Here is what some of basketball’s founding fathers would say about the current N.B.A. lockout.
Lockout Blues, and Ancient Hoops Wisdom
By Vince Thomas for TheRoot.com: Before the NBA was desegregated, there were the Black Fives.
The team and its players on this vintage photograph of an African American basketball team in 1931 remain unidentified, but I still appreciate the stories it tells.
One hundred years ago this October, in 1910, the first all-black play-for-pay team, the New York All Stars, were formed in New York City.
I was in Manhattan last week for Converse’s celebration of the 35th anniversary of Rick Telander’s playground basketball classic, Heaven is a Playground.
Ellen Jenkins Harris, entrepreneur and daughter of New York Rens star Clarence ‘Fats’ Jenkins, joins Black Fives, Inc. as its newest Advisory Board member.
In 1950, Cooper, a Pittsburgh resident and Duquesne University graduate became the first African-American selected in the NBA Draft.
Crowe, a handsome former pro basketball and pro baseball star who looks much younger than his 88 years of age, still strikes a chord though a man of few words.
Duquesne honors Chuck Cooper, among first blacks in NBA, by staging inaugural Chuck Cooper Classic, a hoops doubleheader featuring HBCU teams. How cool is that?
This story from a Black Fives Era descendant links the distant basketball past with the funeral of New York Renaissance star John Isaacs earlier this year.
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Black Fives
We inspire excellence in youth and communities by preserving, teaching, and honoring the pre-NBA history of African Americans in basketball.
For years, we have been building something truly remarkable.![]()
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Something deeper than what’s visible on the surface.![]()
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This piece, created by the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective from remnants of our Black Fives throwback jerseys, carries that idea.![]()
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On the front, you see something beautiful.![]()
On the back, you see the work.![]()
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Tens of thousands of stitches.![]()
Each one holding the whole together.![]()
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Like the earlier African American basketball pioneers whose names were forgotten, but whose work helped shape the game.![]()
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Like the countless people, often unseen, who did and are doing the work that holds our country together.![]()
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The surface only exists because of what’s behind it.![]()
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And it’s only as strong as the weakest stitch.![]()
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Do we really want to remove certain stitches?![]()
Are we OK with pieces falling apart?![]()
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Do we value the work we don’t see?![]()
Do we recognize it?![]()
Do we protect it?![]()
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That’s the real story.![]()
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A cultural archive. A sports heritage platform.![]()
Build with us.![]()
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Make History Now.![]()
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#culturalheritage ![]()
#intellectualproperty ![]()
#archives ![]()
#sportsbusiness ![]()
#blackhistory
For years, we have been building something truly remarkable.![]()
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A deep archive of early African American basketball.![]()
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The stories, the images, the history that shaped the game.![]()
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But this is more than an archive.![]()
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It’s a cultural IP and sports heritage platform.![]()
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Infrastructure of history, identity, and assets ready to build with.![]()
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For partners, institutions, and brands who want real cultural authenticity, not just performative optics.![]()
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Build with us.![]()
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blackfives.org/build![]()
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#blackhistory #culturalheritage #brandpartnerships #archives #intellectualproperty