Welcome back to Athlete Summary. On this day 60 years ago, the NBA experimented with playing a game with 12-foot baskets when the Milwaukee Hawks took on the Lakers at home in Minneapolis. The idea stemmed from the league's concern over the dominance of big men, and more specifically, George Mikan.
The player nicknamed "Mr. Basketball" would simply stay posted in or very close to the paint, so that all he needed to do was make a quick pivot and score with relative ease. This approach made it borderline impossible for opposing teams to stop and the L needed to do something in order to "make a basket worth a cheer," as one sports columnist put it.
