It is so absurd and obvious that a the taller man will have some superiority over a shorter one in this sport which is almost insulting to say. The typical action in which a ball remains suspended in the air after hitting the rim and, among the crowd that fills the area around the basket, one hand overpowers the other simply by being close to the receiver of the shot.
Taller players usually grab more rebounds, meaning their teams can have more attacking options or prevent the opposition from enjoying them. Their importance in the game is capital and, although it has changed in recent decades, no one doubts the importance of giants.
However, this was not always the case. Basketball, originally, was not a game of tall people, indoors, and much less control around the rim. This sport was not originally conceived as a practice aimed at the highest echelons of society, but as one that focused on passing, constant movement, and fair play with almost no physical contact.
It wasn’t until the second half of the 20th century, 55 years after James Naismith wrote the thirteen rules that gave form and substance to the sport, that a giant radically changed the way basketball was conceived. His name was George Mikan and in the ten years he played as a professional he would completely change this sportchanging its rules, enriching it and increasing its prestige and reputation.
The development of modern Western societies has made it possible, by improving living conditions in many cases, to increase the average height of people. Although it is difficult to establish a general rule regarding average height during the first half of the 20th century in the United States, At thirty, tall was anyone over 1.82, that is, 6 feet tall.. So, the axis that the backbone of physical superiority was not vertical, but rather horizontally, i.e. how fast a player could be, how explosive he was or how strong he was when fighting for a shared ball.
However, height also had its importance.
“Height is a much more important consideration for a center than when selecting a small forward.” George T. Hepbron wrote the first published book on basketball technique in 1904. “Without height, not many good plays can be made between center and wing. But along with height, the center must be able to correctly determine when and how to jump to get a ball. That skill comes with practice.”
Before the emergence of Mikan, there were famous precedents that indicated that the future of the sport necessarily passed on the urgent need of a big form on the field. names like Ed Wachter (Troy, 1.85), John Lapchick (New York Celtics, 1.98) or Charles ‘Tarzan’ Cooper (New York Rens, 1.98) They are some of those who knew how to adapt to the tough competitive conditions that governed the game in the first decades of its existence.
The origin of the English term centre, which refers to the inside position, was not so much about being the preeminent big, center or pivot, but because he was, precisely, the centerpiece of his matchup. Positioned in the high posts or at the free throw line, the center will be responsible for executing what is known as Pivot Play, hence the name which has surpassed in our language the position of rotation. This movement was born almost a century ago and would be the New York Celtics or, as they would be popularly known, the Original Celtics, who would make this action the trademark of their offense.
“The movement was not an overnight discovery, but it happened gradually”wrote one of its members, Nat Holman in 1950.The Celtics ran this play in which a man moved slowly around the free throw line, received the ball, and from there connected on another pass, making a quick read. From there, the center would sit back and make him the nerve center of the offensive line.”
Essentially, the most notable team in the early days of professional basketball built its entire offense around the fact that one figure was the one who set up the play with his back to the rim and was always at the top of the court.
By the time Mikan left DePaul University for the Chicago American Gears of the NBL Basketball was already very different from what saw the first big men emerge. The gamethough still very archaic and without definitive development of concepts such as bounce or throw, he had come a long way. it no longer existed cagesThe trash of previous decades had given way to a somewhat more peaceful ecosystem, enough for the Joliet, Ill., native to usher in the NBA’s first great era of dominance.
Mikan’s impact on the professional world was enormous. Basically because there was no comparison or opponent that could contain his 2.08m height, 111kg weight and a half-turn hook that would be indefensible. After just four career seasons, the Illinois native would be named the best player of the first fifty years of the century in the United States, a well-deserved accolade surrounding a college career in which he missed just 17 games over four seasons at DePaul. averaged 19.9 points in 81 NBL games, when averages were over 10, and won four consecutive championships: two in the NBL (1947 and 1948) and two in the NBA (1949 and 1950).
There was no player who could overshadow him because he was someone unique in every way. Teams could rely on a scorer like the Warriors with Joe Fulks or the Stags with Max Zaslofsky, but the fact that there is a giant who rebounded, added points and defined the opponent on defense. something only the Minneapolis Lakers had.
As historian Robert W. Peterson wrote, “It is sometimes said that Mikan revolutionized basketball. It would be fair to say that he took the game as it was and took it to a new level.” This is Mr. Basketball He knew how to understand his place in history, to take advantage of what made him different and exploit it to the last consequence, most notably his physical problems from 1953 and the complications he had to adapt to the rapidly evolving competition.
George Mikan’s impact on his frame was such that in the player’s third season in the NBA, the Board of Governors approved in 1952 the extension of the restricted area, from 1.8 meters (6 feet) to 3.6 meters (12 feet ) in 1952. The league, or rather the other nine franchises, wanted to make the Giant’s job as difficult as possible by taking him away from the rim and thus trying to make his Lakers less intractable.
Seasons of dominance increase the attention of the general public, although internally it can be frustrating due to the lack of diversity at the top. In case that Mr. Basketball, The birth of his phenomenon at the national level in American sports was the key to the NBA being able to survive financially, awakening the interest of fans who wanted to go to the stadiums and see the giant live.
The best example of this attraction can be found in the duels between the Harlem Globetrotters and the Minneapolis Lakers between 1948 and 1950, the former of which drew a record number of over 17,000 souls to the Chicago Stadium. “Everybody wanted to see him, when George was in town it was an event”Slater’s partner Martin recalled on one occasion.
As for the latter, in the early years of the league’s existence it was looking for all kinds of ways to get people into the stadiums and increase its revenue. One way was to schedule multiple games on the same night in New York so that the biggest market would host four of the best teams of the day, including Mikan’s Lakers. This explains why there were such strange scenes in promotional posters like the ones below.
“In those days, I would arrive by train or plane a day or two before the team to promote the match.” Mikan commented in 1997 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the NBA. “They were taking me to a hotel and doing interview after interview to try to build a business and sell tickets.”
Fortunately for him, that effort turned out to be worth it. The year after the final retirement, Bill Russell would come into the league, transforming the infield position into an art on a defensive level, and three years later Wilt Chamberlain, who raised the game to levels unreachable by all of his contemporaries. Between these three players and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, almost fifty years of basketball history could be summed up.
“He was really the first great infielder. There were others, but he was the first to make a difference.”explained Bob Calihan, Mikan’s partner in Chicago Gears. “He made defenses double him. I think with him was the first time I saw a double team on a big man. I don’t know if Mikan was a game changer, but he was huge in rebounding and in close shots.“.
Excellence takes many forms, some more flamboyant and some not so much, George Mikan’s was so unattainable for the rest that he was forced to change the rules of the game and promoted its development, making it faster to try to punish slowness and compression of possession 24 seconds. his figure Mr. Basketball It serves to remember and show that there was a period not so short when the giants did not set the pace of the game, and that since then everything began to change. All this so that 98 years after his birth he is turning towards a completely different approach. Time is, in this case, a spiral.
The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the NBA or its organizations.
