The Lakers franchise predates the NBA. The Minneapolis Laker's first season was 1947-48, when the team entered the National basketball League. A strange series of events early that year landed the lakers the biggest prize in the game at that-center george Mikan. Mikan was a 6-1- giant of a man who had dominated college basketball in his four years at DePaul. He joined the Chicago American Gears at the end of the 1945-46 season, then led the Gears to the NBL championship the following year. Prior to the 1947 campaign Maurice White, president of the American Gear Company and owner of the Chicago team, pulled the club out of the NBL. White's plan was to create a 24 team circuit called the Professional Basketball League of American, in which he would own of teh teams and all of the arenas. But the new aleague lasted barely a month, and the players on White's teams were distrbuted among the 11 NBL franchises. The frist-year Minneapolis Lakers landed Mikan strictly by Chance.
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