George Mikan Tribute

[Gil Dobie]

Sad news today, George Mikan died. Always remember meeting him. I asked him about his championship rings. He showed me the one his wife had made up for him out of all his rings put together. God Bless George.

George Mikan Link (http://www.nba.com/history/players/mikan_bio.html)

[griz37]

I was just reading on cnn.com where Shaq wants to pay for Mikan's funeral. Whether you like him as a player or not, you really can't argue about Shaq being a good person.

[Marcus Garvey]

In the Tucson Citizen, Lute Olsen (Arizona's head basketball coach, for those of you who only watch football) was quoted from an event in Minneapolis about 10 years ago. Seems he played college ball in the sam auditorium that the Lakers used in Minneapolis. Mikan always accused the hard floor of the arena for destroying his knees and shortening his playing career. Olsen agreed with that assessment too. He said that he used to have shin splints and other problems from playing on it.

[colgate13]

I was just reading on cnn.com where Shaq wants to pay for Mikan's funeral. Whether you like him as a player or not, you really can't argue about Shaq being a good person.
I was also reading in Time magazine (recent issue) that Shaq is a deputy U.S. Marshall and is training to be a cop when he retires????

[griz37]

Yeah apparently Shaq's stepfather is in the millitary & now Shaq wants to be a police chief when he grows up. I bet crime in his town would decrease drastically.

[Gil Dobie]

In the Tucson Citizen, Lute Olsen (Arizona's head basketball coach, for those of you who only watch football) was quoted from an event in Minneapolis about 10 years ago. Seems he played college ball in the sam auditorium that the Lakers used in Minneapolis. Mikan always accused the hard floor of the arena for destroying his knees and shortening his playing career. Olsen agreed with that assessment too. He said that he used to have shin splints and other problems from playing on it.

That may be the same floor that North Dakota St was using until last year. The floor was purchased from the Minneapolis Auditorium and is still used for some events in the Bison Sports Arena. Olson, from Mayville ND, played college ball for Augsburg College near downtown Minneapolis.

[ISUMatt]

The Mikan family has accepted Shaq's offer to pay for the funeral!

[Mr. C]

Obviously, Mikan was a great basketball pioneer. I remember a funny story from his days as the commissioner of the ABA. He showed up in Oakland for the ABA championship series and told the crowd he was glad to be in Oklahoma. There is some good stuff about Mikan in a pair of Terry Pluto books, Tall Tales (NBA history) and Loose Balls (ABA history).

[ngineer]

Mikan was also a pioneer in wearing contact lenses. My late eye doctor helped invent the 'athletic contact lense' back in the 1940's. Mikan was one of the 'guinea pigs' as he had thick eyeglasses. By the time I started wearing them in the late 1960's, they were much better. Guaranteed never to pop out in any contact sport. I wore them to wrestle, too--not so much to see my opponent (which would really be bad!), but to see the scoreboard clock. My doctor's office in Philly had Mikan's picture in several places inserting his new contacts. He was truly a legend and pioneer. Today's NBA player should give proper homage to these 'oldtimers' on whose shoulders they now stand.