The word “Showtime” is synonymous with the Los Angeles Lakers, but when the basketball franchise was founded in 1947 in Minneapolis, the prospect of Hollywood movie stars sitting courtside could not possibly have been on anybody’s mind. Indeed, the team was named for Minnesota’s lake-strewn landscape; today many young fans mistakenly think it’s a play on “L.A.” The team’s leader in the early 1950s was center George Mikan, whose 1948 Bowman...Continue Reading