Elgin Baylor is one of the greatest players in NBA history, and head of the “Best Players To Never Win A Title” class. Well, technically he has a championship ring, but it came under unusual circumstances: Baylor retired nine games into the 1971-72 season, after which his Lakers squad promptly ripped off 33 consecutive wins, on their way to the 1972 NBA Title. Baylor was ultimately awarded a ring for his brief services that season — a ring that is now fetching a hefty sum of $40,000 in an auction of Baylor’s memorabilia collection.
In addition to a plethora of treasures from his playing days, there’s a heavy dose of Los Angeles Clippers memorabilia (mostly in the form of game-worn shoes), which was obviously procured over Baylor’s 22 years as general manager of the much-maligned franchise. The list includes the following players: Grant Hill, Brent Barry, Rodney Rogers, Darius Miles, Danny Manning…you know what, let’s just say there are a lot of signed shoes. Most (aka, the Clippers players) have starting bids of $25, but there’s an assortment of Hall of Famers — Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Karl Malone, John Stockton — fetching $150-$200 starting bids (translation: nobody cares about the Clippers).
The auction starts Friday at 10 am, so if you really, really want that pair of Eric Piatkowski signed sneakers, consider this your heads up.
[Slam]
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