Sports Art Basketball UCLA Bruins NCAA Basketball Tournament

NCAA March Madness UCLA Basketball Art

 UCLA beats Michigan and for the Bruins it is a whole new series.   They have a shot at finals and we LA fans can be rooting for nothing more than to see them in do it.  UCLA certainly has the best history in the NCAA basketball tournaments.  I thought about saving this basketball art piece for later when UCLA moves on to the finals. But I do have my doubts of them beating No. 1 Gonzaga when they face them on Saturday.

 I know this has really has been a “March Madness” with there being 14 upsets in the NCAA tournament (13 being the previous record).  And UCLA accounted for 3 of them.  But the dream run is probably over. 

 UCLA Bruins Fan

 As a native of Los Angeles and living on the Westside of LA, the UCLA Bruins has always been the college that I followed - even though I had to go to another in the area college (bad GPA) - which shall remain nameless.  In my college years and after, UCLA was dominate in basketball under Coach Wooden.  He is a tough act to follow - but, we fans always have hopes.

Basketball Art Sports LA Lakers

Elgin Baylor Lakers Basketball

Before there was a three point line there was Elgin Baylor.   Before there was Michael Jordan there was Elgin Baylor. Elgin was named after the Elgin Marbles because his parents knew he would be a classic.  He was a mythic player rising above talents that played with him so you went to the basketball games to see him play.

LA Lakers Small Forward

Baylor’s hang time on a jump shot was like watching a guy shoot from a balloon.  And the basketball’s flight was so smooth it floated to the hoop.  His running bank shot was another classic launching other balloons that would float over bigger defenders.  Because of his height (6 feet 5 inches) he was considered an undersized rebounder.  Undersized?  That is like saying Magic Johnson is undersized, maybe standing next to "Shaq" O'Neal. As a “small forward” Baylor averaged 13.5 rebounds per game during his career, including 19.8 rebounds per game.   during the 1960–61 season — a season average exceeded by only five other players in NBA history, all of whom were 6 ft 8 in or taller.  (Thank you Wikipedia)  Those are “giant”  numbers. 

As a boy the NBA was still just starting to get attention to the general sports fan.  My dad took me to a lot of baseball games (Minor league as the Dodgers had not arrived in LA yet) and football. The Rams was the major sporting event to watch.  It wasn’t until the 1960-61 season that the Lakers  showed up in LA   When Baylor set a new NBA scoring record when he scored 71 points in the 1960–61season it was time for my dad and me to start paying attention to the NBA.