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- George Mikan

In a college game against Rhode Island State U., playing for DePaul U., outscored the entire RI team, with 53 points
At 6'10" (2.08 m) and 250 lbs (113 k), considered the first "big man" of basketball
Knocked so many shots away from the basket, the NCAA instituted a rule prohibiting goaltending
In 1949, when his team, the Minnesota Lakers, was in NY to play against the Knicks, Madison Square Garden's marquee read "Geo. Mikan vs. Knicks"
In 1950, voted greatest player in first half-century of basketball by AP
Indirectly responsible for creation of 24-second clock; Fort Wayne Pistons held the ball during the game rather than let Mikan get it. They won, 19-18, in the lowest-scoring game in NBA history
As ABA commissioner in 1967, introduced the 3-point line and the distinctive red, white and blue ball

"I guess I've done just about everything in life people told me I wasn't able to do." – George Mikan

George Mikan

George Mikan (born 1924) has been described by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as" the first dominant big man in professional basketball and the game's first superstar." At six feet, ten inches, he towered over most other college and professional players of the 1940s and 1950s. As a player for the Minneapolis Lakers (later the Los Angeles Lakers), Mikan repeatedly helped lead the team to league championships. When he retired after nine professional seasons, Mikan held the record for the most career points scored, 11,764.

No one who knew George Lawrence Mikan as a boy would have guessed that he would grow up to become one of the first superstars of professional basketball. Born into a Croatian family in a small Illinois town, Mikan was one of three brothers, all of whom helped out at the family's restaurant. All of the brothers were tall, but George Mikan stood out from other boys his age. By the time he was 11, he was well over six feet tall and often was the target of taunting, because he also was very awkward and wore thick glasses. Mikan's only early sports interest was the game of marbles, in which he won a countywide marble-shooting championship.

When he entered high school, Mikan made the basketball team but was cut after the coach found out he could not play without his glasses. Mikan began to play on the local Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) team but soon afterward broke his leg when he stepped on a ball. His great height - which eventually topped at six feet, ten inches - was accompanied by very brittle bones, a problem that would plague him throughout his basketball career. Mikan's doctor thought that he would not be able to play again after breaking his leg, and he could not even walk normally for more than a year. He decided to become a priest, but then began to play again once his leg healed. Hoping for an athletic scholarship to Notre Dame University, Mikan was crushed when the school's coach told him he never could be a good basketball player because he was too tall and slow. Although many more recent players have been even taller than Mikan, at that time he was viewed almost as a freak.

Fortunately for Mikan, another school viewed him differently. DePaul University then was little known in the world of basketball. It had just hired a new coach, Ray Meyer, who saw Mikan play and decided to work with the tall, awkward boy with thick glasses. DePaul gave him a full athletic scholarship, a decision it never regretted. Meyer helped Mikan to condition his body and shoot more accurately - and also to stop being embarrassed about his height.

All of this work paid off when Mikan blossomed into a star center for the DePaul team. Centers traditionally had simply swatted the ball away from the opposing team, leaving it to other players to shoot baskets, but Mikan also became an excellent scorer. In fact, his protection of the basket was perhaps too good; men's basketball rules were changed during his college years to prohibit goaltending, which forced him to stand farther from the basket. However, this change barely affected his playing or his team's success. Mikan led all college teams in scoring for the 1944-45 and 1945-46 seasons, averaging more than 23 points per game both years. He became a three-time All-American and was named college player of the year in 1946. In a championship semifinal game against Rhode Island - won by DePaul 97-53 - Mikan set a Madison Square Garden record by scoring 53 points.

Led Lakers to Championships

When Mikan graduated from DePaul in 1946, he went to the Chicago Gears professional team with a five-year contract. His $12,000 annual salary was the highest ever paid to a basketball player. During his rookie season, Mikan scored an average of 16.5 points per game and helped the Gears win their league's championship. Although Mikan drew many new fans, the Gears were financially unstable and the team went bankrupt after his rookie season. Johnny Kundla, coach of the new franchise Minneapolis Lakers, picked Mikan. Setting up this new team did not go smoothly. Kundla, a college coach, had been the Lakers' third choice for coach, and they originally had selected another player as starting center for the team. When Mikan was offered this job, he thought that Minnesota was too far from his home base in Chicago. But he was convinced to sign on after he met with the management, missed his flight home, and the sportswriter who was driving him convinced him how wonderful the area was. The Lakers outdid the Gears' record salary offer to Mikan, giving him a one-year contract for $12,500.

After Mikan began playing for the Lakers in 1947, he became the first real celebrity of professional basketball. When the team traveled to New York City's Madison Square Garden, the marquee would read "Tonight: George Mikan vs. Knicks." Many fans came just to see this giant of a man play. Some sportswriters credit him with saving basketball as a professional sport, especially since various franchises and leagues would open and then fold within a few years. Although Mikan often dominated the court, he was not a one-man team. During the late 1940s and early 1950s the Lakers also acquired such outstanding players as Jim Pollard, Vern Mikkelsen, and Slater Martin. With this outstanding team in place, the Lakers went on to win league championships in six out of seven years (1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, and 1954). In 1950 the Associated Press named Mikan the greatest basketball player of the first half of the twentieth century. The Lakers lost to Rochester in the division finals in 1951, probably because Mikan had been injured. He insisted on playing in the series against Rochester with a fractured leg. Mikan described these games for Newsday in 1990: "The doctors taped a plate on it [the broken leg] for the playoffs. I played all right, scored in the 20s. I couldn't run, sort of hopped down the court."

Other teams used many tricks to stop the Lakers, usually unsuccessfully. The strategy with the oddest outcome was one the Fort Wayne Pistons tried during a game in 1950. Since the Lakers were averaging 84 points per game, the Pistons decided to play slowly to reduce the scoring possibilities. At that time there was no rule limiting a team's time of possession, so the Pistons spent much of the game walking and standing with the ball. The strategy worked; the Pistons won by a score of 19-18, the lowest point total in National Basketball League (NBA) history. But even in this game the Pistons could not stop Mikan, who scored 15 of the Lakers' 18 points. The 24-second shot clock was instituted a few years later, largely in response to this game.

Following the 1953-54 season, Mikan surprised basketball fans by announcing his retirement. He was only 30, but the sport had taken a heavy toll on his body. During his career he had fractured both of legs, both feet, a wrist, several fingers, and his nose (numerous times). He had had 166 stitches, suffered from a permanent limp, lost a kneecap, and could not straighten his arms fully. Mikan also wanted to spend more time with his family. As he recalled for Sports Illustrated in 1989, "I came home one day and picked up my second son, Terry, and he began crying. He was afraid of me, because he didn't know who I was. It broke my heart." Despite his physical condition, Mikan was persuaded to return to the Lakers for the 1955-56 season. However, his best playing days clearly were over; he played in only 37 games and scored only 390 points. After that season, Mikan once again announced his retirement, this time for good. During his nine-season professional career, Mikan had led the league in scoring six times (1946-52). He also set a league record by scoring a career total of 11,764 points (an average of 22.6 points per game).

Returned to World of Sports

The season after Mikan retired permanently from professional playing, John Kundla - who had coached the Lakers since their founding - decided to move into the team's front office. Mikan seemed the logical choice to replace Kundla, but his coaching career, which lasted only the first half of the 1957-58 season, was short and disastrous. The Lakers started with a 9-30 record, and Mikan stepped down to let Kundla finish coaching the season. The Lakers could not rise again to the heights of their championship years and they lost many fans. And the stadium they used held only 8,000 people; it often was booked with trade shows during playoff season and the Lakers had to rent college gyms. In 1960 the team's management announced that it was leaving Minnesota and moving to Los Angeles, which had no professional franchise. Mikan decided to leave basketball entirely; he practiced law, renovated real estate in Minneapolis, and spent more time with his family. One consolation to him had to be that, when the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame elected its first inductees in 1959, Mikan was one of the players honored.

In 1967 Mikan returned to his beloved sport as the first commissioner of the new and short-lived American Basketball Association (ABA). During his two years as commissioner, he created the league's distinctive red, white, and blue basketball. Mikan then once again returned to his law practice but could not stay away from sports for long. In the mid-1980s Mikan and a group of Minneapolis businessmen convinced the National Basketball Association (NBA) to start a new team in Minnesota, the Timberwolves. He also became involved in a number of other business enterprises such as a California recreational vehicle company. In 1993 Mikan discovered a new sport: roller hockey. When Dennis Murphy (who also had founded the ABA) decided to expand his Roller Hockey International franchises, he asked Mikan to buy a team, and Mikan became the owner of the new Chicago Cheetahs.

Mikan looked back on his career and at modern basketball for Sports Illustrated in 1996. He acknowledged that the game had undergone huge changes. For instance, during his professional career Mikan's salary was only a fraction of what has been paid to superstars in recent years, and there were only a few thousand fans at many games. Mikan expressed one regret about the direction of the game: that it lacked the teamwork passing of earlier days, when "going upcourt, the ball wouldn't hit the floor."

Books

Goodman, Michael E., Los Angeles Lakers, Creative Education, 1998.

Heuman, William, Famous Pro Basketball Stars, Dodd, Mead, 1970.

Hickok, Ralph, A Who's Who of Sports Champions, Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

Lace, William W., The Los Angeles Lakers Basketball Team, Enslow Publishers, 1998.

Rainbolt, Richard, Basketball's Big Men, Lerner Publications, 1975.

Periodicals

Basketball Digest, January 2001, p. 74.

Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1989, p. 128; August 22, 1994, p. 52; November 11, 1996, p. 76.

Online

"The Fifty Greatest Players in NBA History: George Mikan," NBA at 50,http://www.nba.com/nbaat50/greats/mikan.html (January 18, 2001).

"George Mikan," Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame,http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/Mikan.htm (January 18, 2001).

"NBA Legends: George Mikan," NBA History,http://www.nba.com/history/mikan-bio.html (January 18, 2001).

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Library

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: George Lawrence Mikan

(born June 18, 1924, Joliet, Ill., U.S. — died June 1, 2005, Scottsdale, Ariz.) U.S. basketball player and executive. He was an outstanding centre at DePaul University, where he also took his law degree. Standing about 6 ft 10 in. (2.08 m) tall, he was the first of the dominant big men in post-World War II professional basketball. He played for the Minneapolis Lakers (now the Los Angeles Lakers) in 1947 – 54 and 1955 – 56, leading them to six championships. He was later named the first commissioner of the American Basketball Association (1967 – 69). An Associated Press poll in 1950 named him the greatest basketball player of the first half of the 20th century.

For more information on George Lawrence Mikan, visit Britannica.com.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Mikan, George Lawrence

(mĭk'ən) , 1924–2005, American basketball player, b. Joliet, Ill. After leading De Paul Univ. to the 1945 National Invitational Tournament title and being named All-America three times (1944–46), he played (1948–54, 1955–56) for the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and led them to five championships from 1949 to 1954. The first dominant “big man” in the NBA and a key figure in the rise of professional basketball, Mikan subsequently became a lawyer and was later (1967–69) the first commissioner of the rival American Basketball Association.

Wikipedia: George Mikan

George Mikan
Position	Center
Nickname	Mr. Basketball
Height	ft in ( m)
Weight	lb ( kg)
Nationality	USA
Born	June 18 1924(1924--) Joliet, Illinois
Died	June 1 2005 (aged 80) Scottsdale, Arizona
College	DePaul
Pro career	1946–1956
Former teams	Chicago American Gears
Awards	Seven NBL, BAA and NBA championships 1953 All-Star Game MVP Member of the first four NBA All-Star Teams Member of the first six All-BAA and All-NBA Teams Greatest Player of the First Half-Century (1950) 25th NBA Anniversary Team (1970) 35th NBA Anniversary Team (1980) NBA 50 Greatest Players (1996) Inventor of the shot block
Hall of Fame	1959

George Lawrence Mikan, Jr. (June 18, 1924 – June 1, 2005), nicknamed Mr. Basketball, was an American professional basketball player for the Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBL, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Invariably playing with thick, round spectacles, the 6 ft 10 in 245 lb. Mikan is seen as one of the pioneers of professional basketball, redefining it as a game of so-called big men with his prolific rebounding, shot blocking and his talent to shoot over smaller defenders with his ambidextrous hook shot, result of his own Mikan Drill.^[1]

Mikan had a successful player career, winning seven NBL, BAA and NBA championships, an All-Star MVP trophy, three scoring titles and being member of the first four NBA All-Star and the first six All-BAA and All-NBA Teams. Mikan was so dominant that he caused several rule changes in the NBA, among them widening the foul lane — known as the "Mikan Rule" — and introducing the shot clock.^[2]

After his player career, Mikan became one of the founding fathers of the American Basketball Association (ABA), and was also vital for the forming of the Minnesota Timberwolves. In his later years, Mikan was involved in a long-standing legal battle against the NBA, fighting against the meager pensions for players who had retired before the league became lucrative. Mikan died after a long-standing battle against diabetes.^[3]

For his feats, Mikan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959, made the 25th and 35th NBA Anniversary Teams of 1970 and 1980 and was elected one of the NBA 50 Greatest Players in 1996. Since April 2001, a statue of Mikan shooting his trademark hook shot graces the entrance of the Timberwolves' Target Center.^[2]

Early years

George Mikan was born in Joliet, Illinois to Croatian parents with roots in Vivodina near Karlovac.^[4]Zubrinic, Darko (2007-02-23). Croatian History: Sports. As a boy, he shattered his knee so badly that he was kept in bed for a year and a half. In 1938, Mikan attended the Chicago Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary and originally wanted to be a priest, but then moved back home to finish at Joliet Catholic.^[5] Mikan did not seem destined to become an athlete. When Mikan entered Chicago's DePaul University in 1942, he was 6 feet 10 tall and weighed 245 pounds, and moved awkwardly because of his frame, and needed thick glasses for his near-sightedness.^[6]

DePaul University

However, Mikan met 28-year-old rookie DePaul basketball coach Ray Meyer, who saw potential in the bright and intelligent, but also clumsy and shy freshman. Put into perspective, Meyer's thoughts were revolutionary, because back then, common sense dictated that tall players were too awkward to ever play basketball well.^[5] In the following months, Meyer transformed Mikan into a confident, aggressive player who took pride in his height rather than being ashamed of it. Meyer and Mikan worked out intensively, and Mikan learned how to make hook shots accurately with either hand. This routine would become later known as the Mikan Drill.^[6] In addition, Meyer made Mikan punch a speed bag, take dancing lessons and jump rope to make him a complete athlete.^[3]

From his first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) college games for DePaul on, Mikan dominated his peers. He intimidated opponents with his size and strength, was unstoppable on offense with his hook shot, and soon established a reputation as one of the hardest and grittiest players in the league, often playing through injury and punishing opposing centers with hard fouls.^[5] In addition, Mikan also stunned the basketball world by his unique ability of goaltending, i. e. jumping so high that he swatted the ball away before it could pass the hoop. In today's basketball, touching the ball after it reaches its apogee is forbidden, but in Mikan's time it was legal because people thought it was impossible anyone could reach that far up high. "We would set up a zone defense that had four men around the key and I guarded the basket," Mikan later recalled his DePaul days. "When the other team took a shot, I'd just go up and tap it out." As a consequence, the NCAA and later the NBA outlawed goaltending.^[1]

Mikan was named NCAA College Player of the Year twice in 1945 and 1946 and an All-American three times, leading DePaul to the NIT title in 1945. Mikan led the nation in scoring with 23.9 points per game in 1944-45 and 23.1 in 1945-46. When DePaul won the 1945 National Invitation Tournament, Mikan was named Most Valuable Player for scoring 120 points in three games, including 53 points in a 97-53 win over Rhode Island, outscoring the entire Rhode Island team.^[6]

Professional player career

NBL Chicago American Gears (1946–47)

After the end of the 1945-46 college season, Mikan signed with the Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League, a predecessor of the modern NBA. He played with them for seven games at the end of the 1946 NBL season, scoring an impressive 16.5 points per game in his rookie games. Mikan led the Gears to the championship of the World Basketball Tournament. In the WBT, Mikan was elected Most Valuable Player after scoring 100 points in five games, and also voted into the All-NBL Team.^[1]^[6]

However, before the start of the 1947-48 NBL season Maurice White, the president of the American Gear Company and the owner of the American Gears NBL team, pulled the team out of the league. White planned to create a 24-league team called the Professional Basketball League of America, in which he owned all the teams and arenas. However, the PBLA folded after just a month, and the players of White's teams were equally distributed among the 11 remaining NBL franchises. As a consequence, every team had a 9.1% chance of landing the basketball prodigy Mikan. With a stroke of good luck, the Minneapolis Lakers landed him.^[1]

NBL and BAA Minneapolis Lakers (1947–49)

In the 1947-48 NBL season, Mikan donned his trademark number 99 Minneapolis Lakers jersey for the first time and joined high-flying Jim "The Kangaroo Kid" Pollard and fellow wing man Vern Mikkelsen to form one of the first great frontlines of professional basketball. Under the tutelage of coach John Kundla, Mikan averaged an 21.3 points per game in the regular season. The Lakers Minneapolis Auditorium also favorably influenced Mikan's game, as it was several feet narrower than other courts and therefore even better suited for so-called big men.^[7] Powered by his strong play, the Lakers dominated the Western Division. They charged through the playoffs and defeated the Rochester Royals 3-1 in the 1948 NBL Finals. In that series, Mikan averaged an incredible 27.5 points per game.^[1]

Before the 1948-49 NBL season started, the Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the Indianapolis Kautskys defected to the rival league BAA. The advantage of the BAA was it housed big-city franchises like the New York Knicks, the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia Warriors and the Chicago Stags, making it lucrative. After adding the four NBL teams, the BAA now had Mikan, Pollard, Mikkelsen and several other crowd-pulling players.^[1]

In the 1948-49 BAA season, Mikan scored an unbelievable 28.3 points per game accompanied by 3.6 assists per game,^[8] scoring one-third of the Lakers point total and winning the scoring title by a huge margin; apart from Mikan, only Philadelphia's Joe Fulks, who became one of the co-inventors of the jump shot, and Chicago Stags player Max Zaslofsky managed to average 20+ points.^[1]

On December 14, 1949, the Lakers visited Madison Square Garden to play against the New York Knicks. On that day, the marquee of the Garden advertised the game with [sic] "WED BASKETBALL GEO MIKAN V/S KNICKS". So when Mikan walked into the locker room before the game, he was surprised to see his teammates still sitting in their street clothes, joking: "They're advertising you're playing against the Knicks, so go play them. We'll wait here." This would become one of the most popular Mikan anecdotes.^[1]

The Lakers stormed all the way to the 1949 BAA Finals, where Mikan's team played against the Washington Capitols, coached by Red Auerbach. The Lakers quickly took a 3-0 edge, but then, Mikan broke his wrist in Game 4. The Capitols escaped with the win, and also won Game 5, despite Mikan scoring 22 points with his hand in a cast. However, in Game 6, the Lakers convincingly won 77-56 and won the BAA championship. In that playoffs series, Mikan averaged an incredible 30.3 points per game, despite playing half the series with a broken hand.^[1]

NBA Minneapolis Lakers (1949–56)

After that season, the BAA and NBL merged to form the NBA. The new league started the inaugural 1949-50 NBA season with 17 teams, with the Lakers in the Central Division. Mikan again was dominant, averaging 27.4 points per game and 2.9 assists per game and taking another scoring title;^[8] only Alex Groza of Indianapolis also broke the 20-point-barrier that year.^[1] After comfortably leading his team to an impressive 51-17 record and storming through the playoffs, Mikan's team played the 1950 NBA Finals against the Syracuse Nationals. In Game 1, the Lakers beat Syracuse on their home court when Lakers reserve guard Bob Harrison hit a 40-foot buzzer beater to give Minneapolis a two-point win. The team split the next four games, and in Game 6, the Lakers won 110-95 and won the first-ever NBA championship. Mikan scored a stellar 31.3 points per game in the playoffs.^[1]

In the 1950-51 NBA season, Mikan was dominant again, scoring a career-best 28.4 points per game in the regular season, again taking the scoring crown, and had 3.1 assists per game.^[8] In that year, the NBA introduced a new statistic, namely rebounds. In this category, the 6-foot-10 Mikan also stood out, his 14.1 rebounds per game (rpg) only second to the 16.4 rpg of Dolph Schayes of Syracuse.^[8]

In that year, Mikan participated in one of the most notorious NBA games ever played. When the Fort Wayne Pistons played against his Lakers, the Pistons took a 19-18 lead. Afraid that Mikan would mount a comeback if he got the ball, the Pistons passed the ball around without any attempt to score a basket.^[9] With no shot clock invented yet to force them into offense, the score stayed 19-18 to make it the lowest-scoring NBA game of all time. So, in some sense, Mikan was indirectly responsible for the shot clock that came four years later. As a side note, Mikan scored 15 of the Lakers' 18 points, thus scoring 83.3% of his team's points, setting an NBA all-time record which will be probably never be broken.^[9]

However, in the post season, Mikan fractured his leg, making the 1951 Western Division Finals against the Rochester Royals a painful and lastly futile affair. With Mikan hardly able to move all series long, the Royals won 3-1. Decades later, in 1990, Mikan recalled his leg was taped with a plate, and despite basically hopping around court on one foot, he said he still averaged 20-odd points per game.^[1]

In the 1951-52 NBA season, the NBA decided to widen the foul lane under the basket from 6 feet to 12 feet. As players could only stay in the lane for three seconds at a time, it forced big men like Mikan to play post from double the distance now.^[1] A main proponent of this rule was New York Knicks coach Joe Lapchick, who regarded Mikan as his nemesis, and it was dubbed "The Mikan Rule".^[7] While Mikan still scored an impressive 23.8 points per game, it was a far cry of his 27.4 points per game the previous season, and his field goal percentage sank from .428 to .385. Still, he pulled down 13.5 rebounds per game, asserting himself as a top rebounder, and logged 3.0 assists per game.^[8] Mikan also had a truly dominating game that season, in which he scored a personal-best 61 points in a double overtime victory against the Rochester Royals. At the time, it was the second-best performance in league history (to Joe Fulks' 63 point outburst in 1949), and Mikan's output more than doubled that of his teammates, whose output that game totaled 30 points. In the 1952 NBA All-Star Game, Mikan had a strong performance with 26 points and 15 rebounds in a West loss.

Later that season, the Lakers charged into the 1952 NBA Finals and were pitted against the New York Knicks. This qualified as one of the strangest Finals series in NBA history, as neither team could play on their home court in the first six games. The Lakers' Minneapolis Auditorium was already booked, and the Knicks' Madison Square Garden was occupied by the Barnum & Barnes circus. Instead, the Lakers played in St. Paul and the Knicks in the damp, dimly lit 69th Regiment Armoury. Perpetually double-teamed by Knicks' Nat Clifton and Harry Gallatin, Mikan had a hard time asserting himself, and it was more Vern Mikkelsen's credit that the first six games were split. In the only true home game, Game 7 in the Auditorium, the Lakers won 82-65 and edged the Knicks 4-3, winning the NBA title and earning themselves $7,500 to split among the team.^[7]

In the next year, the 1952-53 NBA season, Mikan averaged 20.6 points and a career-high 14.4 rebounds per game, the highest in the league, as well as 2.9 assists per game.^[8] In the 1953 NBA All-Star Game, Mikan was dominant again with 22 points and 16 rebounds, winning that game's MVP Award. The Lakers made the 1953 NBA Finals, and again defeated the Knicks with 4–1.^[1]

In the 1953-54 NBA season, the now 29-year-old Mikan slowly declined, averaging 18.1 points, 14.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.^[8] Under his leadership, the Lakers won another NBA title in the 1954 NBA Finals, making it their third championship en bloc and the fifth in six years; the only time they lost had been when Mikan fractured his leg. From an NBA perspective, the Minneapolis Lakers dynasty has only been convincingly surpassed by the great eleven-title Boston Celtics dynasty of 1957-69.^[1]

After the season, Mikan stunned the sports world when he announced his retirement. He said: "I had a family growing, and I decided to be with them. I felt it was time to get started with the professional world outside of basketball." Injuries also were a factor, as Mikan had sustained 10 broken bones and 16 stitches in his career, and often had played through these injuries.^[1] Without Mikan, the Lakers made the playoffs, but were unable to reach the 1955 NBA Finals.

In the middle of the 1955-56 NBA season, Mikan surprised the basketball world by returning to the Lakers lineup. He played in 37 games, but however, his long absence had taken its toll. He averaged only 10.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists,^[8] and the Lakers lost in the first playoff round. This prompted Mikan to retire for good. Mikan was inducted into the inaugural Basketball Hall of Fame class of 1959 and was declared the greatest player of the first half of the century by the The Associated Press.^[1]

Post-playing career

In 1956 Mikan was the Republican candidate for the United States Congress in Minnesota's 3rd congressional district. He challenged incumbent Representative Roy Wier in a closely fought race that featured a high voter turnout. Despite the strong coat tails of incumbent President Dwight Eisenhower's reelection, the young, inexperienced Mikan lost by a close margin of 52% to 48%. Wier received 127,356 votes to Mikan's 117,716. Despite feeling no bitterness about his loss, Mikan felt betrayed, because he had hoped of an influx of work after returning to his law office. For six months, Mikan did not get any assignment at all, leaving him financially strapped and forcing him to cash in on his life insurance.^[10]

On sports level, things also went awry. In the 1957-58 NBA season, Lakers coach John Kundla became general manager and persuaded Mikan to become coach of the Lakers. However, this was a disastrous move, as the Lakers blundered to a terrible 9-30 record until Mikan stepped down and returned coaching duties to Kundla. The Lakers ended with an appalling 19-53 to record one of the worst seasons in their history.^[1] After these two flops, Mikan then concentrated on his law career, raising his large family of six children, successfully specialising in corporate and real estate law, and buying and renovating buildings in Minneapolis.^[1]

In 1967, Mikan returned to professional basketball, becoming the first commissioner of the American Basketball Association, a rival league to the NBA. In order to lure basketball fans to his league, Mikan invented the three-point line and the characteristic red-white-and-blue ABA ball, which he thought more patriotic, better suited for TV, and more crowd-pleasing than the brown NBA ball.^[1] Retiring from the ABA in 1969, he disappeared from the public eye but headed a task force with the goal to bring professional basketball to Minneapolis, decades after the Lakers had moved to Los Angeles to become the Los Angeles Lakers and after the ABA's Minnesota Muskies and Minnesota Pipers had departed. In the end, his bid was successful, leading to the inception of a new franchise in the 1989-90 NBA season, the Minnesota Timberwolves.^[1] In his late years, Mikan fought with diabetes and failing kidneys, and eventually, his illness caused his right leg to be amputated below the knee. When the insurance was cut off, Mikan soon battled severe financial trouble.^[5] He fought a long and protracted legal battle against the NBA and the NBA Player's Union, protesting the low $1,700/month pensions for players who had retired before 1965, the so-called "big money era". According to Mel Davis of the National Basketball Retired Players Union, this battle kept him going, because Mikan hoped to be alive when a new collective bargaining agreement would finally vindicate his generation. In 2005, however, his condition declined.^[9]^[3]

Legacy

Mikan is lauded as the pioneer of Modern Age basketball. He was the original center, who scored 11,764 points, an average of 22.6 per game, retired as the all-time leading scorer and averaged 13.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 520 NBL, BAA and NBA games. As a testament to his fierce nature, he also led the league three times in personal fouls.^[2]^[6] He won seven BAA and NBA championships, an All-Star MVP trophy, three scoring titles and being member of the first four NBA All-Star and the first six All-BAA and All-NBA Teams. As well as being declared the greatest player of the first half of the century by the The Associated Press, Mikan was on the Helms Athletic Foundation all-time All-American team, chosen in a 1952 poll, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959, made the 25th and 35th NBA Anniversary Teams of 1970 and 1980 and was elected one of the NBA 50 Greatest Players in 1996.^[2]^[6]^[1] Mikan's impact on the game is also reflected in the Mikan Drill, today a staple exercise of "big men" in basketball.

In addition, when superstar center Shaquille O'Neal became a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, Sports Illustrated graced its November 1996 issue with Mikan, O'Neal and fellow Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, calling Abdul-Jabbar and Mikan "Lakers legends" to which O'Neal was compared, establishing Mikan as one of the greatest Lakers players of all time. Furthermore, since April 2001, a statue of Mikan shooting his trademark hook shot graces the entrance of the Minnesota Timberwolves Target Center.^[2] In addition, a banner in the Los Angeles Lakers Staples Center commemorates Mikan and his fellow Minneapolis Lakers.

Rule changes

Mikan became so dominant that the NBA had to change its rules of play in order to reduce his influence such as widening the lane from six to twelve feet ("The Mikan Rule"). He also played a role in the introduction of the shot clock, and in the NCAA his dominating play around the basket led to the outlawing of defensive goaltending. Mikan set the stage for the Modern Age of the NBA dominated by tall, powerful players.^[1]^[2]

As an official, Mikan is also directly responsible for the ABA three-point line, which was later adapted by the NBA, the multi-colored ABA ball, which still lives on as the "money ball" in the NBA All-Star Three Point Shootout,^[11] and the existence of the Minnesota Timberwolves.^[1]

Personal life

In 1947, he married his girlfriend Patricia, who remained his wife the next 58 years until he died. Mikan fathered six children, sons Larry (George Lawrence Mikan III), Terry, Patrick and Michael and daughters Trisha and Maureen.^[12] All his life, Mikan was universally seen as the prototypical "gentle giant", tough and relentless on the court, but friendly and amicable in private life.^[9]

In his later years, Mikan developed severe diabetes and kidney problems, which grew so serious that his right leg had to be amputated below the knee. To pay the costs of his medical expenses, he was forced to sell most of his trophies and memorabilia. His NBA pension was $1,700 per month. In 2005, he developed complications when a wound did not heal properly anymore, and his condition deteriorated.^[3]

Death

Mikan died in Scottsdale, Arizona on June 1, 2005, of complications from diabetes and other ailments. His son Terry reported that his father had undergone dialysis three times a week for hours a day for the last five years.^[9]^[3]

Mikan's death was widely mourned by the basketball world,^[3] and also brought media attention to the financial struggles of several early-era NBA players. Many commentators, especially those associated with ESPN Radio, felt that the current players of the big-money generation should rally for larger pensions for the pre-1965 predecessors in upcoming labor negotiations.^[13] However, Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal made amends by paying for Mikan's funeral. He said: "Without number 99 [Mikan], there is no me."^[13] Before Game 5 of the 2005 Eastern Conference Finals between the Heat and the Detroit Pistons, there was a minute of silence to honor Mikan. Bob Cousy remarked that Mikan literally carried the NBA in the early days and single-handedly made the league credible and popular.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x nba.com (2007-02-23). George Mikan Bio.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f hoophall.com (2007-02-23). George Mikan Biography.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g espn.com (2007-02-23). Mikan was first pro to dominate the post.
^
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Davis, Jeff (2007-02-23). The M and M boys.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f hickoksports.com (2007-02-23). Biography - George Mikan.
^ ^a ^b ^c McPeek, Jeramie (2007-02-23). George Mikan vs. The Knicks.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h basketball-reference.com (2007-02-23). George Mikan Statistics.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e usatoday.com (2007-02-23). NBA pioneer and Hall of Famer Mikan dies.
^ El-Hai, Jack (2007-04-17). Blocked Shot.
^ Scoring with this ball brings 2 Shootout points instead of just one
^ usatoday.com (2007-02-23). NBA Hall of Famer and pioneer Mikan dies.
^ ^a ^b lakersplayer.com (2007-02-23). George Mikan.

Persondata
NAME	Mikan, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mikan, George Lawrence (full name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American basketball player and commissioner
DATE OF BIRTH	June 18, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH	Joliet, Illinois
DATE OF DEATH	June 1, 2005
PLACE OF DEATH	Scottsdale, Arizona

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