![]() Integration ended Saperstein's monopoly on black talent, as the New York Knickerbockers signed Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, the Globetrotters' center. In 1950, the Boston Celtics drafted Chuck Cooper, and the Washington Capitols took Earl Lloyd, desegregating the NBA. Their opponents were a mixed bag: other barnstorming teams, like the House of David, a bearded five from a Michigan religious colony pickup teams like the Alpha Fraternity and various all-star groupings of former college players.īasketball's moguls quickly sensed the dollars-and-cents meaning of the Globetrotters' 1948 victory: Talented black players improved the game, and fans would pay to see them. They would play hide-and-seek with the ball, or dribble it around hapless opponents so fast it sounded like a jazzman's drum solo. The barnstorming Globetrotters were as much a vaudeville act as a sports team, having introduced comedy bits to win over potentially hostile all-white audiences in small-town gymnasiums. ![]() Though Jackie Robinson had integrated baseball a year earlier, professional basketball remained a segregated sport. The Lakers were members, but the Globetrotters were not - simply because of their race. ![]() ![]() The Globetrotters-Lakers game didn't count in the league standings. Still, ordinary fans sensed that they were going to see something special: 17,823 of them turned out for the game, 12,000 more than would typically show up to see the Stags, Chicago's entry in the 2-year-old Basketball Association of America, the precursor of the National Basketball Association. ![]()
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