# Talk:George Mikan

Why is there no mention in the article about his being a lawyer?  I know for a fact he was one and I briefly knew the lawyer who took over his practice.  Where did he go to law school?

the mention of Rhode Island in the DePaul Uni section -- what's that? can it be wikified? Chensiyuan 16:34, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Rhode Island == University of Rhode Island in this context.  I took care of the wikification for you.  Myasuda 18:53, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
thanks! Chensiyuan 05:45, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

is that what he's called? pioneer of Modern Age basketball?? i'm more distracted by the capitalisation actually. Chensiyuan 05:45, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

in the Bill Russell article, it's said there that the outlawing of goaltending and widening of the lane may be attributable to Russell. similar stuff is said of Mikan too, who was 10 years older than Russell. so i presume it remains accurate that both of them caused the rules to be changed?

Good question.  Per the site [1], the NBA lane was widened twice: once for Mikan (prior to the 1951-52 season) and once for Chamberlain (prior to the 1964-65 season).  The citation in the Russell article, however, is referring to the NCAA rule change that took place in 1956.  I will remove the reference to Chamberlain with respect to the NCAA lane widening since it's not clear that he influenced this change, but I will indicate Chamberlain's influence regarding goaltending per [2] (I will also indicate that this refers to offensive goaltending since defensive goaltending was already outlawed in the mid 1940's). Myasuda 15:24, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
The changes I said that I'd make above have now been made in the Bill Russell article.  I will also update the Mikan article so that it does not suggest that he made goaltending illegal in the NBA (Mikan's direct influence was for the NCAA only – the NBA inherited the rule when it began several years later).  Thanks again for posing the insightful question.  Myasuda 15:41, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
sure thing, it's easy for me to point things out but the much harder job is effecting the changes, as you have. Chensiyuan 15:57, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

1. It is well written. - Pass

Overall this is extremely well written with no glaring WP:MOS violations. However, I will make two stylistic recommendation.
Move the family life and non-death related personal details to the beginning of the article within early days. This will also remove the redundancy of the mention that he he was born in Joliet, Illinois to Croatian parents twice. I would then incorporate details of his death within his legacy, since his poverty ridden later years and the awareness that brought is also quite important to his legacy.
2. It is factually accurate and verifiable. - Pass

The article is well cited using a variety of reliable sources. There are no markedly outstanding or curious statements in the article that need addition in-line citations.
3. It is broad in its coverage. - Pass

Overall the article does a good job in painting a broad portrait of Mikan but there is one small area that I would like to see fleshed out more. In the section on his legacy the article mentions that he was directly responsible for "the existence of the Minnesota Timberwolves." and leave it at that. Now one can, of course, go to the source link and read about what exactly he did but it would be nice if the article just add an extra sentence of two to flesh that area out.
4. It follows the neutral point of view policy - Pass

Overall the article does a good job of presenting a balanced WP:NPOV perspective of its subject.
5. It is stable - Pass'
The article is sufficiently stable to pass this criteria.
6. It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic. - Pass

Unfortunately all the images are Fair Use but they include detailed fair use rationale and thusly do not hinder attainment of GA status.

With that I am pleased to pass this article for Good Article Status. My congrats and appreciation to the editors of this article for diligently working to bring this article up to GA status. AgneCheese/Wine 07:09, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

This discussion is transcluded from Talk:George Mikan/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the reassessment.
This article has been reviewed as part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force. I believe the article currently meets the criteria and should remain listed as a Good article. The article history has been updated to reflect this review. Regards,--Jackyd101 (talk) 13:10, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

It is reasonably well written.
a (prose):  b (MoS): 
Now that the article has had a thorough copyedit, the prose is OK, a 7.5/10.
It is factually accurate and verifiable.
a (references):  b (citations to reliable sources):  c (OR): 
It is broad in its coverage.
a (major aspects):  b (focused): 
It follows the neutral point of view policy.
a (fair representation):  b (all significant views): 
It is stable.

It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.
a (tagged and captioned):  b (lack of images does not in itself exclude GA):  c (non-free images have fair use rationales): 
Obviously, an image would be nice.
Overall:
a Pass/Fail: 

I was randomly reading a Time Line of Serbs in Chicago and on page 18 I came across this: "-In 1950 Mikan George was voted the greatest player of the first half of the century by The Associated Press. In the first class elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959. His accomplishments were further acknowledged" The time line doesn't specifically claim he is of Serbian origin, but it mostly lists great accomplishments of Serbian-Americans. So I'm wondering could he actually be Serbian in origin? I don't know how credible the source is and I hope this question doesn't spark another Serb/Croat Wikipedia war..
Source: http://www.cikaskisrbi.com/en/chicago_serbs_timeline.pdf  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.12.197.4 (talk) 05:44, 7 September 2010 (UTC) 

He is of Croat origin.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.160.24.119 (talk) 18:29, 6 June 2013 (UTC) 

George Mikan, mikan drill is dead
71.192.118.71 (talk) 02:03, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

In the lead, why spectacles and not glasses? Dialmayo (talk) (Contribs) she/her 02:31, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

There is an RfC at WP:NBA that is relevant to this article. See here. Ladtrack (talk) 19:56, 4 April 2025 (UTC)