Mikan, George (Lawrence)

(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.

Mikan, George (Lawrence) (1924– ) basketball player; born in Joliet, Ill. He was a three-time All-American at DePaul University (1944–46) before playing center for the Minneapolis Lakers (1948–56), where he averaged 22.6 points per game over nine years. One of the National Basketball Association's first superstars, he led the Lakers to five titles in six years and was instrumental in establishing professional basketball in the U.S.A. In 1967 he became the first commissioner of the American Basketball Association. He was voted "the greatest player in the first half-century" by the Associated Press and was elected to basketball's Hall of Fame in 1959.