It's time to show Big E some love!

Seeing posts from time to time about who was the greatest power forward of all time or who was the greatest big man in Rockets history got me thinking about Elvin Hayes (Big E). He typically gets left off of those lists or at least usually gets moved closer to the bottom for various reasons. I’m not going to start a thread to try and justify where Elvin Hayes place among the great big men the Rockets should be but instead I just want to focus on who Elvin Hayes was as a player.

Houston Cougars

The truth is that I am more than just a little biased towards Elvin because he is a Houston Icon and because he was one of, if not my very first sports hero. His greatness started out with the University of Houston where he averaged 31 PPG and 17 RPG for his career. He led the Cougars to the final 4 in 1967 where he scored 25 points and had 24 rebounds in a losing effort to UCLA and Lew Alcindor. He got a little revenge on the Bruins and Alcindor several months later when he scored 35 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the Astrodome in what we know as The Game of the Century. That was the game that put Houston on the basketball map.

San Diego / Houston Rockets

In 1968 Elvin Hayes was drafted and started his career for the Rockets while the franchise was in only its second season in existence and still located in San Diego. Elvin Hayes instantly transformed the Rockets from a 15 win team in its inaugural season to a 37 win team in its second season and helped advance the Rockets to its first ever play-off series where they lost to the Atlanta Hawks 2 wins to 4 wins.

Big E also led the NBA in scoring and was 6th in rebounding as a rookie with averages of 28.1 Points Per Game and 17.1 Rebounds Per Game. No rookie has ever won the scoring title in the NBA again, not Lew Alcindor, Michael Jordan or Shaquille O’Neill. Wilt Chamberlain, George Mikan and Joe Folks are the only other rookies to have ever led the NBA in scoring. Folks was the first ever scoring leader in the NBA’s first season in 1947 when the league was still known as the Basketball Association of America (BAA) so technically all the players were rookies. Only Mikan, Chamberlain and Hayes can claim the honor in the league with established players. That’s pretty special.

Despite being only the 4th rookie to ever lead the NBA in scoring, and despite improving his team’s record by a total of 22 games, and despite leading a franchise into the play-offs in only its second season in existence, Elvin Hayes did not win Rookie of the Year. That honor went to his eventual teammate Wes Unseld. By comparison Unseld helped improve an established Washington Bullets team by 21 wins while Unseld averaged only 13.8 Points Per Game but did finish 5th in rebounding with an average of 18.2 Rebounds Per Game. Wes also won the NBA MVP that season that season while Big E was not even considered.

To this day I say that Wes winning Rookie of the Year and NBA MVP over Elvin Hayes is one of the worst cases of East Coast Bias there has ever been. Blocked Shots and Steals were not stats that were kept in those days or Elvin would have destroyed Unseld in both categories as Big E was one of the best shot blockers and exceptional at stealing the ball. In the later portion of Big E’s career when they started recording blocks and steals, Elvin Hayes had a high of 3 blocks per game and 1.9 steals per game. Wes Unseld never averaged a block per game…ever, although he did have one season where he averaged 1.6 steals per game but that was an anomaly for him. Big E was always a shot blocker and a ball hawk.


Here is the Elvin Hayes ‘by the numbers’ bio and how it compares to some other Houston Rockets big men in their time with the Rockets

Elvin Hayes

Code:

YR	Age	Pos	G	MP	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
67/68	23	C	82	45.1	17.1	1.4			28.4
68/69	24	C	82	44.7	16.9	2			27.5
69/70	25	C	82	44.3	16.6	2.3			28.7
70/71	26	C	82	42.2	14.6	3.3			25.2
81/82	36	PF	82	37	9.1	1.8	0.8	1.3	16.1
82/83	37	PF	81	28.4	7.6	2	0.6	1	12.9
83/84	38	PF	81	12.3	3.2	0.9	0.2	0.3	5
									

Moses Malone

Code:

YR	Age	Pos	G	MP	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
76/77	21	C	80	31.3	13.4	1.1	0.8	2.3	13.5
77/78	22	C	59	35.7	15	0.5	0.8	1.3	19.4
78/79	23	C	82	41.3	17.6	1.8	1	1.5	24.8
79/80	24	C	82	38.3	14.5	1.8	1	1.3	25.8
80/81	25	C	80	40.6	14.8	1.8	1	1.9	27.8
81/82	26	C	81	42	14.7	1.8	0.9	1.5	31.1

Ralph Sampson

Code:

YR	Age	Pos	G	MP	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
83/84	23	C	82	32.8	11.1	2	0.9	2.4	21
84/85	24	PF	82	37.6	10.4	2.7	1	2	22.1
85/86	25	PF	79	36.3	11.1	3.6	1.3	1.6	18.9
86/87	26	PF	43	30.8	8.7	2.8	0.9	1.3	15.6
87/88	27	PF	19	37.1	9.1	1.9	0.9	1.7	15.9

Hakeem Olajuwon

Code:

YR	Age	Pos	G	MP	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
84/85	22	C	82	35.5	11.9	1.4	1.2	2.7	20.6
85/86	23	C	68	36.3	11.5	2	2	3.4	23.5
86/87	24	C	75	36.8	11.4	2.9	1.9	3.4	23.4
87/88	25	C	79	35.8	12.1	2.1	2.1	2.7	22.8
88/89	26	C	82	36.9	13.5	1.8	2.6	3.4	24.8
89/90	27	C	82	38.1	14	2.9	2.1	4.6	24.3
90/91	28	C	56	36.8	13.8	2.3	2.2	3.9	21.2
91/92	29	C	70	37.7	12.1	2.2	1.8	4.3	21.6
92/93	30	C	82	39.5	13	3.5	1.8	4.2	26.1
93/94	31	C	80	41	11.9	3.6	1.6	3.7	27.3
94/95	32	C	72	39.6	10.8	3.5	1.8	3.4	27.8
95/96	33	C	72	38.8	10.9	3.6	1.6	2.9	26.9
96/97	34	C	78	36.6	9.2	3	1.5	2.2	23.2
97/98	35	C	47	34.7	9.8	3	1.8	2	16.4
98/99	36	C	50	35.7	9.6	1.8	1.6	2.5	18.9
99/00	37	C	44	23.8	6.2	1.4	0.9	1.6	10.3
00/01	38	C	58	26.6	7.4	1.2	1.2	1.5	11.9

Otis Thorpe

Code:

YR	Age	Pos	G	MP	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
88/90	26	PF	82	38.2	9.6	2.5	1	0.5	16.7
90/91	27	PF	82	35.9	9	3.2	0.8	0.3	17.1
91/92	28	PF	82	37.1	10.3	2.4	0.9	0.2	17.5
92/93	29	PF	82	37.3	10.5	3	0.6	0.5	17.3
93/94	30	PF	72	32.7	8.2	2.5	0.6	0.3	12.8
94/95	31	PF	82	35.5	10.6	2.3	0.8	0.3	14
95/96	32	PF	36	33	8.9	1.6	0.6	0.4	13.3

Charles Barkley

Code:

YR	Age	Pos	G	MP	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
96/97	33	PF	53	37.9	13.5	4.7	1.3	0.5	19.2
97/98	34	PF	68	33	11.7	3.2	1	0.4	15.2
98/99	35	PF	42	36.3	12.3	4.6	1	0.3	16.1
99/00	36	PF	20	31	10.5	3.2	0.7	0.2	14.5

Yao Ming

Code:

YR	Age	Pos	G	MP	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
2/03	22	C	82	29	8.2	1.7	0.4	1.8	13.5
3/04	23	C	82	32.8	9	1.5	0.3	1.9	17.5
4/05	24	C	80	30.6	8.4	0.8	0.4	2	18.3
5/06	25	C	57	34.2	10.2	1.5	0.5	1.6	22.3
6/07	26	C	48	33.8	9.4	2	0.4	2	25
7/08	27	C	55	37.2	10.8	2.3	0.5	2	22
8/09	28	C	77	33.6	9.9	1.8	0.4	1.9	19.7
10/11	30	C	5	18.2	5.4	0.8	0	1.6	10.2

Two things become obvious when looking at the numbers, Big E spent more time with the Rockets than Barkley, OT, Sampson and Malone. And the other is that Big E was an Iron Man by averaging 42 to 45 minutes a game his first 4 seasons and even averaging 37 minutes a game when he was 36 while only missing 2 games in 7 seasons. That is just unbelievable to me.

Big E might be one of the most underappreciated big men in the game of all time. I think a big reason for that is because although he spent most of his time playing Power Forward, he gets compared to the great centers of the league like Wilt, Kareem, Moses, Dream and Shaq. I think the other reason is because he played such a large part of his career in Houston and when he was in Washington winning NBA titles, he was overshadowed by the perception of his teammate, Wes Unseld.

Washington Bullets and Teaming With Wes Unseld

Wes Unseld was a terrific defensive center but he only averaged 2 double digit scoring seasons while Elvin was on the team. Together Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes formed the best Center / Power Forward combo in the league for half of a decade. Together they led the Bullets to 3 NBA Championship series, losing to Rick Berry and Golden State once, winning against Seattle with Jack Sikma and Gus Williams and then losing to them in the rematch the following season.

In 1975 when the Bullets won the NBA Championship, Elvin Hays was the leading scorer on the team as he averaged 21 Points Per Game. We Unseld averaged 8 Point Per Game in that same series. Of course Wes Unseld won the MVP and not Elvin Hayes. But I’m not bitter. I don’t think the East Coast Media ever looked at Elvin Hayes as one of their own since his he was drafted and played the first several seasons as a Rocket, first on the West Coast and then in Houston.

In fairness, Wes Unseld was looked upon as a leader and an elite center and rebounder from the day he was drafted by the Bullets. While Big E was an elite scorer, rebounder, shot blocker and ball hawk as a big man, he was also seen as a bit of a black hole when the ball was passed to him which may have contributed to him being traded from the Rockets in 1972. While he was an elite shot blocker he was not necessarily considered an elite defender (although he is 8th all time in Defensive Wins Shares and led the league 3 times in that category during his career) only making the All-Defensive Team twice and then only on the second team. In today’s game those traits would be considered a small price to pay for the superior production the Rockets and Bullets got from Hayes.

Hall of Fame

But Elvin Hayes greatness cannot be denied. He went to the all star game his first 12 seasons in the NBA. He was All-NBA 6 times and 1st team 3 times. He never won the MVP but finished 3rd in voting twice. Big E was All-Defensive 2nd team twice. Big E was enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990 and was without question the single best Power Forward of the 1970s and is in the discussion with Bob Pettit, Kevin McHale, Tim Duncan and Karl Malone as the best Power Forward ever IMO.

It’s time to show Elvin Hayes (The Big E) some love!

 

Didn't Elvin boycott the the HoF until they enshrined Guy V Lewis?

 

Not really wanting to make this about ranking Elvin Hayes vs other big men since it will just cause player bashing of great players. If you want to rank Yao over Elvin then that's your choice I'm not going to debate it here.

Ill just leave it at this, Elvin wasn't as bad of a defensive player as you are trying to portray. He has elite at blocking shots and was probably as good or better than any big at stealing the ball prior to Hakeem.

 

What are you talking about? The Rockets improved by 22 freekin games because of Big E. In just the 2nd year of the franchise Elvin turned them from a 15 game winner to a play-off team. Elvin led the Bullets to 3 NBA championship series and winning 1.

Big E made the All-Defensive team twice. Big E is a 12 time all-star, an NBA Champion, etc...

Are you seriously going to bash Big E? Because it comes off very trollish. Elvin Hayes is a Hall of Fame player for a reason. If winning an NBA championship is not enough for you then you need to change the way you look at things.

 

It was relevant to my original post. This is a thread to praise Big E period. Did you even bother to read the post. I explained in the opening paragraph. Even as a Rocket he was an all time great. Sheesh

 

That about covers it. Rob Williams deserves to be in the conversation though. He was the best player on a team that had Drexler and Dream but of course they were under class men.

 

If they had kept stats on blocked shots and steals he would have had a ton. I think it was his 6th season before they even started keeping that stat.

 

I saw a video of the game of the century on YouTube the other day and Don Cheney. Great stuff. I only wish it was as easy to watch basket games then as it is now.