During parts of three seasons, Elgin Baylor was New Orleans Jazz head coach. One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players of all time, Baylor had been a star forward for the Lakers in the 1960s.

The New Orleans Jazz were a debuting National Basketball Association (NBA) team in the 1974-75 season, a few years ahead of the arrival of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, who would help relaunch the ...

But the reason for it was an honor she never forgot. With the 137th pick in the 1977 NBA Draft, the New Orleans Jazz selected the 6-foot-3 center out of Delta State in the seventh round.

New Orleans Jazz Pete Maravich drives for a basket in the last period of National Basketball Association game against New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in New York on Friday, Dec. 31, 1977.

Following his playing career Baylor served as an assistant coach and then head coach of the New Orleans Jazz from 1974-1979 amassing an overall record of 86-135.