George and His Journey
Before George started shooting at the hoop in his driveway, he only did marble games, in fact, when he was about seven, he won a marble contest and got to go to a baseball game and meet Babe Ruth. Moving onto him and his college career; George was starting to get sick of basketball because his high school coach wouldn't let him play, so George decided he would be a priest, who wouldn't? So off George went to Bible school and decided he didn't want to do that either, which made him decide that he wanted basketball again. At DePaul (the college that George attended) Mikan's coach needed a way to make George faster, so what did he do? He signed George up for dance to quicken his foot quickness, he also taught George to shoot quickly and accurately, along with that, came teaching George to have confidence in the height that God made him to be. George graduated from DePaul University in 1946. When George went pro, he
played for the Minneapolis Lakers, he played center from 1948-1954. When George played, he dominated. One team that really caught onto this, was the Pistons. In one game, they held the ball, or played extremely relaxed so that the Lakers couldn't get bad passes that would occur because of quick play or fast games. The strategy worked, the pistons won 19-18 (Mikan scored 15 of the 18 points). After that game, the league decided there should be a rule of how long one team can have the ball at their end of the court, they decided 30 seconds. After nine years of professional play, George decided that he would resign. Part of what made his decision was that one day George came home from practice, he lifted his son up, and his son started crying and screaming because he didn't know or recognize who George was. George decided he wanted to get another job, since he was only 30 when he retired from the NBA. George ended up being a lawyer. He also was the chief executive boss of the basketball association from 1967-1969. George still loved basketball, so he decided to coach his old team, during the 1957-1958 season (which was not very successful). Because the Minneapolis Lakers weren't getting anymore business, they moved to Los Angeles.
played for the Minneapolis Lakers, he played center from 1948-1954. When George played, he dominated. One team that really caught onto this, was the Pistons. In one game, they held the ball, or played extremely relaxed so that the Lakers couldn't get bad passes that would occur because of quick play or fast games. The strategy worked, the pistons won 19-18 (Mikan scored 15 of the 18 points). After that game, the league decided there should be a rule of how long one team can have the ball at their end of the court, they decided 30 seconds. After nine years of professional play, George decided that he would resign. Part of what made his decision was that one day George came home from practice, he lifted his son up, and his son started crying and screaming because he didn't know or recognize who George was. George decided he wanted to get another job, since he was only 30 when he retired from the NBA. George ended up being a lawyer. He also was the chief executive boss of the basketball association from 1967-1969. George still loved basketball, so he decided to coach his old team, during the 1957-1958 season (which was not very successful). Because the Minneapolis Lakers weren't getting anymore business, they moved to Los Angeles.