Elvin Hayes

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Elvin Hayes
Position	Forward, Center
Nickname	The Big E
Height	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Weight	235 lb (107 kg)
Nationality	United States
Born	November 17, 1945 Rayville, Louisiana
College	University of Houston
Draft	1st Round, 1^st overall, 1968 San Diego Rockets
Pro career	1968 – 1984
Former teams	San Diego Rockets 1968–71 Houston Rockets 1971–72 Baltimore Bullets 1972–73 Capital Bullets 1973–74 Washington Bullets 1974–81 Houston Rockets 1981–84
Awards	Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Player Inductee (1990) NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)

Elvin Ernest Hayes (born November 17, 1945 in Rayville, Louisiana) is considered as one of the all-time great collegiate and professional basketball players. He is a member of the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

1 College life in Houston
2 NBA career
3 Stats and honors
4 External links
5 Further reading

[edit] College life in Houston

Hayes and Don Chaney were the University of Houston's first African American Basketball players in 1966.

On January 20, 1968, the Big E and the Houston Cougars faced Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and the UCLA Bruins in the first-ever nationally televised college basketball game. In front of a record 52,693 fans at the Houston Astrodome, Hayes scored 39 points and had 15 rebounds while limiting Alcindor to just 15 points as Houston beat UCLA 71-69 to snap the Bruins 47-game winning streak in what has been called the "Game of the Century". That game helped earned Hayes The Sporting News College Basketball Player Of The Year.

One month later, he grabbed a career-high 37 rebounds in a game against Centenary on February 10.

Hayes led Houston in scoring (1966 27.2 points per game, 1967 28.4, and 1968 36.8). For his college career, Hayes averaged 31.0 points per game and 17.2 rebounds per game.

[edit] NBA career

Hayes joined the NBA with the San Diego Rockets in 1968 and in his rookie year, he scored a career-high 54 points against the Detroit Pistons on November 11 of that year. As a rookie, Hayes led the NBA in scoring with 28.4 points per game, averaged 17.1 rebounds per game, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team.

In 1972, Hayes was traded to the Baltimore Bullets, where he teamed with Hall-Of-Famer Wes Unseld to form a fierce and dominating frontcourt combination that led the Bullets to 3 NBA Finals (1975, 1978, and 1979, and an NBA title over The Seattle SuperSonics in 1978. He shined brightly, especially in the NBA playoffs. During the Bullets' championship season (1978), he averaged 21.8 points and 12.1 rebounds per game in 21 playoff games. One year later, he set an NBA Finals record for most offensive rebounds in a game (11), in a May 27, 1979 game against the SuperSonics.

Hayes had a career scoring average of 21.0 points and 12.5 rebounds per game. The "Big E" closed out his career with the Rockets in 1984, who had since relocated to Houston.

[edit] Stats and honors

In his career with the San Diego/Houston Rockets and the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets, Hayes played 1,303 games over 16 seasons, registering 27,313 points (eighth all-time) and 16,279 rebounds (sixth all-time). Hayes never missed more than two games in any of his 16 seasons in the NBA. In addition to his 1968 scoring title, he led the NBA in rebounding in 1970 and 1974. The 18.1 rebounds per game Hayes averaged in 1974 is the third highest rebounding average of any NBA player since Wilt Chamberlain retired in 1973. Hayes played in twelve straight NBA All-Star Games from 1969 to 1980.

Hayes was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team during the 1996-97 NBA season and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990.