On the Shoulders of Giants (film)

On the Shoulders of Giants: The Story of the Greatest Team You Never Heard Of is a 2011 historical sports documentary film directed by Deborah Morales, written by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse. The film tells the story of the All-Black professional basketball team the New York Renaissance or Harlem Rens. This team played their first game on November 3, 1923 beating the Collegiate, an all-white team.

The Harlem Rens and the playing style they exhibited first was similar to the newly popular sound of jazz. Like jazz, the Rens were brash, young, strong, and proudly black.

Due of the politics of this era, no matter their highlighting performance were, the Rens would not be given the opportunity to prove the ability of the team by receiving the chance to play against a all-white team for a professional title. The best they were able to could arrange was to perform an exhibition game with a white powerhouse known as the Original Celtics. This pivotal game would have no official status but would show the world that the Rens – and African Americans in general – could no longer stand staying in the shadows.

The Celtics became then world champions, albeit the Rens had an impressive win record. Harlem expressed they expected a swift victory against their white opponents, and were deservingly proud when they got one: in reverse. When the final score was not even close and the Rens, considered the pride and the hope of the black people of Harlem, had lost. It was the The Great Depression incentived to put many basketball teams, black, white and mixed ones on the road as possible. The Rens played the Original Celtics and other all-white teams, adding to a long winning list. Even though constant contact turned former rivals, the Harlem Rens and the Original Celtics into a companionship and partners dynamic, racism was still present in large team leaders and committees. Bob Douglas’s primary goal, to have his team compete professionally against all-white teams, turned out to be out of reach.^[1]

It was ñ in 1939 when two teams decided to create the world’s first integrated professional basketball tournament. There and then had been other world championships being organized, though what selected this one closer to living up to its name was that this would be the very first time both black and white teams would compete for a national title. The Rens then went first against another already famous black team, the Harlem Globetrotters. Where heyRens defeator-s , follthetfollowing would be their first “official” contest against a whintall-e team: the previous year’s champions, the osh All-Stars. ^[1]

This film includes several noteworthy interviews, including with: Rev. Al Sharpton, Maya Angelou, Cornel West, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Richard Lapchick, Spike Lee, Bob Costas, Dick Enberg, Charles Barkley, John Wooden, David Stern, Bill Russell, Dr. J, Clyde Drexler, Carmelo Anthony

• On the Shoulders of Giants at Rotten Tomatoes
• On the Shoulders of Giants at IMDb
• On the Shoulders of Giants at IMDb