FanHouse Elgin Baylor

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Tuesday, there are 49 days remaining.

There have been many wonderful players throughout history who never won an NBA title -- the modern era is full of them -- but there never has been one greater than Elgin Baylor.

He simply played at the wrong time, butting heads with the dynastic Boston Celtics and their incredible run of 10 titles in 11 years.

Nothing illustrates his futility and frustration more than the 49 consecutive playoff games covering five seasons in which Baylor scored at least 20 points or more. The Celtics won all five of those titles, beating the Lakers twice in the Finals.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Friday, there are 67 days remaining.

Scoring 100 points in an NBA game was such a phenomenal feat that it may never be matched. Yet that century mark isn't what defined Wilt Chamberlain as the greatest scoring machine in NBA history.

A lot of people can do things once.

Kobe Bryant scored 81. David Thompson had 73. Elgin Baylor and David Robinson each managed 71. Michael Jordan hit 69 and Pete Maravich scored 68.

The magic number is 67.

Interesting times in Clipper-land, these days. The team's newest star is on the Jenny Craig diet plan (no, I won't let it go, but thanks for asking). The team's other new star worked out with them for the first time today after fighting "flu-like symptoms." First round draft pick Eric Gordon is sidelined for a couple weeks with an ankle injury. And oh yeah, Elgin Baylor appears to no longer be performing his duties as the team's General Manager. Wait, what?

According to the OC Register (via Baller Blogger), Elgin Baylor is out as GM, and the only details we have is that there is a dispute between Baylor and and the Clippers, which Baylor won't speak about because his attorney advised him not to. What we do know is, this has been going on for at least a few weeks, because Baylor wasn't present at the team's practice facility when training camp began, and he was conveniently left out of the club's pre-season media guide -- entirely. No mention or picture of him anywhere.

Baylor has been the Clippers' GM since 1986, and besides being a fixture at the NBA's Draft Lottery proceedings, has done a mostly thankless job over the last 22 years. He did have a few achievements though, including winning the Executive of the Year award in 2006, drafting Chris Kaman, and pulling the trigger on the trade that brought Elton Brand to town. During the offseason though, it was coach Mike Dunleavy who seemed to be the spokesperson for the team's dealings, and sure sounded an awful lot like the real GM while doing so.

It'll be interesting to see what the dispute is all about; hopefully Donald Sterling isn't trying to go all Al Davis on Baylor after 22 years of service.

[Image credit: AP Photo/Gus Ruelas]

Ricky Davis is a Clipper. Say it with me. Ricky Davis is a Clipper. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? Ricky Davis is a Clipper. It just feels so right.

Davis signed a two-year, $4.7 million deal. He can opt out after the first season, but c'mon, this isn't the time to start talking about that, is it? It's a time for celebration! If ever there was a union guaranteed to last forever, well, that'd be Marko and Adriana, but Ricky Davis and the Clippers are a close, close second.

Why were the Clippers so interested in Davis? GM Elgin Baylor explains:

"With his ability to score and shoot from the outside, it's really going to open up the floor for us, particularly our low-post players," Los Angeles general manager Elgin Baylor said.

That's right! Ricky Davis, making his teammates better since ... well, just now.

In all seriousness, Baylor may be onto something: LA's bigs include Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby, a couple of guys who will have maybe five plays called for them all night long. This team can afford bringing a gunner off the bench. With Baron Davis running the point, the Clippers should be getting up and down the floor in a hurry, and Davis is certainly athletic enough to keep up.

Ah, the Clippers. As if a season full of injuries and a 12-25 record weren't bad enough, we now have the team owner and head coach going at each other pretty hard through the media. Yesterday Donald Sterling was talking win or go home for his coaching staff -- a fairly ridiculous proposition, all things considered -- and not surprisingly, Mike Dunleavy fired back with some strong statements of his own.

Mike Dunleavy came out swinging, telling Donald Sterling, you want to make a change in coaches, "Be my guest."

"It would be the biggest mistake you ever made." ... "Where we are today as far as making the playoffs, nobody in their right mind would bet on that."

No one who has followed the Clippers over the years would ever confuse Sterling with a sane person, so Dunleavy's side in this little battle has to be taken here, almost without question. There were several other interesting comments by Dunleavy in this piece, none of which would have come out had Sterling not initiated the attack.

One thing that Dunleavy revealed was the fact that the Clippers had a deal in place with Dallas to swap Corey Maggette for Jason Terry, but Sterling refused to approve the trade. Another frustration for the coach came when he was all for signing Beno Udrih, but a Clippers' VP decided that financially it wouldn't be worth it.

So I came away with two things after going through all of Dunleavy's comments: One, that the coach has at least as much say in player personnel decisions (if not more) than Elgin Baylor, the current figurehead in the General Manager position. And two, the Clippers organization is a complete mess at this point. But we already knew that, didn't we.

So during this whole Kobe Bryant thing, there was a lot of talk about Jordan, Chamberlain, and Elgin Baylor. Jordan needs no introduction, and Wilt's already been the subject of his own Random YouTube post. But Baylor is the great unknown in that list--a player many younger fans might not be familiar with, and every bit as important as those other two in the history of the game. Courtesy of you-know-who, here's footage of Baylor dropping 61 against the Celtics in the 1962 NBA Finals.