Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came home to Harlem last week with a slam dunk lesson in black history for thousands of New York City school kids.
The NBA legend, who grew up in Harlem and Inwood, appeared at the Schomburg Center on 135th St. to screen his new documentary film, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” which tells the inspiring story of the Harlem Rens – “the greatest basketball team you’ve never heard of.”
“I wanted to give kids an idea of what had to happen for them to have this game,” Jabbar told the Daily News. “They don’t really understand everything that went into the emergence of professional basketball. And if you ask most NBA players right now, very few know that the game was segregated.”
The film depicts a team that from 1922-1948 won the hearts of Harlem fans while battling rampant racism as they barnstormed around the country, routinely winning exhibition games against white teams.
Read more in the NY Daily News.
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