For such a preferred league, the NBA’s origins are among the many most obscure of North America’s main skilled sports activities, with the game’s glitz, cash and attain overshadowing its modest—and typically problematic—early historical past. And on the coronary heart of the institutionalized racism that was pervasive within the Basketball Affiliation of America’s (BAA) period was the so-called “gents’s settlement” that barred gamers of coloration from the courtroom.
However a trio of black gamers broke that racial barrier across the time the BAA turned the NBA within the 1949-50 season. In April 1950, the Boston Celtics signed Chuck Cooper, the primary black participant to be so honored. A month later, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton would change into the primary black participant to signal an NBA contract. And 6 months after that, Earl Lloyd would change into the primary black participant to play in an NBA sport. These three pioneers have been lately featured within the movie “Sweetwater,” which, with Clifton because the protagonist, highlighted this pivotal second within the affiliation’s historical past.
At the moment screening on the Boston Movie Pageant, CLNS Media’s “Celtics Lab” podcast teamed up with the movie’s star, Everett Osborne, and Chuck Cooper’s son, Chuck Cooper III, to speak concerning the movie, the place the league nonetheless has to go, and what’s nonetheless to come back.
Be part of us for this necessary episode – and should you’re within the space, contemplate seeing the movie when it screens on the pageant this weekend.
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This text was initially revealed on Celtics Wire: On breaking basketball obstacles and Boston with Chuck Cooper III, Everett Osborne
