Daniel's Directory

https://sportsstories.substack.com/p/how-the-harlem-globetrotters-integrated

The characters of this story include the all-white Minneapolis Lakers and the all-black Harlem Globetrotters of 1948. The narrative structure of the story gives a good history of the segregation of the sport of basketball to lead itself up to a story about a tipping point in the integration of basketball. This story is about a small, but impactful moment in the sport of basketball and its fight to integrate the highest league of basketball.

The event in this story is true, but considering Hersey it has some issues that make it somewhat exaggerated. The problem with this event is that it was not as defining of a moment as Jackie Robinson stepping onto a major league diamond. The writer can look at the history after this game and say that the game led to the integration of the newly formed NBA, but there is no way to know for sure whether this exhibition directly caused the new association to integrate. This exaggeration allows the story to lose some of its validity, and makes it less of a historical account and more of an anecdote.

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