ESPN's Black Magic: More Than A Game

For two straight nights I watched Black Magic. Ben Jobe, Earl Monroe, John McClendon, Spencer Haywood, Clarence "Big House" Gaines, Bob Love, Cleo Hill, John Chaney, Earl Lloyd, Pee Wee Kirkland, Willis Reed, and Al Attles. If you know basketball, you'll recognize some of these names. The others may not be in your information bank.

The one thing they have in common is the Historically Black College and University(HBCU). The second is that they struggled to get recognition beyond the color line that made black athletes and black coaches invisible. ESPN's Black Magic, which aired commercial-free on March 17-18, tried to set the record straight. Produced by filmaker Dan Klores, Black Magic explores the depths of racism and its impact on several generations of black basketball artisans. As I watched, I could not help but to think of today's dirty rich ballers who often have no sense of this history. Had the Lebrons, Jordans, Shaqs, Carmelo Anthonys, Iversons, etc. emerged a mere 40 years earlier, they would have toiled in obscurity. White colleges offered no scholarships to black athletes during that period. That's where the black college stepped in.

I knew that Earl "The Pearl" Monroe went to Winston Salem in North Carolina. As a kid watching him play for the Bullets and Knicks, I heard announcers say it all the time. I would later learn some of the history of how black colleges were the only option for early NBA greats. Monroe was coached by "Big House" Gaines, a huge man who coached at Winston Salem for forty-plus years and earned 828 victories. On the playgrounds of Philadelphia, the Monroe "Black Magic" and "Black Jesus" because of his miracle like handling of the ball.

Bob Love had one of the sweetest jump shots in the NBA. He played at Southern University in Louisiana. After retiring in the late 1970s following a leg injury, his life-long struggle as a stutterer became very public. He was penniless and could not find work. Through perseverance and faith, he became a public speaker and now gives motivational speeches across the country. He tells his own story in Black Magic (as do others)in eye-wiping narratives. The pain of his personal struggles jumps off the screen. You can feel the impact of racism in his voice. He was judged by both his speech impediment and his color.

The beauty of Black Magic is how Klores and co-producer Earl Monroe weaves the Civil Rights Movement into the individual stories--a history that is tragic but liberating. Earl Lloyld, one of the featured former athletes, reflects and wonders how could one group suffer so much discrimination and pay such a price. Current black NBA stars should ask the same question. They owe a large debt to these warriors.