1948 Bowman George Mikan #69 RC

The hobby's first basketball set

In 1948 professional basketball was a minor sport, followed closely by few fans beyond its most dedicated devotees, and well behind baseball, boxing and football in the newspapers. Bowman Gum still took a chance on it. Its 1948 basketball set ran to 72 cards, each 2 1/16 by 2 1/2 inches, with black-and-white tinted photographs set against red or blue backgrounds. A dozen of the cards were Play Diagram cards that sketched out plays a coach might run.

Because it was the first basketball card set ever issued, every player in it appears on his rookie card by definition. The backs were printed in black and red with the player's vital details, a short biography and an offer for Bowman novelty items available by redeeming wrappers.

The set was printed on two 36-card press sheets that were not distributed at the same time. The second sheet, the high numbers from #37 to #72, stayed in circulation for a shorter period and is scarcer than the first. Mikan's card, #69, sits in that tougher group. It was Bowman's first and only basketball set.

Mr. Basketball

George Lawrence Mikan Jr. was born June 18, 1924, in Joliet, Illinois, to a Croatian father and a Lithuanian mother. As a boy he shattered a knee so badly he spent a year and a half in bed, and he once studied for the Catholic priesthood. When he entered DePaul University in 1942 he stood 6 feet 10, weighed 245 pounds, moved awkwardly and wore thick glasses for nearsightedness.

DePaul coach Ray Meyer remade him with speed-bag work, dance lessons and jump rope, and drilled him on hook shots with either hand; the routine is still taught as the Mikan drill. Mikan was the Helms national player of the year in 1944 and 1945, and in 1945 he scored 120 points in three games, including 53 against Rhode Island, to win the NIT. His habit of swatting shots on their way down led the NCAA, and later the pros, to outlaw goaltending.

He turned pro with the Chicago American Gears, then landed with the new Minneapolis Lakers in a 1947 dispersal draft. In 1947-48 he scored 1,195 points, the only NBL player ever to pass 1,000 in a season, won the league MVP and led the Lakers to the NBL title. In 1948-49, the season his Bowman card was in packs, the Lakers moved to the Basketball Association of America and Mikan led the league with 1,698 points, 28.3 per game.

Over his career he won seven NBL, BAA and NBA championships, three scoring titles and an All-Star Game MVP. He was so dominant that the NBA widened the foul lane from six to twelve feet in 1951, a change nicknamed the Mikan Rule, and a 19-18 stall game against his Lakers helped bring about the shot clock. He retired in 1954, returned midway through the 1955-56 season for 37 games, and left as the first NBA player to score 10,000 points. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1959, became the first commissioner of the American Basketball Association in 1967 and died June 1, 2005, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Minneapolis, 1948-49

Mikan's Lakers spent the spring of 1948 winning everything available. They took the NBL title, and in April he led them to victory at the World Professional Basketball Tournament, scoring a tournament-record 40 points against the New York Renaissance in the title game.

That fall the Lakers and three other NBL franchises jumped to the BAA. Mikan played 60 games, shot .416 from the field and .772 from the line, and averaged 28.3 points. In the playoffs he averaged 30.3 points in 10 games, and the Lakers beat the Washington Capitols four games to two in the Finals. A year later the BAA and NBL merged into the NBA, and the Lakers won its first championship.

Off the court, 1948 was the year the ABC television network began broadcasting, the United States recognized Israel, the Berlin Airlift began and Harry Truman beat Thomas Dewey for the presidency.

The PSA 10, a sportsbook and the Smithsonian

Only one copy of the card has ever received a PSA Gem Mint 10. It sold at auction in December 2009 for $218,550 according to one sales record; the auction firm that handled its next sale described the 2009 price as $225,000. In December 2015 it sold again, at an online auction in California, for $403,664 with buyer's premium, then a record for any basketball card.

The buyer was later identified by the Justice Department as William Sean "Tony" Creighton, founder of the offshore sportsbook 5Dimes. Federal agents opened a money-laundering investigation into 5Dimes in May 2016. Creighton was never charged. Not quite three years after the 2015 sale he was abducted in Costa Rica, and despite a $1 million ransom paid in bitcoin he was killed; his body was found a year later.

On September 30, 2020, 5Dimes and Creighton's widow agreed to forfeit more than $46.8 million. The seized assets included the Mikan card, which the Justice Department said Creighton bought for over $400,000 and which now resides at the Smithsonian. It has not been offered for sale since 2015.

With the 10 off the market, the four PSA 9s have set the pace. One sold for $320,009 in October 2020 and another for $426,000 in summer 2021. On March 9, 2022, a PSA 9 sold online for $800,000, a record for the card and, as of 2023, the most ever paid for a pre-1980 basketball card. PSA 9s brought $524,600 in August 2025 and $463,600 in February 2026.

What to look for in a PSA 7

The card shows Mikan driving toward the basket in a tinted black-and-white photograph. The back's biography calls him "rated by experts as the greatest basketball player in history." Like most 1948 Bowman cards it is often found off-center with toning along the edges, which makes high grades hard to find. Some uncut sheets reached the hobby years ago, so hand-cut copies exist, and the second series also produced a small number of gray-background cards that are probably print variations never meant for sale.

PSA 7, Near Mint, sits in the upper tier of what survives. PSA's own figures list one 10, four 9s, 24 8s and 42 7s. By 2022 PSA had graded more than 370 Mikan rookies; another grader had given one a 9, two an 8.5 and four an 8.

Prices climb steeply through the top grades. PSA 7s sold for $32,100 in April 2023 and $48,800 in September 2026, while PSA 8s have brought $120,000 to $147,484 and the 9s several times more.

The numbers

1948-49 BAA season (card year)

60 G, 583 FG, 532 FT, 1,698 PTS (league leader), 28.3 PPG, 3.6 APG, .416 FG%, .772 FT%

1949 BAA playoffs

10 G, 303 PTS, 30.3 PPG; Lakers beat Washington 4-2 in the Finals

1947-48 NBL season

1,195 points, the only 1,000-point season in NBL history; league MVP; NBL champion

1949-50 NBA season

68 G, 27.4 PPG; won the first NBA championship

1950-51 NBA season

68 G, 28.4 PPG, 14.1 RPG

BAA/NBA career (1948-1956)

439 G, 10,156 PTS, 23.1 PPG, 13.4 RPG, 2.8 APG

Pro career incl. NBL

520 G, 11,764 PTS, 22.6 PPG

Titles and honors

7 NBL/BAA/NBA championships, 3 scoring titles, 1953 All-Star MVP, Hall of Fame 1959

Timeline

1. Jun 18, 1924

   George Mikan is born in Joliet, Illinois.

2. 1945

   Mikan scores 120 points in three games as DePaul wins the NIT.

3. 1947

   The Minneapolis Lakers take Mikan in a dispersal draft after his Chicago team folds.

4. Apr 1948

   Mikan scores a tournament-record 40 points as the Lakers win the World Professional Basketball Tournament.

5. 1948

   Bowman issues its 72-card basketball set, with Mikan on card #69.

6. 1949

   The Lakers beat the Washington Capitols for the BAA championship.

7. 1950

   The Lakers win the first NBA championship.

8. 1959

   Mikan is inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

9. 1967

   Mikan becomes the first commissioner of the American Basketball Association.

10. Jun 1, 2005

    Mikan dies in Scottsdale, Arizona.

11. Dec 13, 2009

    The only PSA 10 copy sells at auction.

12. Dec 6, 2015

    The PSA 10 sells for $403,664, a record for any basketball card at the time.

13. Sep 30, 2020

    The PSA 10 is forfeited in a federal settlement with the sportsbook 5Dimes; it goes to the Smithsonian.

14. Oct 10, 2020

    A PSA 9 sells at auction for $320,009.

15. Mar 9, 2022

    A PSA 9 sells online for a record $800,000.

16. Dec 2022

    The NBA renames its Most Improved Player award for Mikan.

17. Aug 23, 2025

    A PSA 9 sells at auction for $524,600.

18. Sep 20, 2026

    A PSA 7 sells for $48,800.

The world in 1948

• Mar 8, 1948

  In McCollum v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools is unconstitutional.

• Apr 19, 1948

  The ABC television network begins broadcasting.

• May 14, 1948

  The United States recognizes Israel.

• Jun 24, 1948

  The Berlin Blockade begins, and the U.S. responds with the Berlin Airlift.

• Jul 20, 1948

  President Truman issues the second peacetime military draft in U.S. history.

• Oct 11, 1948

  The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Braves to win the World Series.

• Nov 2, 1948

  Harry Truman defeats Thomas Dewey and Strom Thurmond for the presidency.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 7 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1948 Bowman George Mikan #69 RC is number 63 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (37 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The only PSA 10 Mikan rookie was bought by the founder of an offshore sportsbook, seized by federal agents and now resides at the Smithsonian.
• The card's own back calls Mikan "rated by experts as the greatest basketball player in history."
• Bowman made just one basketball set, and a dozen of its 72 cards are diagrams of plays rather than players.
• Mikan's card is in the set's second series, which was in circulation for a shorter time than the first.
• Mikan shot his free throws underhanded long before Rick Barry made the style famous.
• Shaquille O'Neal paid for Mikan's funeral, saying, "Without number 99, there is no me."
• In 1951 the NBA doubled the width of the foul lane, from six feet to twelve, mainly to slow Mikan down.