That’s Right Nate

Back in the first part of the 20th century in a time before Jackie Robinson, baseball in this country like all sports was a segregated game.   Some of the greatest players of the time played in what was then called the Negro Leagues.   Players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Cool Papa Bell played for teams like the Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, and Bingo Long’s Traveling All-Stars.  What did all those teams have in common?  Not a single white face.   The shameful secret of the Negro Leagues is that they had a color barrier that kept white players from playing.   Could white stars like Joe DiMaggio, Dizzy Dean, and Lou Gehrig have excelled playing against the best black ballplayers?  Most probably.  Unfortunately, racism prevented them from ever having the chance.

Basketball has a similar ugly history.  While the Washington Generals have a long history of allowing white ballplayers, The Harlem Globetrotters do not. Even though the Globetrotters were founded in Chicago, they chose the name Harlem Globetrotter because of the African-American connotations of Harlem.  Seth Franco didn’t break the Globetrotter color barrier until 2006.  Today, the number of white players in the basketball remains extremely small.

A group of pioneers led by Don “Moose” Lewis is seeking to rebreak the color barrier by starting an all-white basketball league mostly centered in the South.   Soon teams like the Knights and Wizards can be playing all over the South playing that type of fundamentally sound basketball that white players like Jason Williams and Chris Dudley have made famous.  Lewis stressed that he’s not racist, but merely “what we’re stressing here is a more fundamental basketball, which blatantly fits white players better.”

We here at thatsrightnate.com salute Don Lewis.   There comes a time to say, “We refuse to sit on the front of the bus”.  That time is now.