[While clicking around for something completely unrelated to basketball, I stumbled onto this sideline interview with Bobby McDermott, the pro game’s premier sharpshooter of the 1930s and 1940s. Subject: George Mikan. What follows is his very brief, but heartfelt, belief in Mikan as the greatest pivotman of all-time. Obviously, McDermott couldn’t have envisioned a Shaq, an Embiid, or a Wemby. Or, for that matter, a Russell, a Chamberlain, or an Alcindor.
That shouldn’t invalidate McDermott’s praise. Mikan made the most of this talent and, in doing so, advanced pivot play in preparation for a Russell, a Chamberlain, an Alcindor, a Shaq, an Embiid, and even a Wemby. Greatness should be judged by one’s contribution to the game and its evolution, not a subjective comparison of athletic attributes in 2026.
In any case, McDermott’s sideline interview was relayed by the fastidious Elliot Cushing in his regular column Sports Eye View. This column ran on March 16, 1948 in the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle. What follows is McDermott in his own words.]
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George Mikan is the greatest of all big men. Joe Lapchick and Horse Haggerty in their prime couldn’t carry water for Big George. Mikan has everything . . . a powerful physique, speed, coordination, good basketball sense. And he’s one of the game’s greatest competitors. I know, having played with and against him.
And he’s a self-made athlete. He was clumsy and crude when he first went out for his high school basketball team. A caustic remark by one of his school teachers wounded George deeply, made him determined to become a great basketball player. He used to train like a fighter, doing roadwork, skipping rope, lifting weights to develop his body. I don’t think basketball will ever see his equal again.
From Way Downtown 