When it came to winning championships, he was just getting started.

Mikan would stay in Chicago after winning a title with DePaul. Signing with the American Gears of the National Basketball League. It was a 5 year $60,000 deal. Which is about $230,000 a year in today’s money. (show what it’s worth now inflation)]

Mikan had led his Gears to the World Basketball Tournament championship game as a rookie. Beating the Rochester Royals, 3 to 1. He was named All NBL first team, and MVP of the tournament.

There was only 1 problem. The other owners in the NBL didn’t like Maurice White, who owned the Gears. They decided to give the trophy to the team with the best regular season record, the Rochester Royals.

Mikan was pissed. And Maurice White argued he should now be president of the NBL. But The owners were not having it. That’s when White realized the opportunity to use Mikan to compete with the NBL. He decided to move the Gears to his brand new basketball league. The professional basketball league of America.

It had 24 teams, the best basketball player in the world, and went out of business in a month. Which was a huge problem for the Chicago American Gears. White tried to get back into the NBL, but the owners said no and the Chicago team was dissolved.

Which meant Mr. Mikan was a Free Agent.

Just kidding we didn’t have incredibly fun NBA free agent summers back then.

The Detroit Gems, were the worst team in the NBL in 46’ winning just 4 games that year. They would decide to move to Minneapolis and become the Lakers, but more importantly they had first pick in the draft of the Gears players.

Mikan was pissed, and in his book the Dynasty that never was, he called that Gears team the best he’s ever played for.

But life goes on and with the first pick in the 1947 draft of the former Chicago American Gears, the Minneapolis Lakers select George Mikan, from the University of DePaul. The beginning of the second most successful basketball franchise in history. All because the NBL owners didn’t like Maurice White.



In March of 1954, coaches scheduled a vote on whether to raise the basket, and the NBA wanted to see how players would adjust, so they scheduled the Lakers and Milwaukee Hawks to play 1 game with 12 foot rims.

The NBA also said while we’re experimenting lets not shoot free throws in the 1st and 3rd quarters.
Just like today players would foul on an easy shot and make their opponent earn the points at the free throw line. The NBA wanted to keeo these fouls from slowing down the game. So if Milwaukee had been fouled enough to earn 10 free throws, and Minneapolis earned 6, Milwaukee would shoot 4 free throws because they hadn’t fouled as much as Minneapolis.

The media thought the 12 foot rims wouldn’t be too much of a problem for big guys like Mikan, but it’d have an affect as Mikan missed his first 12 shots in the game. The whole team only shot 28% but they’d end up with the win 65 to 63.

Lakers power forward Vern Mikkelsen had a game high 17 points, but called the experiment a flop because as a rebounder he had an extra second to find the ball as it came off the rim. Lakers coach Dave MacMillan said “no matter what you do, the big man still has the advantage over the smaller one.” Which is true to this day, as smaller guys have their advantages, big guys often are often more dominant.

And Mikan was the best example of that domination. As the League introduced goaltending rules as a means to humanize George’s invincibility. But it didn’t matter he was just as dominant with the new rules.

Mikan also Inspired invention of the shot clock. The Lakers had a 29 game winning streak at home, and the Fort Wayne Pistons were not leaving that building without a W. They kept the ball away from Mikan the entire game, by just holding onto it and letting the clock run. Disgusting, but it worked and in the lowest scoring NBA game in history, Fort Wayne won 19-18. Mikan had 15 of those 18 points. And a few years later the shot clock was added to the game.

Mikan was a legend in every sense of the word. He inspired Kareem Abdul Jabbar who said “He showed everyone that a true big man could develop the agility and skill needed to play basketball. Mikan quickly opened their minds.”

Even after Mikan had left the game of basketball, he’d still influence the game, as a commissioner of a league called the American Basketball Association. He was behind the implementation of the 3 point line in the ABA. Which would later be adopted by the NBA in 1979.

The ABA also used a red white and blue ball, which isn’t used in games anymore, but you’ll see it as the money ball in the NBA’s 3 point contest to this day.

Mikan was inducted in the the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959. He passed away at the age of 79, in 2005. And the Lakers, just last October, retired his jersey.

Rest In Peace to the Ball god of dominance George Mikan.