The 10 best Los Angeles Lakers big men of all time

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Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports – Los Angeles Lakers /

Best Los Angeles Lakers big men of all time: 4. George Mikan

The first superstar of the NBA was George Mikan, and he should get a ton of credit for making the game as popular as it is today. He was the first giant of the league who was able to dominate the game by stature and strength by overmatching his shorter opponents.

However, Mikan was not just all brawn and no skill. He worked so hard at mastering his skills around the basket that he even has a rebounding and layup drill named after him that players still use to this day.

Mikan was one of the players in the league that was so dominant that they had to change the rules to combat his excellence. He won the league scoring title three years in a row from 1949-1951, so in 1951 the league doubled the width of the paint from six feet to 12 feet because Mikan could camp out and score down low all day long without a penalty.

He ended up winning five championships for the Lakers in Minneapolis before they moved to Los Angeles, and he led the first NBA dynasty out in Minnesota. His total of five championships with the franchise is the most by any big man on this list, so he is arguably the greatest Lakers big man of all time.

By the end of his career, he had the most points in the history of the league and was the first player to score 10,000 points, those records have since been broken but he was the first scoring juggernaut in basketball history.

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