George Mikan dies

Shaquille O'Neal, right now you should be "The Big Historian."
Patrick Ewing, tip your cap.
Bill Walton, put down the microphone.
Kareem, stop your never-ending quest for respect in NBA coaching circles for a moment.
Even you, Bill Russell. You might have very well defined an era of NBA basketball, but you weren't the first.
George Mikan was.
Mikan, who died Wednesday at 80, might have been the first famous seven-footer who wasn't a member of a circus freak show. Mikan made tall cool. Mikan made tall dominant.
(Mikan was, in reality 6'-10", but keep in mind he played 50 years ago).
Mikan made the center position an unparalleled weapon. His ability to get closer to the basket than anybody in the game at the time made him the game's first real superstar. He carried the infant NBA in the late 1940s and early 50s.
And he did it from that wintertime outpost, Minneapolis.
Long before "Lakers" became synonymous with glamour and courtside celebrities in Los Angeles, the Minneapolis Lakers were a small-city dynasty. Mikan led them to five titles in the franchise's first six years.
How unusual was it to have a player of Mikan's size and skill in the early '50s? The NBA doubled the width of the key and instituted goaltending rules because of him.
Mikan was even instrumental in the creation of the shot clock. In 1950, the Fort Wayne Pistons used extreme slow-ball tactics to neutralize Mikan, resulting in a 19-18 loss for the Lakers. Other teams followed suit, grinding the pace of games to a halt, and resulting in the implementation of a 24-second clock in 1954.
Mikan helped open up the eyes of basketball coaches as to what a center could accomplish. Mikan was arguably the father of the modern center position, a big reason why Shaq is viewed as a primary scoring threat and not just a big tree in the paint. Mikan paved the way for Kareem, who is now the all-time leader in league scoring.
Mikan sported a look that was more "Revenge of the Nerds" than basketball star. But while he wore thick-rimmed glasses to correct nearsightedness throughout his career, he was far from afraid of contact, leading the league in personal fouls three times and suffering close to a dozen broken bones.
His injuries eventually forced him to retire in 1956.
After he retired, Mikan went briefly into coaching and then into the business world. Photographs of him off the court almost always show him smiling, even after diabetes and kidney failure cost him part of his right leg in 2000. A statue of Mikan was dedicated outside the Target Center in Minneapolis in 2001. At the dedication, Mikan said most young players don't remember him, but at least one of the Minnesota Timberwolves players did.
"When I think about George Mikan, I skip all the Wilt Chamberlains and Kareem Abdul-Jabbars and I call him 'The original big man,'" Garnett said at the time. "Without George Mikan, there would be no up-and-unders, no jump hooks, and there would be no label of the 'big man.'"