BASKETBALL LEGEND: The Lakers acquired George Mikan through his previous team being so good that it thought it could launch an entire basketball league based around Mikan.
There’s really no way to quite gauge the impact that George Mikan had on the sport of basketball. Other big men like Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led to rules having to be changed because of them, but the entire sport of basketball changed because of George Mikan. Ever since basketball started, there was always the theoretical possibility that really tall guys would be beneficial to the sport, but that was mostly dismissed because tall players simply weren’t agile or quick enough to keep up with the smaller players, so the general belief was that tall guys were just too awkward to really be too much of a threat, so they were mostly dismissed for years.
This changed during World War II, where big men were finally starting to be developed in college basketball and we saw the fruition of this evolution with George Mikan, the nearly seven foot player who revolutionized the sport by simply dominating in the middle. He would bully opposing centers and could essentially play 1 on 5 on defense (to the point where the sport had to invent the goaltend rule, as previously Mikan would just stand by the basket and swat any shot that would come close to the hoop). Even with the rule changes made to address his dominance, he was still pretty darn dominant playing for DePaul University in Chicago, leading them to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) title in 1946 (back when the NIT was the more respected postseason tournament).
When he graduated, Maurice White, the owner of the local Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League (NBL) decided to make a huge splash by signing Mikan to a five-year/$60,000 contract for the 1946-47 NBL season. That was naturally unheard of money for a basketball player at the time, but, hey, this was no ordinary basketball player. However, White had a bit of trouble actually getting the money to Mikan, and the big man wouldn’t report to the team until that was handled, so Mikan missed roughly the first half of the season. Things were settled out, and he joined the Gears and led them to a third-place finish in their conference. They then upset the higher seed in every round of the playoffs from that point forward, easily winning the NBL title.
White was so impressed with Mikan’s dominance that he thought that hell, he was paying Mikan so much, and the big man was clearly worth it, but White suddenly saw even GREATER opportunities that Mikan could provide. White decided to form a brand-new basketball league, where White would own all eight teams in the league, along with all of their arenas. The Professional Basketball League of America (PBLA) was essentially geared around being the league that had George Mikan in it.
However, White just didn’t have the capital to support his bold endeavor (plus, there were two other major leagues to compete with, the NBL and the Basketball Association of America – BAA, plus another minor league), and the PBLA folded before the first season even finished.
The NBL claimed the rights to the players of the PBLA, and then held a lottery where the players would be distributed among the NBL teams (obviously, not all of them would be signed, but the NBL teams would win the first right to them. Clearly, this was mostly about the star players, and more importantly, Mikan).
The Minneapolis Lakers won the rights to Mikan, and then went on to win the NBL title that season (the 1947-48 season), with Mikan dominating once again.
The Lakers decided to leave the NBL to join the upstart BAA league (which launched in 1946). The lakers then won the 1948-49 BAA title and the BAA and NBL then formed the NBA in 1949. Mikan and the Lakers won a few more titles before his career came to a close due to knee injuries.
Amazing stuff.
The legend is…
STATUS: True
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