In the late 1940s, the game of basketball is a whites-only game. But barnstorming around the country is a team of African-American players whose extraordinary talent and showmanship have made them renowned for almost two decades: The Harlem Globetrotters, including a 26-
year-old named Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton (EVERETT OSBORNE), whose power forward skills dazzle audiences and opponents alike, inspiring sportscasters to create new terms like “dunk” for Sweetwater’s on-the-court accomplishments. As Abe Saperstein (KEVIN POLLAK), the manager and promoter of the Trotters, works to get the team and Sweetwater the recognition they deserve, irrepressible New York Knicks Coach Joe Lapchick (JEREMY PIVEN) sees in Sweetwater the man who could integrate the game as “the Jackie Robinson of basketball.”
Along with Ned Irish (CARY ELWES), the colorful founder and president of the Knicks, Lapchick convinces Saperstein that Sweetwater is destined for more. As Maurice Podoloff (Academy Award® winner RICHARD DREYFUSS), president of the recently-formed National Basketball Association, balances desegregationist team owners with the moral imperative of a historic moment, Sweetwater Clifton — son of an Arkansas sharecropper — pivots from anchoring one of the sporting world’s most vibrant teams to the position of basketball’s barrier-breaker.
In the late 1940s, the game of basketball is a whites-only game. But barnstorming around the country is a team of African-American players whose extraordinary talent and showmanship have made them renowned for almost two decades: The Harlem Globetrotters, including a 26-
year-old named Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton (EVERETT OSBORNE), whose power forward skills dazzle audiences and opponents alike, inspiring sportscasters to create new terms like “dunk” for Sweetwater’s on-the-court accomplishments. As Abe Saperstein (KEVIN POLLAK), the manager and promoter of the Trotters, works to get the team and Sweetwater the recognition they deserve, irrepressible New York Knicks Coach Joe Lapchick (JEREMY PIVEN) sees in Sweetwater the man who could integrate the game as “the Jackie Robinson of basketball.”
Along with Ned Irish (CARY ELWES), the colorful founder and president of the Knicks, Lapchick convinces Saperstein that Sweetwater is destined for more. As Maurice Podoloff (Academy Award® winner RICHARD DREYFUSS), president of the recently-formed National Basketball Association, balances desegregationist team owners with the moral imperative of a historic moment, Sweetwater Clifton — son of an Arkansas sharecropper — pivots from anchoring one of the sporting world’s most vibrant teams to the position of basketball’s barrier-breaker.
