Several former Minneapolis Lakers stars and their coach will be honored tonight before the Los Angeles Lakers game with the Timberwolves.

George Mikan, Jim Pollard, Slater Martin, Clyde Lovellette, Vern Mikkelsen and coach John Kundla -- all Laker Hall of Famers -- will have their names raised on a banner in Staples Center. Another banner commemorating the five NBA titles won by Minneapolis before the Lakers moved to Los Angeles also will be raised.

Mikan became the Shaquille O'Neal of his day, a hulking, broad-shouldered 260-pounder among the Lilliputians, able to hook with either hand, dominating by whatever means necessary.

That tucked-elbow spin O'Neal kept laying out Dikembe Mutombo with last spring? That was Mikan's basic move into the lane.

"He just had his way in those days," former Boston Celtic great Bob Cousy said. "The Lakers ran no transition. It wasn't unlike what the Sixers did with Wilt [Chamberlain] after a while.

"The Lakers simply waited for Big George to get down floor and then the offense started with him getting it. They'd run some splits and things, but basically, he would just overpower you.

"He wasn't clumsy. I say awkward and plodding and I suppose that implies clumsy, but he wasn't clumsy."

In the days when they celebrated high-scoring "point-a-minute" teams, Mikan began compiling big numbers, winning five scoring titles in a row, averaging 23 points -- before they put in the 24-second clock -- and turning it up in the biggest games, averaging 30 in the '49 playoffs and scoring 40 in Game 6 when the Lakers clinched the title in '50.

In the ultimate compliment accorded to the greatest revolutionaries, Mikan and Wilt, the rules were changed to deal with them. The NBA widened its lane for the first time for Mikan. The NCAA rewrote its defensive goaltending rules, fearing otherwise Mikan would just bat everything away.