The Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks honored the 75th anniversary of the breaking of the NBA’s color barrier Sunday by squaring off in the inaugural NBA Pioneers Classic.
The game spotlighted Basketball Hall of Famers Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton and Earl Lloyd, who were the first Black players to be drafted, sign an NBA contract and appear in an NBA game, respectively.
Players for both teams wore shooting shirts with Cooper, Clifton and Lloyd’s names emblazoned on the back. Each uniform featured a “Pioneers Classic” patch above the nameplate and a “1950” patch beneath the rear jersey number.
The three legends’ names and jersey numbers also appeared on the TD Garden court and on the stanchion beneath each basket. Relatives of Cooper, Clifton and Lloyd joined Jaylen Brown on the court for a pregame address.
“Today is the NBA’s first Pioneer Classic, and it’s an honor to speak on the behalf of some of our legends — Nat Clifton, Earl Lloyd and (the) Boston Celtics’ Chuck Cooper,” Brown, who went on to tally 30 points and 13 rebounds in a 107-79 Celtics win, told the Garden crowd. “… A pioneer, by definition, if a leader, is an innovator and a forward thinker. Who will be the pioneers of this generation? On the behalf of the NBA, I want to say thank you — thank you, Boston. Let’s have a good game.”
Cooper played four seasons for the Celtics from 1950 to 1954.
“When you coach the Celtics, we’ve had just high-character people and have history and have had a tradition in many different forms,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said pregame. “And when you’re helping move that forward, you just have a responsibility to the people who came before you to move it forward. One, to be appreciative of what those before you have done on and off the court, and then the second piece to that is doing your part and moving that forward and kind of leaving it better.
“You don’t have a situation like this if you don’t have the people that have come before you. So that’s important. And I think the league is the same way. We’ve had great people come through this league, influential people, and just taking advantage of the opportunity you have to move forward is an opportunity we’re given.”
Bucks head coach Doc Rivers, who coached the Celtics from 2004 until 2013, saluted Red Auerbach during his pregame news conference. Auerbach drafted Cooper in the second round in 1950 — his first draft as Boston’s head coach — fielded the NBA’s first all-Black starting five in 1955 and hired Bill Russell as the league’s first Black head coach in 1966.
“What I think Pioneers Day represents, to me, is America,” Rivers said. “Red Auerbach is responsible for our achievements as much as anyone else. He didn’t see color. He wanted to make the league a better league, and he kept doing it — hiring Bill Russell as coach. I mean, you think about this city that’s had its ups and downs race-wise, but you have this one guy. And I got it a little bit, but when you come here and you coach here, boy, you really get it with Red. You really get what he was about. And so Pioneers Day, first game being here, for me, obviously, being a coach here for nine years, means a lot.”
The Celtics also honored Auerbach and Russell during the game. Auerbach’s granddaughter, Julie Auerbach Flieger, and Russell’s daughter, Karen Kenyatta Russell, were recognized on the court during a first-quarter timeout.
Rivers said the Pioneers Classic is “good for history.”
“Because we live in a time right now where our history is being, you know, whitewashed, a lot of it,” he said. “And I think you learn a lot through history. You have to. I think that’s our problem. We need to teach history, whether it’s bad or good. Need to teach it more.”