Lakers News: First Great Lakers Center Will Have Jersey Posthumously Retired
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An old school Lakers great will have his jersey sent to the rafters of Crypto.com Arena early in L.A.'s 2022-23 season.
Former Minneapolis Lakers Hall of Fame center George Mikan's No. 99 jersey will be the first jersey from the team's pre-Los Angeles era to be retired by the club. Mikan was the best player during the team's first five championships, albeit in the pre-shot clock era when there were limited opportunities for Black players.
The 6'10" big man out of DePaul was one of his era's great stars, during a time of upheaval for pro ball. After a dominant NCAA run, Mikan played his first pro season with the National Basketball League's Chicago American Gears. That team eventually was folded ahead of the 1947-48 season. Players were distributed to the NBL's other 11 remaining clubs, and Mikan landed with the Minneapolis Lakers. In 1948, Minneapolis hopped over to the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The next year, the NBL and BAA merged, creating the NBA during the 1949-50 season.
A four-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA/BAA Team selection, Mikan led a semi-dynastic early Lakers team to consecutive championships from 1949-50, and then again from 1952-1954. He retired following his last championship, won against the Syracuse Nationals in a back-and-forth seven-game affair, at the ripe old age of 29.
The Hall of Famer would pull a Magic Johnson and un-retire for a return to the Lakers midway through the 1955-1956 season, playing in a significantly reduced role for the team. Part of what changed was the 24-second NBA shot clock, first implemented the season after his initial retirement, 1954-55. Mikan's plodding, ground-bound game suffered adversely.
Across 439 career games, Mikan posted averages of 23.1 points, 13.4 rebounds, and 2.8 assists a night, while shooting 40.4% from the floor (low for an interior-based center in today's game, but it was a different time), but making 78.2% of his free throws. He was most recently named to the "NBA 75" anniversary team last season.
After his playing career ended for a second time, Mikan tried his hand unsuccessfully at coaching. He led the Lakers to a lackluster 9-30 record during the 1957-58 season. Mikan was the original league commissioner for the ABA from 1967-69. During the 1980s, he fronted a task force to bring another NBA team to Minneapolis (the club skipped town for L.A. in time for the 1961-62 season), which eventually yielded the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1989.
Of course, Mikan is not the only title-winning Lakers big man set to have his jersey lifted to the rafters this season.
Pau Gasol, who served with Los Angeles from 2008-2014, helped the Lakers make three consecutive NBA Finals appearances alongside Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum. He was the second-best player on two championship-winning squads in 2009 and 2010. The seven-footer's No. 16 jersey will forever be relegated to history on March 7th, 2023. Across 1226 NBA contests, Gasol averaged 17 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.6 blocks, and 0.5 steals. Though he played his final pro season in 2021 for Spanish club FC Barcelona Bàsquet, Gasol suited up for his last NBA run in 2019, making him Hall of Fame-eligible next year.
The Lakers are running out of un-retired numbers!
The following digits are now off the table: No. 8 (Bryant), No. 13 (Wilt Chamberlain), No. 16 (Gasol), No. 22 (Elgin Baylor), No. 24 (Bryant again), No. 25 (Gail Goodrich), No. 32 (Magic Johnson), No. 33 (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), No. 34 (Shaquille O'Neal), No. 42 (James Worthy), No. 44 (Jerry West), No. 52 (Jamaal Wilkes), and No. 99 (Mikan). Will L.A. ultimately retire the jersey numbers of LeBron James (No. 23) and/or Anthony Davis (No. 3), who did after all bring the team its latest title in 2020? We shall see.
Will other Minneapolis-era Hall of Famers like power forward Vern Mikkelsen (a six-time All-Star during the team's Mikan run), small forward Jim Pollard (a four-time All-Star), point guard Slater Martin (a seven-time All-Star), and center Clyde Lovellette (a four-time All-Star, although only two of those appearances were as a Laker) earn the same treatment?
