If you’re just getting acquainted with the legend of Elgin Baylor, you may be disappointed.
The jump shot? You see dozens during a modern-day NBA game. The dunk? It has been an artistic statement for nigh on 50 years. So what’s the big deal with Baylor?
He did it first. He took the NBA vertical. He got the game off the floor.
What he did was so remarkable for its time, that people asked him how he could hang in midair the way he did.
“I told them I take helium before every game,” Baylor said in a phoner to KNBR’s Gary & Larry show on Wednesday, laughing uproariously.