NBA Legend Elgin Baylor passed away recently and one of the themes surrounding his legacy was that…well…too many people weren’t aware of how astonishing his legacy really was. Not that being an 11x all-star, 10x first-team All NBA member and one of the top 50 greatest players ever wasn’t enough… It’s just that for those who have studied Baylor, he was arguably one of the top five most important NBA players ever from a talent, style and character standpoint. Bijan C. Bayne wrote the definitive book on Baylor: Elgin Baylor: The Man Who Changed Basketball and we caught up with him for Three Answers about his writing process on the project.
ONE
In the early 2000s it dawned on me that of Wilt/Oscar/Elgin/West/Russell there was only one missing biography. And that in the other two major North American team sports, there were biographies of Sayers & Mays. I began wondering why nothing on the Sayers or Mays of pro basketball?
TWO
The word “superstar” was coined to describe Baylor.
THREE
I enjoyed interviewing Baylor’s college coach John Castellani, in part because I couldn’t believe the good fortune he was alive. But speaking of that, I was highly blessed to speak with the nation’s biggest Elgin Baylor fan, former Globetrotters’ PA announcer David Stone.
You can buy Elgin Baylor HERE. And you can follow Bijan C. Bayne on Twitter HERE.
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Jon Finkel is the award-winning author of Hoops Heist, The Life of Dad, Jocks In Chief, The Athlete, Heart Over Height, “Mean” Joe Greene and more. His books have been endorsed by everyone from Mark Cuban and Tony Dungy to Spike Lee, Kevin Durant and Chef Robert Irvine. He has written for GQ, Men’s Health, Yahoo! Sports, The New York Times and has appeared on CBS: This Morning, Good Morning Texas, and hundreds of radio shows, podcasts and streams.