Elvin Hayes biography

 Elvin Hayes biography

 Elvin Hayes, in full Elvin Ernest Hayes, (born Nov. 17, 1945, Rayville, La., U.S.), American basketball participant who was probably the most prolific scorers and rebounders within the historical past of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

After averaging 35 factors per sport in highschool in Louisiana, Hayes went to the University of Houston (Texas), the place he was named All-America thrice. He averaged 31 factors and 17.2 rebounds per sport for Houston and was chosen because the College Player of the Year in 1968. That 12 months Hayes scored 39 factors as Houston ended the 47-game successful streak of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in entrance of 52,693 individuals on the Houston Astrodome; it was the primary nationally televised collegiate basketball sport.

At 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m), Hayes was generally known as the Big E. He was the primary decide within the 1968 NBA draft and led the league in scoring as a rookie with 28.4 factors per sport for the San Diego (later Houston) Rockets. He additionally averaged 17.1 rebounds. Hayes was traded to the Baltimore (Md.) Bullets in 1972 and led the crew, which by 1975 had moved to Landover, Md., and renamed themselves the Washington Bullets, to the 1978 NBA title.

When Hayes retired in 1984, he ranked because the second-leading scorer in league historical past with 27,313 factors, a mean of 21 per sport, and was third in rebounds with 16,279 (12.5 per sport). He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990 and was named one of many NBA’s 50 best gamers in 1996.