10 Athletes Who Forced Sports Leagues to Change Their Rules

No one man should have all that power.

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Complex Original

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On this day 60 years ago, the NBA experimented with playing a game with 12-foot baskets when the Milwaukee Hawks took on the Lakers at home in Minneapolis. The idea stemmed from the league's concern over the dominance of big men, and more specifically, George Mikan. The player nicknamed "Mr. Basketball" would simply stay posted in or very close to the paint, so that all he needed to do was make a quick pivot and score with relative ease. This approach made it borderline impossible for opposing teams to stop and the L needed to do something in order to "make a basket worth a cheer," as one sports columnist put it

While this alteration eventually didn't stick for reasons we will get into later, there are a couple of other instances when a league was compelled to do something in order to combat a player's impact on the game. From the NCAA banning dunking in a game because of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the complete overhaul made to boxing after the infamous bout between Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini and Kim Duk-Koo, here are 10 Athletes Who Forced Sports Leagues to Change Their Rules.

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Leroy Edwards

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George Mikan

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Bill Russell

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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Bob Gibson

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Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini

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Martin Brodeur

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Roy Williams

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Sean Avery

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Shaquille O'Neal

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