In 1959, a West Virginia hotel and local restaurants refused to serve Baylor and his African American teammates. As a way of protest, Baylor decided to boycott the game on Jan. 16, 1959, in Charleston, West Virginia. “He was a rookie NBA player, and, in those days, the NBA only had eight teams. It was fascinating to imagine the kind of travel and lives that they had, and they didn’t have a really big fan base. But Elgin was really the star of the team [Minneapolis Lakers], but he was turned away at the hotel when they got to West Virginia. That was enough. He said, ‘They can’t just let me out of a cage like an animal to play the game and not treat me like a human being the rest of the time,’” said Bryant.
