SCORECARDloved the fast break, but Baylor
was in no shape for a track meet.
In fact, there were issues with
him within the organization even
before Sharman arrived. In early
June, Baylor, who had starred at
Seattle, was offered the coaching
job at Washington. “It might be a
very good thing for Elgin,” Schaus
said. “This could be an excellent
opportunity.” It wasn’t exactly
begging him to stick around.
Then there was Chamberlain.
From the outset, he was stoic about
the decision to change leadership.
“It’s just like moving from one
house to another,” he said. “It’s a
lot of work—work that could be
saved but isn’t.”
The Big Dipper knew all about
moving houses. He uttered those
words from a trailer on a lot in the
Santa Monica mountains, where he
was building an 8,300-square-foot
mansion with a 360-degree view—
and no right angles. “We borrowed
an idea from Frank Lloyd Wright
and made the house a series of
interlocking equilateral triangles,”
Chamberlain wrote. That included
the sunken marble bathtub and a
14-foot front door.
After a week of training camp
at Loyola the Lakers were off to
Hawaii, an annual preseason trip
that usually meant light workouts
and plenty of beach time. Sharman,
though, put the team through
morning practices in a stif ling
National Guard armory, then
had them report for an afternoon
meeting and an evening scrimmage.
There was a lot of running by
the players, and a lot of yelling
about running by the coach, who
developed a sore throat exhorting
them to move faster. Said West, “I
went over there with a suntan and
came back without it.”
The regular season began with a
four-game road trip in mid-October:three easy wins followed by a
game in Atlanta that was close for
three quarters. Just after halftime,
West turned his ankle going for a
rebound, an injury that sidelined
him for two weeks. The Lakers
went 2–3 without him, but while
Baylor’s numbers (11.8 points
in 26.6 minutes per game) were
passable, it was clear that he didn’t
fit into Sharman’s up-tempo system.
What happened next depends
on whom you ask. Baylor wrote in
his 2018 autobiography, Hang Time,
that Sharman requested a meeting,
which he avoided for a few days.
When Baylor finally checked in, the
coach told him that Jim McMillian,
a second-year forward fromColumbia, would be replacing him
in the lineup, prompting Baylor to
retire on the spot.
According to Charley Rosen’s
2005 book, The Pivotal Season,
which included interviews with
Sharman before he died in ’13,
Sharman and Schaus summoned
Baylor after practice Nov. 2, two
days after a loss to the Warriors.
When they told him he’d lost his
starting job, Baylor pleaded for more
time to get into shape, but Sharman
held firm. What everyone agrees on
is that on Nov. 4, Baylor announced
his retirement. The next night West
would return to the lineup to face
the Washington Bullets—and the
Lakers would embark upon an
unprecedented run.THE AMAZING thing about the
33-game winning streak is how easy
the Lakers made it look. The Bullets
kept things close, but eventually
Chamberlain’s defense and a
22-point, 13-rebound performance26 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM
LO
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OT
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RA
PH
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GO GO LOGO
Because he missed
a few losses due to
injury, West had a
personal winning
streak that reached 37.