updated 12:50 a.m. ET June 3, 2005

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - George Mikan, the “gentle giant” who a half-century ago brought fame and stability to the fledgling world of professional basketball and literally transformed the game, has died 18 days shy of his 81st birthday.

Mikan died Wednesday night at a Scottsdale rehabilitation center following a long fight with diabetes and kidney ailments. His right leg was amputated below the knee in 2000, and he had undergone kidney dialysis treatment three times a week for five years, son Terry said.

A superstar decades before the term existed, Mikan was the first big man to dominate the sport. No one before had seen a 6-foot-10 player with his agility, competitiveness and skill.

When the Minneapolis Lakers came to New York in December 1949, the marquee at Madison Square Garden read “Geo. Mikan vs. the Knicks.”

“He literally carried the league,” Boston Celtics great Bob Cousy said. “He gave us recognition and acceptance when we were at the bottom of the totem pole in professional sports. He transcended the game. People came to see him as much as they came to see the game.”

College basketball instituted the goaltending rule because of him, and the NBA doubled the width of the free throw lane. Slowdown tactics used against him — his 1950 Lakers lost 19-18 to the Fort Wayne Pistons in the lowest-scoring game in NBA history — eventually led to the 24-second shot clock.

“George Mikan truly revolutionized the game and was the NBA’s first true superstar,” NBA commissioner David Stern said. “He had the ability to be a fierce competitor on the court and a gentle giant off the court. We may never see one man impact the game of basketball as he did, and represent it with such warmth and grace.”

Shaquille O’Neal, speaking after Miami’s playoff victory over Detroit on Thursday night, said he wanted the Mikan family to contact the Heat so he could pay for the funeral.

“Without No. 99, there is no me,” O’Neal said.

Terry Mikan said he appreciated O’Neal’s offer but said it would be up to his mother whether to accept it.

“It just speaks to what Shaquille is all about,” Terry Mikan said. “He had a bond with my dad. They were close friends.”

A private memorial service is planned in Scottsdale on Monday night. At some unspecified date, a public ceremony will be held in Minneapolis, where Mikan’s ashes will be interred, Terry Mikan said.

Ray Meyer, who was in his first year as DePaul coach when he began transforming Mikan into a basketball star, said that despite Mikan’s longtime illnesses, he was shocked and saddened at the death of his lifelong friend.

“He had the most positive attitude you ever heard,” the 91-year-old Meyer said. “Never once did he feel sorry for himself. He was a great basketball player, but I think he was a better human being. I loved the guy. I thought he was one of my family.”

Mikan was moved last weekend from a Scottsdale hospital, where he had been for six weeks for treatment of a diabetic wound in his leg.

“He had a fierce determination to excel, which he exhibited in his athletic career and business career,” Terry Mikan told The Associated Press on Thursday, “and that probably extended his life five years.”

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