photo by steed media service

From Keith Clinkscales’ perspective, the ESPN-produced documentary Black Magic, is not the story of how African American athletes of yesteryear played for a few extra zeroes in an already exorbitant contract, or for individual acclaim, or other relatively frivolous reasons. Like their comrades in the Civil Rights Movement, black B-ballers were playing for their very lives — and the lives of their ensuing successors.

“Too often we hear about the athlete arguing about salaries, arguing about playing time, and arguing about things that are not that important,” says Clinkscales, ESPN’s senior vice president of content and development. “You are able to look at something like this, [and] you see athletes playing strictly for pride and dignity and life as black men. And if society can see this, it’ll change [the] view of sports considerably.”

Like for instance, how blacks were thought to be mentally unequipped to perform many of the fundamental aspects of basketball — as hard as that is to believe. Pioneers like Earl “the Pearl” Monroe and Cleveland Hill began to radically alter those beliefs.

“Hill was a phenomenal basketball player; [he] could score from anywhere, ... [he] could score from the right hand or the left hand, but once he became a pro, he did not prosper. And eventually he was blackballed from the then-forming NBA. Which is almost humorous to speak about now, a black player being black-balled from the NBA,” he says.

Clinkscales says Black Magic connects powerfully with viewers’ sensibilities. “You [see how] sports was transformed, how different areas of society were affected, and [what] make sports transcendent. [We have to] find ways to hone in on that — not just with athletes, but with families and Americans and all the way across the board.” -terry shropshire

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