ESPN will air Black Magic, the first of a two-part, four-hour film that chronicles the African-American influence on the game. Or more precisely, according to the film’s director, Dan Klores, “tells the story of the injustice that defined the civil rights movement told through the lives of basketball players and coaches from historical black colleges and universities.”

Narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson, the film’s story lines revolve around some of the game’s biggest contributors – John McClendon, Clarence “Big House” Gaines, Cleo Hill, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, former Temple Coach John Chaney, Bob “Butterbean” Love and Earl Lloyd.

In an interview with NBA.com, Klores not only shared his passion for the film, but also offered his thoughts on how the Basketball Hall of Fame needs to open its doors to allow more players and coaches from historical black colleges as well as the debt that today’s players and coaches need to pay to these pioneers.

NBA.com: How did this project come about?

Dan Klores: I was actually doing another film on basketball that ESPN had agreed to do, and I was doing the research for a year and a half and I got bored with it. When I was researching this film, which was a much larger – it was going to be a 20-hour, 10 part history on basketball – I just said I don’t want to do that for the next five years of my life. But in that research I just kept coming across the idea of historical black colleges. That began to interest me much more.

Of the things that I love, it was truly about history, it was about the civil rights movement, it was about conflict, it was about the role of the outsider in our society. It was a story that has not been told and it was about hoops. All of those things I love which is really what my work is about.

It’s about media also. So I went back to the head of ESPN, John Skipper, and I said this is really what I would prefer doing. He was a guy who was raised in North Carolina and he’s a pretty aggressive guy and he said absolutely. The only things that I wanted was to make sure I had four hours, not two, and that there were no commercial interruptions. He promised both and he delivered on both, which is great.

NBA.com: As you were researching, was it surprising to you that a lot of the pioneers and historical black colleges were overlooked?

Klores: Not at all actually. The focus of Black Magic is coming from historical black colleges. Historical black colleges have been ignored from most scholarship and art. Not really the basketball components, but the contributions that its faculty and graduates have made to America thought and art in general.

To me, the idea that little if anything had been done was a positive because I was able to explore people who had been excluded. If it was the same old, same old, I would not have done this film. If it was about young black players like Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell, who went to majority schools, I would not have done that. That story’s been told.

So a lot of the film is why do we have historical black colleges? Where do they come from? What are the differences? How are they initiated? What is the feeling between students and faculty? What is the perception of the African-American community then and now towards these schools and the role?

NBA.com: Why have they been overlooked?

Klores: Because most of the people who examine our culture don’t come from historical black colleges. It’s as simple as that. Why is African-American history a three-credit course or a new major? Because the film is about exclusion and therefore invention. Blacks have been excluded from the mainstream, excluded from forms of worship, excluded from forms of education, excluded from forms of leisure, so therefore when you’re excluded, what do you do to invent? Well, we invent our own forms or worship, our own forms of music, our own schools, our own forms of leisure activities. That’s what the film is about.

NBA.com: One of the pioneers you focus on in the film is John McClendon. Even though he is in the Hall of Fame, he still seems to fly under the radar in terms of overall contribution to the game.

Klores: Even though John McClendon’s in the Hall of Fame, it’s a slight as well as an honor. John McClendon was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a contributor, not as a coach. John McClendon won more than 500 games in his college coaching career. In those days 500 was the magic number.

John McClendon created and invented the “Four Corners” offense. John McClendon, if he didn’t create the fastbreak, brought it to a new level. He may have even created it.

In the film I have his original yellow legal pad designs of the fastbreak. John McClendon was the leader to integrate the NCAA, the leader to integrate the NIT. He did integrate the NAIA Tournament, which in those years was big. There’s three entities responsible for the globalization of the game of basketball – John McClendon, the Harlem Globetrotters and David Stern.

John McClendon won three national championships in a row at Tennessee State (’57, ’58,’59). No team had ever won three national championships in a row. No team! And he was put into the Hall of Fame as a contributor, not as a coach. So of course he is overlooked. They should take him now and induct him also as a coach.

There is a precedent set because there are three people in the Hall of Fame as players and coaches – Bill Sharman, Lenny Wilkens and John Wooden. Well it’s time that they not only put John McClendon in the Hall of Fame as a coach, but they open their doors.

I spoke to the new head of the Hall, Manny Jackson, recently and he agrees. I think he’s going to do something. Even baseball, a sport less progressive than basketball, has opened its doors to the Negro Leaguers on two separate occasions.

It’s time that the Basketball Hall of Fame form a special committee to begin the nominating process for players and coaches from historical black colleges. They’re never even considered. You have coaches from these schools that have won, 500, 600, 700, 800 games, men’s and women’s teams. You have players who scored over 4,000 points in their career. Forget it. They’re putting announcers on the short list now.

NBA.com: Why aren’t more players and coaches from the black colleges and universities represented in the Hall of Fame?

Klores: Because they’re not part of the mainstream, so the Hall of Fame doesn’t look at them that way. It’s a disgrace.

NBA.com: In terms of the lasting impact of this film, is that one of the byproducts, to raise the awareness and hopefully correct a wrong?

Klores: That is one of them.

NBA.com: What are some of the others?

Klores: Well, I don’t make films to actively try to teach or preach. But, there are two obvious things. One if the Hall of Fame issue. The other is a big part of the film about something called the Orangeburg Massacre. You’ve heard of Kent State where in 1970 four students got killed? Well two years before that, on the campus of South Carolina State, three students were assassinated by the National Guard. One of them was a basketball player. That is a big part of my film. No rightful arrests or justice has ever been done and it’s time that the Justice Department reopen the investigation to those murders.

NBA.com: Do you think they will?

Klores: I visited with Congressman Conyers in Washington several weeks ago with the express purpose of that. He is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and we’re making significant progress, but we’re not done yet.

NBA.com: What did you learn going through this entire process, not only as a basketball fan, but personally?

Klores: I learned a lot. I learned that I was given a gift by being allowed into the lives of men and women who have great courage and dignity. Just to be around them for all those hours was a gift to me.

Number two, I learned that when one is told time after time that you’re not as good, you’re not as good, you’re not as good, then those lessons have lasting psychological and emotional effect on people. So I think my view of the world is improved because of that.

And I learned that historical black colleges, they need to continue to thrive and exist and they’re faced with monumental financial issues. The basketball programs don’t get the ‘A’ ballplayers anymore. They might not even get the ‘B’ ballplayers anymore. Nevertheless those universities have to continue to exist because they provide a home and a refuge for a lot of kids that need it.

NBA.com: Earl Monroe was one of the producers on this film. What did you learn about him while working on this project.

Klores: He’s a sweet guy. I think if you see the film, Earl revolutionized the game. Earl brought the playground to the NBA game. He’s the Miles Davis of basketball. But the film has a part about Earl that I don’t think anyone has. It’s a sweet part of him of Earl as a child and a little boy whose father left home when he was seven. It’s a scene that could break you up.

There is a sweetness about the man, and not a flashiness. Like all the guys in the film, he’s a person of dignity. And there is funny stuff, too. Great old footage and college.

He was recruited by the coach of Southern Illinois in the mid 1960s to go play there and the coach turned him down in the end. There was another kid playing in the backcourt then and his name was Walt Frazier. So the coach at Southern Illinois said to Earl Monroe, “You know what? You can’t shoot well enough, so we’re not going to give you a scholarship.” Otherwise they would have had a backcourt of Monroe and Frazier at Southern Illinois. He passed on Earl Monroe.

NBA.com: I’m going to rattle of some names … Ben Jobe

Klores: The soul of the film. One of the single most influential people in the history of basketball as a teacher.

NBA.com: Clarence “Big House” Gaines

Klores: Great presence. A leader.

NBA.com: John Cheney

Klores: Ruthlessly intelligent. One of the greatest players in America in the early 1950s who was denied an opportunity to play in the pros because there was a quota system, he was black and in those times it just didn’t happen.

NBA.com: “Butterbean” Bob Love

Klores: Truly a man who has great faith and that has allowed him to overcome tremendous discrimination. Someone who was abused terribly and has made a wonderful life for himself.

NBA.com: Cleo Hill

Klores: A guy who was screwed over. Period and absolute. May have been the greatest player in the country in the late ‘50s and absolutely blacklisted by the owners.

NBA.com: Dick Barnett

Klores: Deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. One of the greatest college players in history. Averaged 30 points per game for three years. Led his team to three consecutive national championships. Tough as nails mentally and physically. Absolutely, positively deserves to be in the in Hall of Fame as a college player.

NBA.com: Earl Lloyd

Klores: He has humor, courage, dignity, smarts, and he is someone that young people need to hear from all the time.

NBA.com: Anyone who is a fan of the game should see this film, including young fans.

Klores: Young people need to see this film from high school and up because they need to learn about greatness that is not associated with money. If you make seven or eight figures, that doesn’t make you great. If you dunk the basketball 30 different ways, that doesn’t make you great. What makes you great is that people throw obstacles at you day and night and you continue to move forward. Every basketball player in America today on every level, they have a debt to pay to these men in my film. And that goes all the way up to Avery Johnson and Ben Wallace.

-NBA

__________________
Submissions | Hip-Hop 4 Obama