Long before the Lakers moved to Los Angeles, they dominated the NBA. And when they were in Minneapolis, their great star was George Mikan.
At 6-10 and 250, he wasn’t just big by the standards of the day. He was also surprisingly agile.
He signed his first contract for a whopping $12,000 and said that he had to hold out for a month to get that, but it paid off for the Lakers as they won five championships with Mikan.
As you’ll see in this video, JJ Redick’s criticism of older players as plumbers and firemen has to be put into context. first, the greatest player of his era signed for $12,000 dollars. Redick has watches that cost more than that. And second, the game and the equipment had not evolved all that much.
However, Mikan forced a lot of change. He is the reason why goaltending was outlawed. He’s the reason why the NBA widened the lane. He was also largely responsible for the 24 second shot clock because teams would just hold the ball against the Lakers to minimize his shots.
You can see in this video that he has really good instincts. He makes some great passes, blocks a number of shots, runs the court well and shows a high basketball IQ.
Though he retired the year before Bill Russell arrived to redefine the center position in the NBA, Mikan’s influence lingered in an interesting way: he and college coach Ray Meyer worked out what became known as the Mikan Drill, where he practiced hook shots with his right hand then his left. Years later, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar picked the drill up and created the greatest offensive weapon in the history of basketball - the Skyhook.