OT: NBA Greatest

[MADHAT1]

In the Masters thread there was talk about who is greatest golfer and one post had greatest NBA player was Jordan
(Has there ever been an athlete so important to his sport as Tiger is to golf? Maybe the combination of Bird/Magic? The NBA was going through a rough time before those two burst in the league. I'm just amazed how much interest rises with Tiger in the Masters. Incredible. )
I beg to offer someone who might give Micheal a run for his money in greatest classification:

Michael Jordan was the man in the NBA’s modern era being defined as the face of the game, in his era, and greatest player of all time.
But the man who made the NBA a must watch game was George Mikan
He turned the league from a small mans game, before he arrived on the scene, into one that the big man dominated.
In doing so he made the Minnesota Lakers the Chicago Bulls of his era, or you might say Jordan made the Bulls the Minnesota Lakers of his era

George lead his Lakers to 5 Championships in 6 years (1949 to 1954) and is considered the NBA’s first superstar
Before the NBA came to be, Mikan lead the Chicago American Gears to the NBL Championship in 1947 (the National Basketball League merged with Basketball Association of America in 1949 to form the NBA)

The Gears folded and George became a (NBL) Laker for the 1948 season leading the league in scoring and Minnesota won the NBL Championship .
So you can say Mikan lead his teams to 7 championships in 8 years and won 6 NBA scoring titles

Actually, one might have a good argument that Mikan should be considered the best pro basketball player of all time
George Mikan retired after the 1954 season, but attempted a comeback in the middle of the 1956 season that didn’t end well

Mikan was such a dominating player at Center the NBA changed the size of the lane from 6 foot to 12 feet .
Also the way other teams tried to slow down the game so George wouldn’t get too many opportunities to shoot, made the NBA look into putting in a shot clock.
We can talk about and claim Michael Jordan being the greatest, but George Mikan deserves to be put in the same greatest sentence as someone deserving of consideration

 

[WhichReligionIsRight]

Mikan was before my time, so I really can't speculate. But I do remember the NBA of the 1970's - this was a league in real trouble. Some playoff games were actually shown on tape delay. Ratings were down and attendance was stagnating.

My personal vote isn't for Jordan - even though he's the best player in NBA history. The NBA was really strong in the 1990s and the league had many stars. My vote for the most important player in league history goes to Magic/Bird. Ok, I cheated, but their rivalry reignited interest and passion in the NBA like no others that I ever saw. I would put Dr J right below Magic/Bird and then Jordan.

 

[198hamilton]

Julius period

 

[SouthFLRUfan]

Mikan was a dominant player in his era because at 6' 10" he was bigger than everybody else. Centers where only in the 6'6" to 6'8" range. The color barrier was not broken until 1950 and it was a few years after that the Bill Russell's and Wilt Chamberlain's of the world started showing up. Mikan would have been dominated by those guys. In the Mikan era they played a slow, plodding style of basketball at that time (no shot clock). Mikan only shot around 40% from the floor and that was with him taking almost all his shots around the basket. He was not particularly athletic (didn't have to be with the style they played.) George was a very nice man and the first player the league promoted to try and draw crowds, but Jordan played an entirely different game, and it wasn't one Mikan could have ever been a part of.

 

[MADHAT1]

Mikan was before my time, so I really can't speculate. But I do remember the NBA of the 1970's - this was a league in real trouble. Some playoff games were actually shown on tape delay. Ratings were down and attendance was stagnating.

My personal vote isn't for Jordan - even though he's the best player in NBA history. The NBA was really strong in the 1990s and the league had many stars. My vote for the most important player in league history goes to Magic/Bird. Ok, I cheated, but their rivalry reignited interest and passion in the NBA like no others that I ever saw. I would put Dr J right below Magic/Bird and then Jordan.

The Magiic-Bird rivalry did bring a lot of interest into the league that was missing before them and probably made the NBA have a lot stronger fan base than it had before they came on the scene by bringing in more fans that might not have started to followed the NBA if they weren't there .

Mikan was before my time as well, but heard stories about how he made the NBA into something worth watching far better than it was before him
Bob Cousy and Bill Russell's Celtics domination were the beginning of my NBA following and I feel now they had the pro basketball fan's attention when fans though about the NBA during that era.
My Knicks never seemed good enough compared to Boston, but the hope was always there, thus the interest in NBA games

 

[LotusAggressor_rivals]

Mikan was the greatest player of his era, but there was a quantum leap in skill and athleticism when Russell, Chamberlain, Baylor, Robertson, West, and others entered the league. Mikan would have been left in the dust in that era. Jordan, Bird, Dr.J, and Magic truly elevated the NBA above second class status. The roots of the NBA's popularity in the US and worldwide really starts with those 4 and the first Dream Team.

 

[MADHAT1]

Mikan was the greatest player of his era, but there was a quantum leap in skill and athleticism when Russell, Chamberlain, Baylor, Robertson, West, and others entered the league. Mikan would have been left in the dust in that era. Jordan, Bird, Dr.J, and Magic truly elevated the NBA above second class status. The roots of the NBA's popularity in the US and worldwide really starts with those 4 and the first Dream Team.

true, but different eras have different talent levels and what's great years ago might be common pl;ace now, but the greatness is how it was in that era.
Training routines , diets and other factors that help athlets now be better then those in the past might just have made those old time greats still great today if they played today using the latest type of conditioning rather than what they used in their era.

 

[FrankZ_RU93]

The correct answer is always Bird (and Magic). MJ tarnished in my book for the 80s humbles.

 

[AdventureHasAName]

I've always been of the opinion that Magic Johnson is the NBA's most important player. The thing about Jordan is that (like the NFL did with Manning and Brady) the league unspokenly changed the way games were officiated so that he could single-handedly take over games. Everybody in the league was playing streetball, but if you sneezed on Jordan, they called a foul; the Jordan Rules were a real thing. They have never recovered from this. Overnight, the NBA went from a team game to a superstar-driven league. On the other hand, Magic (with Bird) revived a dying league and was the best ambassador the NBA has ever had.