Elgin Baylor was a high-profile rookie in 1958-59. Although he lost the 1958 NCAA championship game with Seattle, he still earned the Final Four Most Outstanding Player Award. Shortly after, he was the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft by the Minneapolis Lakers.

Midway through his first season, in which he was Rookie of the Year, All-Star Game MVP and first team All-NBA, the Lakers played a neutral-site game in Charleston, West Virginia. The opponent, the Cincinnati Royals, were close to Charleston and Lakers superstar "Hot Rod" Hundley called the city his hometown. 

When the Lakers arrived at their Charleston hotel, they were told Baylor and two other black players would not be allowed to stay. The Lakers subsequently picked their stuff up and stayed at a black motel as a team in the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

But that wasn't enough for Baylor. Despite attempted persuasion from the team and Hundley, he opted to sit out the game.

"I got the guys together and said, 'Listen, if we don't stay together, I'm not gonna be part of it.,'" Baylor remembers. "I told the coach that. I told him I wasn't going to play. And I didn't. We lost and the media the next day blasted me. But I thought it was the right thing to do."

At a recent Thuzio event in Los Angeles, Baylor retold the story to Yogi Roth. Baylor, 83, released his memoir, "Hang Time" with Alan Eisenstock, this past April.

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