By admin 
Bill Russell once told a powerful story. What if it had never happened in the first place? He might not have ended up sharing it with Bill Walton. Both were sitting in a locker room. Boston Celtics warmups hanging behind them.
Read more Banishing, Skippylongstocking Highlight Charles Town Classic Nominations
It shows what can happen when a giant of the game decides a total stranger is worth 20 minutes of his time. That’s exactly what happened to Russell during his first meeting with the great George Mikan.
A fateful meeting
Today, Russell and Mikan are both icons. Not just at the center position, but across the game. When they met, though, only one of them was already on his way to becoming one. That was Mikan.
He was arguably professional basketball’s first true superstar. The reputation was well deserved. Mikan had carried the Minneapolis Lakers to one championship after another.
It’s hard to know whether Russell understood just how famous the four-time NBA All-Star was during their first meeting. He did recognize, however, that something rare was happening – Mikan going out of his way to speak with him.
By Bill’s own account, he himself was just a teenager at the time. What he also remembered was that the meeting took place during a Lakers exhibition game in Oakland, California.
“I went to the game and I met George Mikan,” he
“And he just stopped and talked to me for 20 minutes about playing pro basketball.”
At the time, Russell said he wasn’t even sure he would play college ball. He did anyway, at the University of San Francisco. In some ways, that decision can be traced back to Mikan.
After all, it was Mr. Basketball who told him how great it was to be a Laker. Other accounts say Mikan went further, telling Russell he should come join the team he would win five rings with. In just six seasons, no less.
Related: “Mostly big black gay ladies and a few scared-looking Sophie Cunninghams” – Joe Rogan calls out NBA-WNBA sexuality double standard
Read more How Mendoza’s Future Performances Could Affect Raiders Timeline
Russell never forgot Mikan’s kindness
What George told him made a real impression on the young Bill. But it went deeper than simply helping him dream a little bigger. Maybe for the first time, the 11-time NBA champion saw that it was okay to believe in himself.
“He expressed expectations of me. Outside of my family and my high school coach, there was nobody else who ever said anything like that to me. ‘We expect you to be successful,'” Whiskers said, per “Grunge.”
He never joined the Lakers, but Bill became successful anyway.
Russell wound up joining the Celtics in the 1956 NBA Draft. He then beat the Purple & Gold six times in the playoffs. That’s likely what he was referring to when he said he did “the next best thing.“
If you can’t join them, beat them, so to speak.
There is also something worth noting about Russell’s and Mikan’s storied NBA careers.
Whiskers joining the association was the same year Mr. Basketball retired after having dominated the game for years. Talk about a true passing-of-the-torch moment.
Mikan died in 2005 at a rehabilitation center in Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 80. He had been battling diabetes and kidney ailments for years. Seventeen years later, the Lakers finally retired his No. 99.
Russell never got to see it. The five-time MVP had died four months earlier that same year.
Related: “They used to have dinner together a lot” – Jerry West debunked the myth behind Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain’s rivalry
Read more Jamal Crawford explains how Seattle became a basketball powerhouse in the US
Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This story was originally published August 18, 2026 at 7:34 AM.