HAYES, ELVIN

born Nov. 17, 1945, Rayville, La., U.S. Hayes of the Washington Bullets dunking the ball over Phil Jackson (18) and Bob McAdoo of the New in full Elvin Ernest Hayes African-American basketball player who was one of the most prolific scorers and rebounders in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After averaging 35 points per game in high school in Louisiana, Hayes went to the University of Houston, where he was named All-America three times. He averaged 31 points and 17.2 rebounds per game for Houston and was selected as the College Player of the Year in 1968. A highlight of that year occurred when Hayes scored 39 points as Houston ended the 47-game winning streak of the University of California at Los Angeles in front of 52,693 people at the Houston Astrodome. At 6 feet 9 inches (2.1 m), Hayes was known as the Big E. He was the first pick in the 1968 NBA draft and led the league in scoring as a rookie with 28.4 points per game for the San Diego (later Houston) Rockets. He also averaged 17.1 rebounds. In 1971 he averaged a career-best 28.7 points, along with 16.6 rebounds, per game. Hayes was traded to the Baltimore Bullets in 1972 and helped lead the team, which by then had moved to Washington, to the 1978 NBA title. He was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals as Washington defeated the Seattle SuperSonics. He was traded back to the Rockets in 1981, where he played the final three of his 16 professional seasons. He played in the NBA All-Star game in each of his first 12 years in the league. When Hayes retired in 1984, he ranked as the second-leading scorer in league history with 27,313 points, an average of 21 per game, and was third in number of rebounds with 16,279 (12.5 per game). His 50,000 minutes of playing time in 1,303 games were NBA records that were later broken by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Hayes was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990. He was named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players in 1996.