YouTube Gold: Great Elgin Baylor Video

This is as clean as it gets from 60+ years ago

One of the great things about YouTube is that you get to see old video of great players in their prime. Sometimes though - quite often, actually - the video is grainy and it’s hard to see much detail. So when you come across a piece that’s relatively pristine, it’s hard to ignore.

Take this compilation of Elgin Baylor highlights.

Baylor was drafted by the Lakers when they were still in Minneapolis and the nickname actually made geographic sense, but was most associated with the team after it moved to L.A. and picked up Jerry West.

They became a great duo, even if they were unable to overcome the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals (Boston won 11 titles between 1957 and 1969. The Lakers finally won in 1972, but cruelly, Baylor retired early that season).

In this very clean video, you’ll get a sense of just how talented he was and how far ahead of his time too. You’ll see brilliant passing, some aerial dunks and intimations of Connie Hawkins and Michael Jordan.

Lately when watching these videos, we realize one big problem these guys had was with their footwear: the shoes were primitive by today's standards.

Nonetheless, you’ll see Baylor drive hard and do moves that look quite modern. His ballhandling wouldn't stand up today, but if he were playing now, he’d be trained for that.

When you see this crisp, beautiful video, much of it courtside, you’ll understand why he is one the true greats of the game.