A post I made about Mikan a few years ago when putting together my all-time top 100+
What in the world do you do with Mikan...? I’m not the first one to ask that question and judging by how many people still do and how widely the answers vary, no one has really answered it yet. Mikan played a sport that doesn’t even resemble the game we watch today or even the game that guys like Magic and Bird played and even as far back as Russell and West. The games were different; the rules were different, the court was different, the players were different, the strategy was different, the country was different, the only thing that was the same was the 10’ height of the basket and the round shape of the ball. So how can we possibly compare Mikan to the other great centers without any basis for which to do so? Here’s the tale of the tape as I see it:
At 6’10” he was a giant of a man for the game of basketball in the 1940’s. As I write this, the Pistons are starting 6’10” Austin Daye at shooting guard. Mikan’s athleticism was considered remarkable for a man his size then, today he’d be a stiff (maybe a bit harsh, the film footage doesn’t do him justice. Watch any athletic competition film from the 50’s and you’ll think you’re better at whatever it is they’re doing) The truth is though, Mikan was exposed to an extent by the shot clock era which began at the tail end of his career. Still without him, the game doesn’t get to where it needs to be nearly as fast. Before Mikan goaltending was legal because they didn’t think anyone would ever be tall and quick enough to do it. The lane was widened from six to twelve feet because allowing him to post up that close to the basket made him unstoppable. As mentioned above, only when they added a shot clock to quicken the pace of the game did the NBA finally overtake Mikan. The guy was nicknamed Mr. Basketball; that says pretty much everything about what they thought of him in his time.
So why does Mikan, winner of seven professional championships in his first eight years end up here at #25? It, like his career is symbolic. He is forever etched here at #25 as the gatekeeper to this holiest of hollies in basketball history. Like the game, the top 25 will always be changing, but like his place at #25 his place as the Original Superstar will be forever secure. No matter how many people (and probably correctly) point out that he would never have excelled in the modern NBA or even if he’d been born 10 or 15 years later, no matter how many other great players take their place in the history of the game, Big George, Mr. Basketball, will always have his place as the “Original Greatest of All-Time”. He’s the only one who gets to change the phrasing for Christ sakes. Because of Mikan, more than any player before him, the players who came after him reached an increasing more significant level of fame and fortune, he made it a Superstar league.
People flocked to see him; that’s right flocked, that’s what they did in the 40’s and 50’s. Mikan was not graceful, but either was basketball, basketball was a game that born in a cage and celebrated toughness and old school agility (being able to punch with both hands). No one was tougher than Mikan. Not only did he lead the league in points and rebounds, he led it in fouls. He played with broken bones constantly (and a plate holding his league together in the 1951 Finals), an average of more than one per season over his nine professional years. He had more stitches than rebounds his first four years, but that’s only because rebounding wasn’t a stat yet, yeah nobody thought to count those either until they looked up and started to notice “Boy that Mikan fella sure gets a lot of those ball boards doesn’t he…” Once it became a stat, he became best at it. He averaged over 14 a game and led the league twice from ’51 to ’54 and his initial retirement. He was a dominant scorer for his day, writing the record books in College at DePaul and leading the NBA in its first three seasons (two while still being called the BAA). Like a true superstar, Mikan regularly stepped up his game in the postseason, especially the Championship round. He scored an NCAA record 53 in the 1945 NIT Final, averaged more than 27 a game in the Finals four times as a pro and retired with every major scoring record.
For better or worse, his achievements have to be put into context. He shot just over 40% for his career, but was regularly in or around the top 10 in the league in that era. He was an excellent foul shooter (near 80%) in an era where free throws were a major part of the game. Also rarely noted about Mikan is that he was a good passer. He was seventh in the league in 1949 with nearly 4 assists per game (remember the era). His 28 points per game in 1949 and 1951 accounted for more than a third of the Lakers scoring; that’s like a player today averaging 35 a night.
So that’s Mikan, a guy with a legit case to be considered the greatest player of All-time if you only consider his achievements versus his era. When he retired he was the unquestioned king of Basketball; that has to count for something. His Lakers Three-peat from ’52-’54 has been matched only three times; by the Celtics of the 60’s, Bulls in the 90’s and Lakers from ’00-’02. The lead players from those teams all find themselves in the top 10. But he finds himself here at #25 because that’s his place in history. Because of him, we got to see Russell and Wilt, Jabbar and Walton, Hakeem and Robinson, Shaq, Tim Duncan and so many more. All of those players took what Mikan started and evolved it. Made it better, faster, more aesthetically pleasing, more fundamentally efficient and with much more precise mastery of the art. There is no way Mikan competes if we put him in a time Machine in 1950 and drop him off in 2010 NBA, but that’s not the point. Unlike Russell or Wilt or Jordan or LeBron James, Mikan was not ahead of his time, he was made for his time. To punish him for that is unfair, but to fail to acknowledge it is equally unwise.
Mikan played in the first four NBA all-star games; he was an all-NBA selection six times, always first team. He won the MVP of the 1953 All-star game scoring 22 points and grabbing 16 rebounds. He was a three time scoring champion and two-time rebounding leader. His 23.1 per game scoring average still ranks in the top 25 in Basketball history. There was no MVP of Finals MVP awards when Mikan played, but he was the top All-NBA (or BAA vote getter every year from 1949-1953.) His play in the Finals was consistently superb totaling 20 games of 20 or more points, eight of 30 or more and the first two 40+ games in NBA Finals history, while never dipping below single digit in 31 games. He was voted the greatest player of the first half of the twentieth century and inducted into the hall of fame’s inaugural class of 1959.
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GREATEST SEASON1949-50It was the NBA’s first season and it’s first Super Star Mikan was coming off of three professional titles in three different professional leagues in his first three seasons. The Lakers went 51-17 games and won the Central division. They won their first seven postseason games dismissing, Chicago, Fort Wayne and the Anderson Packers, then beat the Syracuse Nationals in six games in the NBA Finals. Mikan’s popularity at this point of his career was so great that the Madison Square Garden Marquee read: George Mikan vs. The Knicks. In a league with just two twenty point per game scorers, Mikan topped them all with better than 27 a game. In the playoffs Mikan upped his average to 31.3 a game. In the Finals Mikan scored 37, 32, 28, 28, 28 and 40 points. Using the GOAT LIST Time Machine we can travel back to Mikan’s 40 point game six which was emblematic of the era. In the first half alone, three fights broke out leading to the police storming the court to restore order. It took additional fist-a-cuffs in the second half to finally lead to some ejections as the Lakers rolled away with the game and the title.
LOWEST MOMENTAfter nearly two full season’s away from the game, Mikan, pained by watching his Lakers fade from prominence mounted a comeback. However the league had evolved and he had deteriorated. It was the shot clock era, Bill Russell was a year away, Wilt Chamberlain four and even the centers of 1956 NBA were more agile and well conditioned than a 31 year-old Mikan who had played more than 600 games and been fouled more than 10,000 times in his NBA career. Mikan averaged just 10 points per game and often failed to make it up the court for possessions until they were over. The Lakers finished with a losing record, Mikan never played again.
What People say about him:"George Mikan truly revolutionized the game and was the NBA’s first true superstar. He had the ability to be a fierce competitor on the court and a gentle giant off the court. We may n see one man impact the game of basketball as he did, and represent it with such warmth and grace."
David Stern“Big guys weren't really that athletic. And not that George was the greatest athlete, but he knew how to control his body, and he knew how to use his body to best advantage.”
Tom Hiensohn"He was a great man; we had many, many conversations and he was always nice to me…I know who he was and what he did. Without George Mikan, there'd be no me.”
Shaquille O’Neal“This was a great player, this always bothers me when people talk about the greatest players to play the game, they don't discuss George enough. One time I met him, I was third string varsity in high school, and I met George Mikan. And he walked over to me and said, "Hi, Big Fella". And he was 6-10 and I was 6-6! And here was the No. 1 guy in basketball and I was a third string guy in high school and he talked to me about basketball for 15 minutes”
Bill Russell“I went to New York one year, and up on the marquee, it said `George Mikan vs. the Knickerbockers.' Then I had to go to the locker room, and the guys were on my back. I was getting dressed, and no one was dressing, so I say, `What's going on, fellas?' and they said, `Well, you're advertised, you're the star and everything else. Go out and play them.”
George Mikan
