Basketball

Häftad, Engelska, 2017

609 kr

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NBA Hall of Fame player Elgin Baylor was an innovator in his sport, a civil rights trailblazer, and a true superstar. He influenced future NBA All Stars such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and is considered by many to be one of the most important players in NBA history. A prolific scorer who baffled opponents with his twists and turns and inventive moves, Baylor was a force both on and off the court for the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers. In Elgin Baylor: The Man Who Changed Basketball, Bijan C. Bayne tells the story of how a kid from the streets of segregated Washington, DC, who didn’t attend college until he was over twenty, revolutionized basketball and stood up for his rights. In a time when few nationally prominent black athletes spoke out about racial inequality in the United States, Baylor refused to tolerate discrimination. On the court, with his balletic moves and urban style of play, Elgin Baylor lifted the game of basketball off the floor and into the air. Elgin Baylor: The Man Who Changed Basketball includes personal reflections from Baylor’s old schoolyard companions, former teammates, players he coached in the NBA, and noted sports journalists, bringing to life his childhood, college career, and professional life with intimate detail. Basketball fans, historians, and those interested in the impact of sports on the Civil Rights Movement will all find this first-ever biography of Elgin Baylor both fascinating and inspirational.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2017-12-28
Mått152 x 229 x 23 mm
Vikt417 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor292
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
MedarbetareRyan,Bob
ISBN9780810895782

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Bijan C. Bayne is an award-winning Washington-based freelance writer who has written for Pro Basketball News,the Washington Post, The Boston Herald, Essence, and Washingtonian. He is a member of United States Basketball Writers Association, a founding member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, and an executive board member and media relations director for the Association for Professional Basketball Research. Bayne is the author of Sky Kings: Black Pioneers of Professional Basketball, which was named to the Suggested Reading List of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004, and Martha’s Vineyard Basketball: How a Resort League Defied Notions of Race and Class (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).

AcknowledgmentsForewordIntroductionChapter 1 From Streetball to SpingarnChapter 2 Superstar or Secret Schoolboy?Chapter 3 “I Was Scared to Death, It Was My First Flight.”Chapter 4 How The West Was WonChapter 5 I Am Not an Animal…Put in a CageChapter 6 New Frontiers: The NBA’s First Modern PlayerChapter 7 The First SuperstarChapter 8 A Leader of MenChapter 9 “The More I Was Determined To Prove The Doctors Wrong”Chapter 10 Wilt: The Unlucky Number 13Chapter 11 Jazz DuetChapter 12 Clipper CommandChapter 13 Rabbit ReduxBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Elgin Baylor, one of the premier superstars in the NBA, gets his first biography courtesy of Bayne, a Washington, D.C., sportswriter, who makes the case for considering Hall of Famer Baylor among the most elite players with his signature gravity-defying 'hesitation' jump shot. Born in 1934 in segregated D.C., Baylor didn’t play basketball until high school, quickly gaining notice on the Phelps Vocational High School team. When the High Court struck down integration in1954, Baylor transferred to another school, where a press notice called him 'literally unstoppable,' before joining teams at the College of Idaho and Seattle University, scoring big points and media attraction. During the 1958 NBA draft, Baylor was selected first overall and signed with the Minnesota Lakers, only to face Jim Crow laws when it came to hotels; the Lakers sat out a game in hopes of influencing team owners to create a nondiscrimination policy. Bayne writes expertly of Baylor’s golden era with the newly relocated Los Angeles Lakers, his team-up with sharpshooter Jerry West, their rivalry with the Boston Celtics, his play in seven NBA finals and 11 All-Star games, and his decision to retire in 1971 due to bad knees. Bayne’s gracious biography of a media-savvy, high-profile ex-sportsman shows the man as much more than his patented spin moves and one-legged jumpers.