Mikan, George Lawrence

Mikan, George Lawrence, 1924-2005, American basketball player, b. Joliet, Ill. After leading De Paul Univ. to the 1945 National Invitational Tournament title and being named All-American three times (1944-46), he played (1948-54, 1955-56) for the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and led them to five championships from 1949 to 1954. The first dominant "big man" in the NBA and a key figure in the rise of professional basketball, Mikan subsequently became a lawyer and was later (1967-69) the first commissioner of the rival American Basketball Association.

(born June 18, 1924, Joliet, Ill., U.S.—died June 1, 2005, Scottsdale, Ariz.) U.S. basketball player and executive. He was an outstanding centre at DePaul University, where he also took his law degree. Standing about 6 ft 10 in. (2.08 m) tall, he was the first of the dominant big men in post-World War II professional basketball. He played for the Minneapolis Lakers (now the Los Angeles Lakers) in 1947–54 and 1955–56, leading them to six championships. He was later named the first commissioner of the American Basketball Association (1967–69). An Associated Press poll in 1950 named him the greatest basketball player of the first half of the 20th century.

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See George Mikan