Customer Reviews

Mr. Basketball: George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers, and the Birth of the NBA

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Although this book is a little light on George Mikan's personal life, it is a nice re-count of his accomplishments in basketball. Readers must concentrate on the title and consider that Mikan helped tremendously in getting the NBA up and running. His star power launched the NBA into what it has become today. A great memory for me about Mikan is that I was playing for a small college in Indiana (Manchester) and we played at DePaul well after Mikan had graduated. Ray Meyer was still the coach and the school made sure that visiting teams had to run past an almost full length picture of Mikan on the way to the floor. Mikan's stature is still remembered by all of those who saw him play and own the lanes in basketball in the late 1940s and 50s. This is a good book for those who want to learn more about how the NBA got started and about one of the most dominant players and one of the most legendary teams in basketball history. Norman Jones, Ed. D. author of Growing Up in Indiana: The Culture & Hoosier Hysteria Revisited and Main St. vs. Wall St.: Wake-up Calls for America's Leaders.

Several of the other Amazon "reviews" for this book merely state facts about Mikan and The Lakers and NOT about the book. I bought it with the intent of really learning about this wonderful man and the team. I grew up in Minneapolis in the 1950s. After reading the book, I essentially learned nothing new about George Mikan, his interests, motivations, relationships, family times and adjustments, law practice, etc. The writing style is pedestrian, there is really little about Mikan that is insightful. The author claims to have interviewed Mikan's widow and children. He obviously does not know how to dig deep in conducting an interview to capture the human interest of his subject in the printed word. What a shame. George Mikan deserves better. Now I am going to try and find a copy of his autobiography, which is supposed to be out of print, to see if I can learn some insights about this unique man.

Superficially- written biographies and historical accounts are a dime a dozen these days. This is one of them. My message to hack authors: really do your homework and dig deep before you write or don't write.

By "typical book," I mean that it covers Mikan's career in great detail, give you some early biographical info, and then zips thru this post career life in mere seconds, until coverage of his death - maybe there isn't much happening after an athlete retires but it should would be nice to see some real research every once in a while. Wait for this to come out in paperback - in fact, wait for it to come out in mass market paperback - either that or in your library's discard pile.

GEORGE MIKAN WAS THE DOMINATING BIG MAN OF HIS TIME. HE HELPED REWRITE MANY OF TODAY'S RULES BY HIS SIZE AND ABILITY TO DOMINATE MOST PLAYERS OF HIS TIME. I AGREE WITH THE OTHER REVIEWERS THAT MUCH OF GEORGE'S LIFE OFF THE COURT IS NOT DISCUSSED TOO MUCH. I ALSO AGREE THAT WE REALLY DON'T GET TO KNOW HIM VERY WELL. MOST OF THE BOOK IS MOSTLY STATS AND YEAR TO YEAR COVERAGE OF HIS CAREER AND OF THE LAKERS. STILL I DID NOT KNOW MUCH ABOUT GEORGE BUT I THINK THE AUTHOR DID A NICE JOB DESCRIBING HOW THE GAME WAS PLAYED THEN AND I LEARNED ALOT ABOUT HOW THE NBA WAS FORMED AND ABOUT IT'S EARLY YEARS. IF YOU ARE CURIOUS ABOUT GEORGE'S CAREER AND LIKE BASKETBALL THEN I RECOMMEND IT. NOTHIN GREAT BUT BETTER THAN I EXPECTED.