LeBron James vs. Elgin Baylor

With the pennant races at full throttle and football season starting up, now's the time to start talking about....basketball? Well, why not?

I recently lined up LeBron James' 6-year career alongside Hall-of-Fame legend Elgin Baylor's at the same point and the results are extremely interesting. It makes more sense to compare James with Baylor instead of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant because James and Baylor are both forwards who play multiple positions and they play a very similar style, being exceptionally agile, versatile and unstoppable.

Here are Lebron James' numbers to this point:

Position: Forward

Height: 6'8" Weight: 250 lbs.

.....................G Mn. FG% FT% Rb Ast Pts PPG

2003-04: Cle. 79 39.5 .417 .754 5.5 5.9 1654 20.9

2004-05: Cle. 80 42.4 .472 .750 7.4 7.2 2175 27.2

2005-06: Cle. 79 42.5 .480 .738 7.0 6.6 2478 31.4

2006-07: Cle. 78 40.9 .476 .698 6.7 6.0 2132 27.3

2007-08: Cle. 75 40.4 .484 .712 7.9 7.2 2250 30.0

2008-09: Cle. 81 37.7 .489 .780 7.6 7.2 2304 28.4

Career.......472 40.6 .471 .738 7.0 6.7 12,993 27.5
Career High: 56

Now, take a look at Elgin Baylor's first six seasons:

Position: Forward

Height: 6'6" Weight: 225 lbs.

.......................G Mn.FG% FT% Rb Ast Pts PPG

1958-59: MnL 70 40.8 .408 .777 15.0 4.1 1742 24.9

1959-60: MnL 70 41.0 .424 .732 16.4 3.5 2074 29.6

1960-61: LAL 73 42.9 .430 .783 19.8 5.1 2538 34.8

1961-62: LAL 48 44.4 .428 .754 18.6 4.6 1836 38.3

1962-63: LAL 80 42.1 .453 .837 14.3 3.8 2719 34.0

1963-64: LAL 78 40.6 .425 .804 12.0 4.4 1983 25.4

Career........419 41.8 .429 .782 15.8 4.4 12,892 30.8
Career High: 71

[In 1961-62, Baylor was in the Army reserve and was called to active duty, and being stationed in Washington State he could play for the Lakers only when on a weekend pass.]

As amazing as LeBron James is (and he is amazing), the numbers clearly show that after six seasons Elgin Baylor was the better player. We all know about James' athletic ability and mind-boggling moves, but Elgin Baylor is the absolute prototype of the spectacular modern player. Before LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, before Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins, even before Julius Erving and Connie Hawkins, Elgin Baylor was the one making the moves on the court that nobody had ever seen before. And unlike those later players, half-a-century ago there was literally nobody to compare Baylor with. Nobody. He was a true original.

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LeBron James has an advantage over Baylor as a playmaker (although Baylor's assist numbers aren't too shabby), but Baylor was a more dominant scorer and a much better rebounder. And while James is pretty much a one-man gang on the Cavaliers, Baylor's teammate, Jerry West, averaged 25.8 PPG from '61 through '64 and Baylor still put up sensational numbers for the Lakers, which included a 38.3 average in 1961-62, the highest single-season average by a player other than Wilt Chamberlain (Ironically, that was the year Wilt averaged 50.4).

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It was in his eighth season that Baylor's knees began to drag him down and obviously we don't know what the future holds for LeBron James - only time will tell. But in the meantime, Elgin Baylor is the better player...

...so far.