Movie shows how basketball affected lives of black men

By David Bauder

Movie shows how basketball affected lives of black men

Film tells story of civil rights struggle through basketball experiences

NEW YORK — Even most casual sports fans can identify Jackie Robinson and Frank Robinson as the first black men to play for, and manage, major league baseball teams.

So who are Earl Lloyd and John McLendon?

The first black man to play in the National Basketball Association and the first to coach an integrated professional basketball team (and be fired by George Steinbrenner) are hidden in history. It’s one of the reasons filmmaker Dan Klores made his exhaustive look at the men who played basketball at historically black colleges.

The four-hour “Black Magic” airs commercial-free in two parts Sunday and Monday on ESPN, at 9 p.m.

The montage of highlights from stars from Elgin Baylor to LeBron James at the beginning of the film may lead ESPN viewers to believe they’re watching a basketball film. Though it’s a thrill to see Earl “The Pearl” Monroe’s famous spin move again, this is really about history.

For young fans used to watching an NBA game where the majority of players are black, and considering voting for a black man for president, the stories of careers ruined and abuse taken because of race may be stunning.

“Even for me, having lived through that time, I learned some things,” said Monroe, who assisted Klores as a producer.

Klores had contracted with ESPN to make a 20-hour film about basketball, to do for the sport what Ken Burns did for baseball. But the network had second thoughts about the time commitment, just about when Klores realized he was getting bored with so much hoops talk.

They decided to specifically focus on the experiences of men who played at the black colleges and then tried to make a living with their skills at a time the country was struggling with desegregation. Klores said he was surprised few of these stories had been told, and that many people didn’t understand the role of black colleges as refuges from a tough world.

He followed the career of McLendon, who coached at black colleges, integrated schools and briefly the pros. McLendon was known for teaching the fast break, something protegee Ben Jobe noted wryly when he recalled a Duke team in the 1970s being praised for its quick, long passes.

“When Duke did it, it was genius,” Jobe said in the film. “When we did it, it was jungle ball.”

The film has extended stories about Bob Love, the former Chicago Bulls star and a stutterer who found himself abandoned by his wife and broke when his career ended; Perry Wallace, who broke the Southeastern Conference’s color barrier and is now a law professor; and Pee Wee Kirkland, who spent 14 years in prison.

Some of the stories are only marginally about sports, such as Love’s redemptive tale of conquering his stuttering came after his career was through. But Klores made some editing decisions knowing he was working at a sports network.

Just like “Black Magic” talks about the experiences of the only white coach at a black college, Klores was also conscious of being a white man telling this story.

“I didn’t think in terms of that being odd,” he said. “I did think, ‘What criticism will I face?’ I thought that, because I’m white, maybe I might [be criticized], but so far there’s not much that I have heard of. I never felt odd. I felt extremely comfortable.”