Mikan led the Minneapolis Lakers to five league titles in the first six years of the franchise’s history. Nearsighted with thick glasses, he was as rough on the court as he was mild-mannered off it. Mikan led the league in personal fouls three times and had 10 broken bones during his playing career. He averaged 23.1 points in seven seasons with Minneapolis before retiring because of injuries in 1956. Mikan was the league’s MVP in the 1948-49 season, when he averaged 28.3 points in leading the Lakers to the title.

“Ed McCauley was our center. Eddie was 6-9, but weighed about 185 pounds where George was probably 250,” Cousy recalled. “When we’d walk down the street in a group, Eddie would brush against a pole or big tree and say ‘Excuse me George.’ Even to someone close to his height, George seemed humongous.”

A statue of Mikan taking his trademark hook shot was dedicated at the Target Center in Minneapolis in April 2001 at halftime of a Timberwolves-Lakers game.

“We were in hiatus a long time, the old-timers,” Mikan said at the time. “They forgot about us. They don’t go back to our NBA days.”

Timberwolves star and 2004 MVP Kevin Garnett knew of Mikan, though.

Andrew D. Bernstein / Getty Images file George Mikan’s Lakers won five of the first six NBA titles after the league was formed in 1948.

“When I think about George Mikan, I skip all the Wilt Chamberlains and Kareem Abdul-Jabbars and I call him the ’The Original Big Man,”’ Garnett said. “Without George Mikan, there would be no up-and-unders, no jump hooks, and there would be no label of the big man.”

The Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and became one of the most successful franchises in professional sports.

“Frankly, without George Mikan, the Los Angeles Lakers would not be the organization we are today,” Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss said.

Born June 18, 1924, in Joliet, Ill., Mikan didn’t play high school basketball, but when he entered DePaul, Meyer, the young new coach, recognized the potential.

Meyer said he worked with Mikan for six weeks alone, making him shoot left-handed and right-handed, a procedure still known as the “George Mikan drill.”

He had him punch a speed bag, take some dancing lessons to improve his grace and also jump rope.

Mikan was two-time college player of the year and led DePaul to the 1945 National Invitation Tournament title. He scored 53 points in the semifinals against Rhode Island, a phenomenal number in that era, and was named the tourney’s MVP.

Mikan played one season with the Chicago Gears before moving to the new Lakers franchise.

“George was a giant among men in the early days of the NBA,” said Celtics president Arnold “Red” Auerbach, who coached against him. “He was one of the greatest players of all time. He was the first player to really be an imposing and intimidating figure on the court.”

Mikan coached the Lakers for part of the 1957-58 season, and was commissioner of the American Basketball Association in 1967, introducing the 3-point line and the distinctive red, white and blue ball.

He practiced law and, in his later years, began pressing the NBA and the players’ union to boost the tiny pensions given to those who played in the league before 1965. Terry Mikan said most of his father’s awards and memorabilia has been sold. Mikan received a monthly pension check of $1,700, his son said. Under current rules, his widow will get half that much.

Terry Mikan said one of his father’s reasons for fighting so hard against his illnesses “was his hope that he would be alive when the collective bargaining agreement was reached and the decision had been finalized on the pre-65ers and their surviving families. He gave his heart and soul to that effort.”

Mikan is survived by his wife of 58 years, Patricia; sons Larry, Terry, Patrick and Michael; daughters Trisha and Maureen, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“I’ve got one word that describes my dad, and that’s kindness,” Terry Mikan said. “Whenever he would make a toast at a family function, dad would ask us to raise our glass to kindness, and that’s the type of man he was.”

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