He’s all grown up now, a good guy and a grand player and not about to let the bumps in the road bother him.
Tag Archives: Los Angeles Lakers
Jim McMillian: It’s a New Brave World, 1974
McMillian wasted no time getting away from L.A. to Buffalo. He put trauma behind him and got ready to change uniforms and roles.
Jerry West: A Very Special Agony, 1970
The thing West does is not just play basketball brilliantly, but play it best when it counts the most. This is the rarest of things.
Walt Hazzard: ‘Rook’ as in Rookie, 1965
Walt Hazzard takes it in stride. He is sure he will be one of the stars of the game.
Elgin Baylor: Record Book Worst Enemy, 1965
Elgin Baylor is a basketball player—and horse player—who announces in the car on the way to the airport, “I will give Jerry my nose any day for his knees. I need two good knees. My nose can take care of itself.”
Elgin Baylor: The Irreplaceable Laker, 1973
Little kids across the country dribble and shoot the Elgin Baylor way. On playgrounds, future basketball stars don homemade jerseys bearing the famous number 22.
Is Pro Basketball Getting Too Rough? 1964
Wilt Chamberlain might object to this observation, but a lot of the excitement and color of pro basketball lies in the bruising body contact between big men in action.
Why Larry Bird and Earvin Johnson Could Change the Face of Pro Basketball, 1980
It is a splendid irony that both Johnson and Larry Bird wore No. 33 in college—the precise number worn by Jabbar, one of the NBA’s brightest stars. Both the Lakers and Celtics have good reason to feel that these two newcomers will match Jabbar’s number in more ways than one.
Rudy LaRusso: ‘He Gets the Job Done,’ 1967
Rudy LaRusso does what he must. It’s made him wealthy as one of pro basketball’s top forwards.
The Night Baylor Scored 71 Points
Baylor, in this game, dropped in a world record of 71 points to become the first man to hit such an astronomical figure—and came off the court to say: “There ain’t no limit to how much a guy can score in this game!”
From Way Downtown 