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 , Mikan was one of the pioneers of professional basketball. Through his size and play, he redefined basketball as a game dominated in his day by "big men". His prolific rebounding, shot blocking, and ability to shoot over smaller defenders with his ambidextrous hook shot all helped to change the game. He also used the underhanded free-throw shooting technique long before Rick Barry made it his signature shot.
Mikan had a highly successful playing career, winning seven NBL, BAA, and NBA championships in nine seasons, an NBA All-Star Game MVP trophy, and three scoring titles. He played in the first four NBA All-Star games and was a member of the first six All-BAA and All-NBA Teams. Mikan was so dominant that he prompted several significant rule changes in the NBA, including the introduction of the goaltending rule, the widening of the foul lane—known as the "Mikan Rule"—and the creation of the shot clock.
After his playing career, Mikan became one of the founders of the American Basketball Association (ABA), serving as commissioner of the league. He was instrumental in forming the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves expansion team. In his later years, Mikan was involved in a long-standing legal battle against the NBA to increase the meager pensions of players who had retired before the league became lucrative. In 2005, Mikan died of complications from chronic diabetes.
For his accomplishments, Mikan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959. He was also named to the 25th, 35th, 50th and 75th NBA anniversary teams.
Early life
Mikan was born on June 18, 1924, in Joliet, Illinois, to a Croatian father, Joseph, and a Lithuanian mother, Minnie, along with brothers Joe and Ed and sister Marie. His grandfather, Juraj (George) Mikan was born in Vivodina, Croatia, then part of Austria-Hungary, in or about 1874. Mikan did not seem destined to become an athlete. When Mikan entered Chicago's DePaul University in 1942, he stood , weighed , moved awkwardly because of his frame, and wore thick glasses for his nearsightedness.
College career
While in high school, Mikan met 28-year-old rookie DePaul basketball coach Ray Meyer. Meyer saw potential in Mikan, who was bright and intelligent but was also clumsy and shy. Meyer's thoughts were revolutionary for the time, when it was still believed that tall players were too awkward to ever play basketball well.
Mikan was named the Helms NCAA College Player of the Year in 1944 and 1945 and was an All-American basketball player three times. In 1945, he led DePaul to the NIT title, which at that time was more prestigious than the NCAA title. Mikan led the nation in scoring with 23.9 points per game in 1944–45 and 23.1 points per game in 1945–46. When DePaul won the 1945 NIT, Mikan was named Most Valuable Player for scoring 120 points in three games, including 53 points in a 97–53 win over Rhode Island. Mikan was also chosen for the All-NBL Team. Following the regular season, he was named the league's MVP and the Lakers won the NBL title. In April 1948, he led the Lakers to victory in the World Professional Basketball Tournament, where he was named MVP after scoring a tournament-record 40 points against the New York Renaissance in the title-clinching game.
The following year, the Lakers and three other NBL franchises jumped to the fledgling Basketball Association of America. Mikan led the new league in scoring, and again set a single-season scoring record. The Lakers defeated the Washington Capitols in the 1949 BAA Finals.
In 1949, the BAA and NBL merged to form the NBA. The new league started the inaugural 1949–50 NBA season, featuring 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; After posting 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 made 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 31.3 points per game in the playoffs. With no shot clock invented yet to force them to shoot, the score remained 19–18 until the game's end. The game is the lowest-scoring NBA game of all time. This game was an important factor in the development of the shot clock, which was introduced four years later. Mikan had scored 15 of the Lakers' 18 points, thus scoring 83.3% of his team's points and setting an NBA all-time record. While Mikan still scored an impressive 23.8 points per game, this output was less than his 27.4 points per game the previous season. Also, his field goal percentage sank from .428 to .385. He still pulled down 13.5 rebounds per game and logged 3.0 assists per game. He 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 Associated Press.
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#ffe6fa;"| 1946–47†
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 25 || 147 || 119 || 164 || .726 || 413 || style="background:#afdc5c;"|16.5*
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#ffe6fa;"| 1947–48†
| style="text-align:left;"| Minneapolis
| 56 || style="background:#b8c6c1;"|406‡ || style="background:#b8c6c1;"|383‡ || 509 || .752 || style="background:#b8c6c1;"|1,195‡ || style="background:#b8c6c1;"|21.3*
|-
|style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 81 || 553 || 502 || 673 || .746 || 1,608 || style="background:#b8c6c1;"|19.9*
|}
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#ffe6fa;"| 1947†
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 11 || 72 || 73 || 96 || .760 || 217 || 19.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#ffe6fa;"| 1948†
| style="text-align:left;"| Minneapolis
| 10 || 88 || 68 || 96 || .708 || 244 || 24.4
|-
|style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career
| 21 || 160 || 141 || 192 || .734 || 461 || 22.0
|}
BAA/NBA
Regular season
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;"
|-
!Year
!Team
!GP
!MPG
!FG%
!FT%
!RPG
!APG
!PPG
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1948–49†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|60
|
|.416
|.772
|
|3.6
|style="background:#cfecec;"|28.3*
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1949–50†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|68
|
|.407
|.779
|
|2.9
|style="background:#cfecec;"|27.4*
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |1950–51
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|68
|
|.428
|.803
|14.1
|3.1
|style="background:#cfecec;"|28.4*
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1951–52†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|64
|40.2
|.385
|.780
|style="background:#cfecec;"|13.5*
|3.0
|23.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1952–53†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|70
|37.9
|.399
|.780
|style="background:#cfecec;"|14.4*
|2.9
|20.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1953–54†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|72
|32.8
|.380
|.777
|14.3
|2.4
|18.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |1955–56
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|37
|20.7
|.395
|.770
|8.3
|1.4
|10.5
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Career
|439
|34.4
|.404
|.782
|13.4
|2.8
|23.1
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |All-Star
|4
|25.0
|.350
|.815
|12.8
|1.8
|19.5
|}
Playoffs
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;"
|-
!Year
!Team
!GP
!MPG
!FG%
!FT%
!RPG
!APG
!PPG
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1949†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|10
|
|.454
|.802
|
|2.1
|30.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1950†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|12
|
|.383
|.788
|
|3.0
|31.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |1951
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|7
|
|.408
|.800
|10.6
|1.3
|24.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1952†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|13
|42.5
|.379
|.790
| 15.9
|2.8
|23.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1953†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|12
|38.6
|.366
|.732
|15.4
|1.9
|19.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1954†
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|13
|32.6
|.458
|.813
|13.2
|1.9
|19.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;" |1956
| style="text-align:left;" |Minneapolis
|3
|20.0
|.371
|.769
|9.3
|1.7
|12.0
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Career
|70
|36.6
|.404
|.786
|13.9
|2.2
|24.0
|}
Head coaching record
NBA
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|Minneapolis
| style="text-align:left;"|
| 39||9||30|||| style="text-align:center;"|(fired)||—||—||—||—
| style="text-align:center;"|—
Source
Post-playing career
thumb|right|Mikan in 1958
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 reelection of incumbent Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, the inexperienced Mikan lost by a close margin of 52% to 48%. Wier received 127,356 votes to Mikan's 117,716. Returning to the legal profession, Mikan was frustrated after hoping for an influx of work. For six months, Mikan did not get any assignments at all, leaving him in financial difficulties that forced him to cash in on his life insurance.
Problems also arose in Mikan's professional sports career. 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 failure, as the Lakers endured a 9–30 record until Mikan stepped down and returned coaching duties to Kundla. In one of the worst seasons in the team's history, the Lakers finished the season with a 19–53 record. It was Mikan who elected to let players such as Doug Moe, Roger Brown, Connie Hawkins, Tony Jackson, and Charlie Williams play in the league, stating years later in Loose Balls that having investigated their situation of being falsely implicated in gambling, each deserved a second chance in his eyes that Mikan never regretted. Mikan resigned from the ABA in 1969, but the league continued to operate until 1976.
In the mid-1980s, nearly 25 years after the Lakers had moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and after the ABA's Minnesota Muskies and Minnesota Pipers had departed, Mikan headed a task force with the goal of returning professional basketball to Minneapolis. This bid was successful, leading to the inception of the new Minnesota Timberwolves franchise in the 1989–90 NBA season. The franchise folded after its second season.
Electoral history
Personal life, health, and death
In 1947, Mikan married his wife, Patricia, and they remained together for 58 years until his death. The Mikans had six children: sons Larry, Terry, Patrick and Michael and daughters Trisha and Maureen. who played basketball for DePaul, played in the BAA, and played for the Philadelphia Warriors of the NBA.
In his later years, Mikan developed diabetes and failing kidneys. Eventually, his right leg was amputated below the knee due to his illness. When his medical insurance was cut off, Mikan found himself in severe financial difficulties. Before Game Five of the 2005 Eastern Conference Finals between the Heat and the Detroit Pistons, there was a moment of silence to honor Mikan. Bob Cousy remarked that Mikan figuratively carried the NBA in the early days and single-handedly made the league credible and popular. He was named the NBL Most Valuable Player in 1948, and was awarded the Sam Davis Memorial Award as professional player of the year by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association in 1950 and 1951. He won seven NBL, BAA, and NBA championships, an All-Star MVP trophy, and three scoring titles, and was a member of the first four NBA All-Star games 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 Associated Press, Mikan was on the Helms Athletic Foundation all-time All-American team, chosen in a 1952 poll. He also made the 25th and 35th NBA Anniversary Teams of 1970 and 1980, was chosen as one of the NBA 50 Greatest Players in 1996, and was selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. Mikan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in its inaugural 1959 class. Mikan's impact on the game is also reflected in the Mikan Drill, which has become a staple exercise of "big men" in basketball. Mikan was a harbinger of the NBA's future, which would be dominated by tall, powerful players. He is also honored by a statue and an appearance on a mural in his hometown of Joliet, Illinois.
Mikan's 1948 Bowman trading card was at one point the most expensive basketball card ever sold.
In October 2022, Mikan was inaugurated into the Croatian-American Sports Hall of Fame.
On October 30, 2022, the Lakers retired Mikan's No. 99 jersey.
In December 2022, the NBA renamed the Most Improved Player award in his honor.
Rule changes
Mikan became so dominant that the NBA changed its rules of play in order to reduce his influence. The league widened the lane from six to twelve feet ("The Mikan Rule"). He also played a role in the introduction of the shot clock. In the NCAA, his dominating play around the basket led to the outlawing of defensive goaltending.
See also
- List of National Basketball Association single-game scoring leaders
- List of National Basketball Association annual scoring leaders
- List of National Basketball Association annual rebounding leaders
- List of NBA players with most championships
- List of Croatian Americans