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Basketball has historically been a game dominated by taller players; in particular, when it comes to the paint area near the hoop, towering forwards and centers measuring close to seven feet tall battle each other to score and rebound. However, despite these archetypes, every so often an undersized player comes around and outplays the competition in spite of his height – during the NBA’s history, two undersized players fitting this description were 6’6” Charles Barkley and 6’5” Elgin Baylor. Though each player often gave up a few inches to the competition, both were 20-and-10 machines who played well above their height en route to Hall of Fame careers, thus prompting the question:
Who was better – Charles Barkley or Elgin Baylor?
The Beginning
While Barkley and Baylor were both lottery draft picks and made immediate NBA impacts, each took somewhat unconventional routes to becoming highly touted professional prospects.
An Alabama native, Barkley did not become a varsity basketball starter until his senior year of high school after a growth spurt from 5’10” to 6’4”; furthermore, he was not heavily recruited and did not get a scholarship offer from in-state Auburn until a stellar performance in the state semifinals against the state’s top recruit. Nevertheless, in three seasons at Auburn, Barkley led the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in rebounding each year, was a 3x All-SEC selection, and in his junior season, was both SEC Player of the Year and a Second Team All-American while leading the Tigers to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. Following his standout junior season, Barkley declared early for the 1984 NBA Draft and was selected fifth overall in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers; in the same draft, Hakeem Olajuwon went to the Houston Rockets at #1 overall and Michael Jordan went to the Chicago Bulls third. On a veteran 76ers team with Hall of Famers like Julius Erving and Moses Malone, Barkley averaged 14.0 points (on 54.5% shooting), 8.6 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game as a rookie to earn All-Rookie team honors.
Meanwhile, Baylor grew up in Washington D.C. with two brothers who also played basketball and was the best of the bunch, earning 3x All-City Player honors. However, he struggled academically and even dropped out of school at one point, but returned for his senior year of high school and was a First Team All-Met selection as well as the recipient of the SSA’s Livingstone Trophy for best player in the area. Academically ineligibility hampered his college recruitment, leading Baylor to the College of Idaho to play basketball and football; in 1956, he was drafted in the 14th round by the then-Minneapolis Lakers, but opted to stay in school. After just one season, Baylor sat out a year before joining Seattle University, where he once led the NCAA in rebounding and later guided the team to the 1958 NCAA Championship game before losing to blue blood program Kentucky. In 1958, Baylor was selected number one overall in the NBA Draft, once again by the Lakers and this time, joined the team and paid immediate dividends – as a rookie in 1958-1959, he averaged 24.9 points (though only 40.8% shooting), 15.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game to not only win Rookie of the Year, but also earn the first of 11 All-Star selections and the first of 10 First Team All-NBA nods.
Career Comparison
For more than a decade apiece in their respective eras, Barkley and Baylor were at the pinnacle of the game at their positions (power forward for Barkley, small forward for Baylor), consistently filling the statsheet with 20-and-10 every night while also racking up impressive individual achievements.
In just his second season with the 76ers, Barkley emerged as a Second Team All-NBA selection with 20.0 points (57.2% shooting), 12.8 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game; he would average a double-double every season for the rest of his career with at least 3 assists per game, including 20-and-10 for the next 11 seasons. The next season, after Malone was traded to the then-Washington Bullets, Barkley stepped up with the first of 11 straight All-Star selections, his only career rebounding title, and another Second Team All-NBA selection: 23.0 points (on 59.4% shooting), a career-high 14.6 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game. Then, with Erving’s retirement, Barkley became a First Team All-NBA selection in 1987-1988 on the strength of a career-high 28.3 points (58.7% shooting), 11.9 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game. This would mark the first of four straight First Team All-NBA selections where he averaged at least 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists per game each year; notably, in 1989-1990, Barkley finished second for MVP behind Magic Johnson with 25.2 points (on a career-high 60.0% shooting), 11.5 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game. Following another Second Team All-NBA season in 1991-1992, Barkley demanded a trade due to the team’s struggles and was sent to the Phoenix Suns for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry, and Andrew Lang.
During his four seasons in the desert, Barkley continued to flourish as an All-Star and All-NBA selection each year. In his first season with the Suns in 1992-1993, Barkley averaged 25.6 points (on 52.0% shooting), 12.2 rebounds, and a career-high 5.1 assists per game to not only earn his final First Team All-NBA nod, but also win league MVP honors. Despite being hampered by injuries, he posted back-to-back Second Team All-NBA seasons as an encore to his MVP campaign and finished his tenure in Phoenix with a Third Team All-NBA performance: 23.2 points (50.0% shooting), 11.6 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game. After the season, Barkley was traded to the Houston Rockets for Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant, and Chucky Brown, having become just the 10th player in league history to reach both 20,000 career points and 10,000 career rebounds.
In Houston, Barkley teamed with fellow future Hall of Famers Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and in 1996-1997, made his final All-Star appearance with 19.2 points (48.4% shooting), 13.5 rebounds (his highest mark since winning the rebounding title), and 4.7 assists per game. With Drexler’s retirement at season’s end, Scottie Pippen was brought in to form a new “Big Three”, but the trio did not develop the necessary chemistry in their one season together. While still a double-double machine, Barkley’s scoring average dipped to around 15 points per game in his final three seasons with the Rockets, which were limited by injuries. Finally, in 1999-2000, though he put up 14.5 points and 10.5 assists per game, Barkley ruptured his left quadriceps tendon in December to seemingly end his career, but came back for one final game in April before retiring at age 36.
As for Baylor, he followed up his stellar rookie season by improving to 29.6 points (42.4% shooting), 16.4 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game in 1959-1960, the Lakers’ last year in Minneapolis before moving to Los Angeles. In the half-dozen years after his rookie campaign, Baylor was an incredible force – he averaged at least 25 points and 12 rebounds per game each year, while also earning All-Star and First Team All-NBA status. In particular, during a three-year stretch of dominance that coincided with Jerry West joining the Lakers, Baylor averaged more than 30 points and 14 rebounds per game:
- 1960-1961: 34.8 points (43.0% shooting), a career-best 19.8 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game; also set a then-NBA record with 71 points in a game vs. the New York Knicks (which would soon be surpassed by Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game) and finished third for MVP
- 1961-1962: career-high 38.3 points (42.8% shooting), 18.6 rebounds, and 4.6 rebounds per game; finished fourth for MVP
- 1962-1963: 34.0 points (45.3% shooting), 14.3 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game; finished second for MVP to Bill Russell (this was the third straight year that Russell won MVP)
Following two more strong seasons in 1963-1964 (25.4 points and 12.0 rebounds per game) and 1964-1965 (27.1 points and 12.8 rebounds per game), Baylor suffered a severe knee injury in the 1965 playoffs that would impact him for the rest of his career. During the 1965-1966 season, he posted career-lows of “only” 16.6 points (on 40.1% shooting) and 9.6 rebounds per game, and it was the first time he was neither an All-Star nor an All-NBA selection. Nevertheless, Baylor returned to All-Star/All-NBA form in 1966-1967 on the strength of 26.6 points (42.9% shooting), 12.8 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game, and followed with another 25-and-10 season in 1967-1968 (26.0 points and 12.2 rebounds per game).
As he entered his mid-30s, Baylor remained an effective player, but was not quite the dominant force of his younger days. His final All-NBA season came in 1968-1969 with 24.8 points (44.7% shooting), 10.6 rebounds, and a career-best 5.4 assists per game. The year after, he made his final All-Star team by shooting a career-high 48.6% for 24.0 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game. However over his last two NBA seasons, Baylor was plagued by nagging injuries and only played a total of 11 games; in fact, nine games into the 1971-1972 season, Baylor retired at age 37.
In summary, Barkley played two more NBA seasons than Baylor, but due to the fact that Baylor essentially missed most of his last two years, this results in well over 200 additional games played. On a per-game numbers perspective, Baylor averaged more points (27.4 vs. 22.1 points per game), rebounds (13.5 vs. 11.5 rebounds per game), and assists (4.3 vs. 3.9 assists per game), but Barkley was a far more efficient shooter (54.1% vs. 43.1%). Their career achievements are very similar – both were 11x All-Stars and Barkley had one more All-NBA selection (11x vs. 10x) and an MVP award to his name (though Baylor finished top-three a number of times in his prime when Chamberlain and Russell were essentially winning MVP every year). Interestingly, if you encapsulate everything into one advanced metric, the story goes in Barkley’s favor, as he has the advantage in both Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and career Win-Shares. No surprise, both undersized giants were inducted to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot (Baylor in 1977 and Barkley in 2006).
Regular Season Statistics
| Charles Barkley | Player | Elgin Baylor |
| 16 (1984-2000) | Seasons | 14 (1958-1972) |
| 1,073 | Games Played | 846 |
| 22.1 | Points | 27.4 |
| 11.7 | Rebounds | 13.5 |
| 3.9 | Assists | 4.3 |
| 54.1% | Field Goal % | 43.1% |
| 73.5% | Free Throw % | 78.0% |
| 24.6 | PER | 22.7 |
| 177.2 | Win Shares | 104.2 |
| 11x | All-Star Games | 11x |
| 11x | All-NBA | 10x |
| 1x | MVP | – |
| – | NBA Titles | – |
| – | NBA Finals MVP | – |
| All-Rookie | Other Awards | ROY |
| 2006 | Hall of Fame Induction | 1977 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
While both Barkley and Baylor led their respective teams to the playoffs year in and year out, they are among the best players in NBA history to have never won a title, often thwarted by superior teams, e.g. the 1960s Boston Celtics and the 1980s Celtics/Lakers and 1990s Chicago Bulls.
Across 13 career playoff appearances (6x with the 76ers, 4x with the Suns, and 3x with the Rockets), Barkley made it to one NBA Finals during his 1992-1993 MVP season with Phoenix; however, they were defeated in six games by Michael Jordan and the Bulls despite Barkley’s 27.3 points, 13.0 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game during the series.
Baylor may be the most unlucky player in NBA history when it comes to championships – despite leading the Lakers to the playoffs in each of his first dozen seasons, including eight trips to the NBA Finals, they would lose each time. On seven occasions, the Lakers were defeated by the rival Celtics, with three of those matchups going to the full seven games (1962, 1966, and 1969); notably, in Game 5 of the 1962 NBA Finals, Baylor scored a Finals-record 61 points and also grabbed 22 rebounds. In his last healthy season, Baylor led the Lakers to the 1970 NBA Finals vs. the Knicks, but were again defeated in seven games. Ironically, after he retired shortly into the 1971-1972 season, the Lakers would go on to win 33 consecutive games and then take home the championship over the Knicks in five games; despite retiring earlier in the year, Baylor fittingly received a title ring.
Internationally, Barkley was part of both the original Dream Team and the Dream Team III that won gold medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1996 Games in Atlanta, respectively; on the other hand, Baylor had no notable experience playing for his country.
Playoff Statistics
| Charles Barkley | Player | Elgin Baylor |
| 123 | Games Played | 134 |
| 23.0 | Points | 27.0 |
| 12.9 | Rebounds | 12.9 |
| 3.9 | Assists | 4.0 |
| 51.3% | Field Goal % | 43.9% |
| 71.7% | Free Throw % | 76.9% |
| 24.2 | PER | 21.8 |
| 19.5 | Win Shares | 15.4 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; after being dominant forces for many seasons, both Barkley and Baylor struggled with injuries towards the end of their careers, particularly in their final NBA seasons. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Charles Barkley | Player | Elgin Baylor |
| 1986-1996 | Decade of Dominance | 1958-1965, 1966-1969 |
| 728 | Games Played | 716 |
| 24.7 | Points | 28.8 |
| 11.8 | Rebounds | 14.3 |
| 4.2 | Assists | 4.3 |
| 54.8% | Field Goal % | 42.9% |
| 74.3% | Free Throw % | 78.2% |
| 25.9 | PER | 23.2 |
| 132.1 | Win Shares | 93.2 |
Source: Basketball-Reference.com
In looking only at their 10 best seasons, the career trends for Barkley and Baylor are the same – Baylor had better per-game averages, but Barkley was more efficient and is viewed more favorably by advanced metrics.
My Thoughts
In the history of the NBA, Charles Barkley and Elgin Baylor were unique in their ability to overpower often much larger players en route to Hall of Fame careers. Both were often overshadowed by contemporary superstars, Barkley by Bird, Magic, Jordan, etc. and Baylor by Chamberlain, Russell, Oscar Robertson, and even his own teammate West. In the context of their respective eras, however, I think Baylor stood out more – yes, Barkley has the one MVP award, but Baylor’s numbers were superior, particularly in his prime, and one could argue that he deserved to win an MVP or two. Neither player technically won an NBA title (remember Baylor has the ring from the year he retired early in the season), but Baylor frequently led the Lakers to the Finals and would probably have a handful of rings were it not for the unstoppable Celtics dynasty of the 1960s. Overall, Baylor was more dominant individually and also had a bigger impact on team success.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Elgin Baylor
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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