October 8, 2008 12:45 am  |  44 Comments

Links: BREAKING: Later, Elgin

Elgin Baylor is out in LA…

by Lang Whitaker

Out went Elton, in came Baron…and now out goes Elgin.

Elgin Baylor, the GM of the LA Clippers since 1986 and a man who appeared on the NBA Draft Lottery so often that they should just name it after him, is no longer the GM of the LA Clippers. Coach Mike Dunleavy has taken Baylor’s gig and will now be coach and GM.

Somehow, despite the Clippers being…well, the Clippers, Baylor has managed to keep control for over two decades. But now, under what seem like mysterious circumstances, Elgin’s gone. According to the Orange County Register, some writers knew something was up when Elgin wasn’t in the team’s preseason media guide:

Asked about this omission, a team spokesman said that only the coaches’ bios were listed in the guide. However, that was untrue, because in addition to the coaches the director of player personnel, director of scouting, director of international scouting and team physician all were listed.

In addition to those individuals, the team’s athletic trainer, strength and conditioning coach, equipment manager and broadcast team all were listed.

When asked where Baylor was, the same team spokesman said he did not know but believed that Baylor was upstairs in his executive office.

When everyone finally found Baylor, he wasn’t talking and he even mentioned the “L” word (lawyer, not the other one).

As Baylor told the LA Times:

“There is a dispute, and on the advice of my attorney they did not want me to discuss it,” Baylor said. “That’s all I can say.”

Sounds like there’s gonna be much more to come with this one…

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This story is filed under: Blogs, NBA, The Links, Top News

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  • stevep Posted: Oct.8 at 12:54 am
    Whats he so mad about? After 22 years he must at least get a pension.

  • Ken H. Posted: Oct.8 at 12:55 am
    What’s the other “L” word? :P

  • stevep Posted: Oct.8 at 12:55 am
    First!

  • Nashty Posted: Oct.8 at 1:00 am
    So a man who sucked at his job for more than 22 years was let go……. Wow, that’s so unfair to Elgin…

  • RV Posted: Oct.8 at 1:04 am
    well, considering they were finally going in the right direction, it does seem somewhat unfair, but Baylor should have probably been fired yrs ago.

  • RV Posted: Oct.8 at 1:10 am
    Lang, off topic, but has Slam ever considered a message board format for this site?

  • Ryne Nelson Posted: Oct.8 at 1:12 am
    While we wait for official word, let’s look back at some of Baylor’s most notable transactions as Clippers GM: Draft 1998–Selected Michael Olowokandi (first overall) Draft 2000–Selected Darius Miles (third overall) Oct. 18, 2002–Signed Wang Zhizhi to a three-year contract. Draft 2005–Selected Yaroslav Korolev (12th overall)

  • Ryne Nelson Posted: Oct.8 at 1:14 am
    To be fair, Donald Sterling’s air-tight purse completely handicapped Baylor.

  • Todd Spehr Posted: Oct.8 at 1:18 am
    Baylor is a true pioneer: He practically invented ‘hangtime’ before it was hoops commonplace; and he was a bad GM before being a bad GM was cool

  • chronically_ill Posted: Oct.8 at 1:20 am
    Ryne, the Olowokandi pick was indefensible, but who else were the Clips going to pick during the 2000 Draft? Stromile Swift? Hell, even dudes like Chris Mihm and Joel Pryzbilla were lottery picks that year. And any Clipper fan knows that the Clips selected Korolev because Dunleavy had some unexplainable man crush on Korolev. I’m not saying Baylor was the best GM in the world, but he did trade for Brand, and he did fleece the Wolves by getting Sam “Huevos Gigantes” Cassell for that bum Marko Jaric.

  • JackBrown Posted: Oct.8 at 2:19 am
    Love?

  • what Posted: Oct.8 at 2:25 am
    Loss? Loser? Lesbian? Livingston?

  • chronically_ill Posted: Oct.8 at 2:34 am
    Oh man, dont bring up Livingston. That’s just cold to Clipper fans dude!

  • B. Long Posted: Oct.8 at 2:52 am
    Donald Sterling and Elgin Baylor would be the equivalent to Al Davis owning a team and Matt Millen G.M.ing it.

  • JackBrown Posted: Oct.8 at 3:46 am
    Elgin Baylor should call Chuck Norris.

  • jay Posted: Oct.8 at 4:15 am
    somethings rotten this side of Larry Johnson…

  • Hursty Posted: Oct.8 at 5:00 am
    Its the Lakers or lawsuit. Lawsuit is sounding way more likely to me though….

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Oct.8 at 5:27 am
    Elgin, you’re 74. Just walk off into the sunset and enjoy the rest of your life. You’ve earned it.

  • Hursty Posted: Oct.8 at 5:30 am
    Yeh… co-sign Russ.

  • Benoit Benjamin Posted: Oct.8 at 6:12 am
    Ryne you forgot the first pick used on the one and only Terry Dehere. My personal favorite.

  • Hursty Posted: Oct.8 at 6:40 am
    By the way Baylor was the Executive of the Year in 2006 when the Clippers made the 2nd round of the playoffs and eventually lost to the Suns.

  • Moose Posted: Oct.8 at 6:49 am
    A dispute . . . hmmmm

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Oct.8 at 6:50 am
    Lorenzen Wright over Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Peja Stojakovic and Jermaine O’Neal. Whoops.

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Oct.8 at 6:52 am
    Drafting Antonio McDyess second overall and trading him for Rodney Rogers and the pick that became Brent Barry. Whoops.

  • Todd Spehr Posted: Oct.8 at 6:56 am
    And it’s worth noting that Scoop Jackson’s “Protest Story” on Elgin Baylor remains one of the finest pieces ever written for SLAM… not sure why that needs pointing out now, but it needs pointing out.

  • fluxland Posted: Oct.8 at 7:49 am
    I must be the only person on the planet with any love for the Kandiman. When properly motivated he wasn’t that terrible. Picked over V.C, Dirk, Bibby, Paul Pierce btw.

  • fluxland Posted: Oct.8 at 7:51 am
    Agree with Ryne - he was handcuffed the majority of the time because of uncle Scrooge McDuck.

  • TADOne Posted: Oct.8 at 8:14 am
    Great player, horrible GM.

  • Steffen Posted: Oct.8 at 10:27 am
    B Diddy will save LA. probably… http://ezinearticles.com/?Baron-Davis-Dunk-or-How-to-Increase-Vertical-Jump&id=632119

  • BETCATS Posted: Oct.8 at 11:00 am
    He was a decent GM.

  • BETCATS Posted: Oct.8 at 11:02 am
    He had brought Antonio McDycee, Ron Artest, Andre Miller, Darius Miles, Quinton Richardson, Elton Brand, Sam Cassel, Corey Maggette, Brent Barry, Chris Kaman, Baron Davis and other decent NBA players to the Clippers at one point or another

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Oct.8 at 12:55 pm
    ron artest was never a clipper and mcdyess was only drafted by them he was as much a clipper as tyson chandler

  • BETCATS Posted: Oct.8 at 3:11 pm
    i thought they traded the draft rights of Artest for Elton Brand?

  • Russ Bengtson Posted: Oct.8 at 3:16 pm
    they traded the draft rights of tyson chandler for brand in 2001 and the bulls drafted ron artest directly in 1999

  • BETCATS Posted: Oct.8 at 5:42 pm
    cool, thanks.

  • BETCATS Posted: Oct.8 at 5:43 pm
    and Russ, your work in Mass Appeal Magizine is dope

  • Allenp Posted: Oct.8 at 6:02 pm
    Bill Simmons had a good story on Elgin although he went a little far in his bashing of today’s player. It’s funny how many people in our over indulgent society can generate so much anger for professional athletes who behave exactly like them, except with more money.

  • that dude Posted: Oct.8 at 6:18 pm
    Aint nobody heard of ‘The L Word’, that show about hot lesbians?

  • ♦MyKalâ™  Posted: Oct.9 at 4:36 am
    The “L” word is obviously Lube-Job

  • ♦MyKalâ™  Posted: Oct.9 at 4:38 am
    or Lumberjack or Liposuction or Lingerie or Ling Ling or Pneumonia

  • Wendy Posted: Oct.10 at 6:51 am
    Bill Simmons recent take on Elgin, have you guys read it? The finest piece have read in a long time, great insight on Elgin Baylor the player.

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Oct.11 at 1:09 pm
    What? Wang Zhi Zhi played for the Clippers?

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Oct.11 at 1:11 pm
    Anyways, Baylor did get Camby and Baron Davis to the Clipshow. He deserves some credit. I don’t know where to stand on this one..

  • John D Posted: Oct.12 at 1:47 am
    Yeah, Bill Simmons wrote a great piece on Elg. Even though I get the feeling a lot of you Slam writers hate him. Maybe it has something to do with that “diss” of Slam that wasn’t even really a diss?

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