George Mikan

Basketball Player

• Born: June 18, 1924
• Birthplace: Joliet, Illinois
• Died: June 1, 2005
• Place of death: Scottsdale, Arizona

Sport: Basketball

Early Life

George Lawrence Mikan, Jr., was born on June 18, 1924, in Joliet, Illinois. The first child of George Mikan, a Croatian, and his wife Minnie, a Lithuanian, George grew to a height of 6 feet 10 inches and a weight of 245 pounds. George and his brothers, Joe and Ed, worked in the family restaurant after school. George aspired to be a concert pianist; he enjoyed the musical skills he developed as a youngster throughout his life.

George had few basketball skills as a boy. At the age of thirteen, he broke his leg in a game. He left Joliet Catholic High School to pursue the Catholic priesthood at Quigley Seminary in downtown Chicago. The Joliet coach had already discouraged him from basketball because of George’s poor eyesight. His thirty-five-mile commute to Quigley left no time for basketball. His height had done little but make George awkward, shy, and self-conscious.

The Road to Excellence

George tried out for basketball at Notre Dame University. Coach George Keogan said he would never succeed with his quarter-inch-thick glasses. Notre Dame assistant coach Ray Meyer had just become head coach at Chicago’s DePaul University and decided to work with George. Skipping rope, shadowboxing, and scrimmaging one-on-one with more agile teammates improved George’s timing. George played four years of varsity basketball for DePaul.

In 1942-1943, George’s first season, DePaul won nineteen games and lost five. George’s ability to block shots on their way downward into the basket contributed to a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rule against goaltending. In 1944, DePaul lost in the finals of the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) but won the next year. George scored 120 points in the final three games, with a high of 53. He was a three-time all-American, from 1944 to 1946. In all, he scored 1,870 points, a collegiate record at that time, and DePaul’s record was 83-18.

In the off-season, George was a baseball pitcher, attracting offers from major-league scouts. At 6 feet 10 inches tall, it was inevitable that George would choose basketball.

The Emerging Champion

The National Basketball League (NBL) had begun in 1937, but with teams in Anderson, Indiana, and Sheboygan, Wisconsin, it was a small-time operation until World War II. George’s team, the Chicago American Gears, was sponsored by a business. George earned $12,000 per season. The year George became a professional, 1946, he married Patricia Lu Deveny. They had four sons and two daughters.

When the Gears disbanded after twenty-five games, George joined the Minneapolis Lakers. In 1947-1948, he scored an average of 21.3 points per game and was chosen unanimously as most valuable player in the NBL. That year, the Lakers won the title and established a dynasty.

In 1948-1949, the Lakers were one of four NBL teams to join a new league, the NBA. Commissioner Maurice Podoloff added eleven teams from his Basketball Association of America (BAA). George, wearing his familiar number 99, was the drawing card that professional basketball needed. Everywhere crowds came to see him.

In the NBA’s first year, the Lakers won another title. The league’s leading scorer was George Mikan, averaging 28.3 points. A dramatic moment in that season came when George’s wrist was broken in the playoffs. George played the last two games with one hand dangling in a cast and averaged 30 points.

George, Vern Mikkelson, Jim Pollard, Arnie Ferrin, and Slater Martin—one of the greatest teams ever assembled—won a third consecutive championship in 1949-1950. Again the league’s leading scorer, George averaged 27.4 points per game. In 1950-1951, George led the NBA in scoring with 28.4 points per game. With George out because of a broken ankle, the Lakers lost in the playoff semifinals to the Rochester Royals.

On November 22, 1950, one of the strangest games ever in professional basketball took place. Fort Wayne defeated the Lakers 19-18 despite George’s 15 points. Games like this led to the 24-second rule in 1954-1955, which forced a team to shoot within 24 seconds. No longer could professional teams stall to keep the ball from superstars like George.

In the 1951-1952 season, the three-second lane—the corridor from the free throw line to the basket—was enlarged from 6 to 12 feet across. Great centers like George had to get out from under the basket sooner. George commented: “They made the game better … more wide-open play and outside shooting.” The change did not slow him down; in an early-season game he scored 61 points. The Lakers won a fourth title.

Continuing the Story

After the 1953-1954 season and the Lakers’ fifth title in seven years, George shocked coach Larry Kundla by announcing his retirement. He was not quite thirty years old. Nicknamed “Mr. Basketball,” George had dominated the game from 1946 to 1954. Whenever the Lakers visited were chosen, the Madison Square Garden marquee always read: “Tonite George Mikan vs. Knicks.”

George then became the Lakers’ general manager. Without him on the team, the Lakers slumped. Absent a year and a half, George returned to the lineup, but weighing 265 pounds and out of shape, he averaged only 10.5 points. In 1956, George retired for good. With attendance down, the team later moved to Los Angeles.

In 1949, George became a lawyer through off-season study, and his business career proved successful. In 1967, he became the first commissioner of the new American Basketball Association (ABA). The red, white, and blue ball, the ABA trademark, was George’s conception. In 1969, he resigned to continue his law practice in Minneapolis. George was instrumental in professional basketball’s return to Minneapolis, heading a task force that eventually resulted in the formation of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Though he maintained a low profile, he was proud of his Lakers heritage and became a close friend of former Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal—in 1996, the two appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with another Lakers legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. George died in 2005.

Summary

Without the 24-second rule, basketball was a game of low scores. Under these conditions, George Mikan’s scoring averages were incredible. Although slow getting downcourt, George was a deadly shooter and a fine playmaker, great on defense, and rugged. Much injured, he gave as well as he got. He made weapons out of his elbows to survive. Usually double- or triple-teamed, he often fouled but seldom fouled out.

Over the span of six professional seasons, George led the league in scoring three times, was second twice, and was fourth once. He made the all-NBA first team six consecutive years. In 1950, he was named the Associated Press player of the half century. He revolutionized basketball, making it more offense-oriented. George Mikan, professional basketball’s first superstar, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959.

Bibliography

Lazenby, Roland. The Show: The Inside Story of the Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers in the Words of Those Who Lived It. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.

McCallum, Jack. “The Original Big Man.” Sports Illustrated 102, no. 24 (June 13, 2005): 52-53.

Mikan, George, and Joseph Oberle. Unstoppable: The Story of George Mikan, the First NBA Superstar. Indianapolis, Ind.: Masters Press, 1997.

Schumacher, Michael. Mr. Basketball: George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers, and the Birth of the NBA. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007.