{"id":28073,"date":"2023-09-05T11:44:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T15:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=28073"},"modified":"2023-09-05T11:44:49","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T15:44:49","slug":"sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Sweetwater&#8221; Honors the Story of the First Black Player in the NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_28082\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28082\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-movie-credit-briarcliff-ent-youtube-1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28082\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-movie-credit-briarcliff-ent-youtube-1.png\" alt=\"sweetwater\" width=\"768\" height=\"508\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-28082\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Briarcliff Entertainment\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 1950, Nat \u201cSweetwater\u201d Clifton became the first Black man to sign an NBA contract, breaking the longstanding color barrier and changing the game of basketball forever. Despite his undeniable impact on sports, Clifton\u2019s story and faith\u2019s fundamental role in his career and life have remained unknown. However, \u201cSweetwater,\u201d a new movie starring Jim Caviezel, Everett Osborne, and Richard Dreyfuss, brings his story to life like never before.<\/p>\n<p>Producer Darren Moorman told The Christian Post, \u201cEveryone knew Jackie Robinson, but no one knew Sweetwater. We figured now was the time to tell his story.\u201d The film, written and directed by Martin Guigui, follows the true story of the Basketball Hall of Famer\u2019s journey to making NBA history with the New York Knicks. Osborne stars as Clifton, the star of the Harlem Globetrotters, who, under the watchful eye of coach and owner Abe Saperstein, plays exhibition games around the country, making $10,000.<\/p>\n<p>Clifton\u2019s flashy playing style and talent caught the eye of New York Knicks executive Ned Irish and head coach Joe Lapchick. In 1950, the Globetrotters sold Clifton\u2019s contract for $12,500 to the Knicks, making Clifton the first Black player ever to have an NBA contract. A memorable scene at Madison Square Garden in 1949 sets the tone for the movie, a face-off between the NBA champions, the Minnesota Lakers and the Globetrotters. The Globetrotters\u2019 win solidifies their talent, but racial barriers stop them from proper recognition within the NBA.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2JmyjKCKWYc?si=3lIJXJI31FJM0Tlr\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Osborne, a former professional basketball player, said, \u201cPlaying basketball in 2023 is totally different from playing in 1950 and totally different from growing up in the \u201920s and \u201930s like Sweetwater and playing during that time.\u201d Through flashbacks, viewers see the challenges Clifton overcame to succeed. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1922, Clifton was raised in poverty. He picks so much cotton with his sharecropping parents that his hands bleed. He also faces constant racism. In one scene, a bigoted gas station owner tries to scare the Black Globetrotters away from his gas station by waving a shotgun.<\/p>\n<p>Clifton also witnessed the horror of war, serving in the United States Army for three years and fighting in Europe during World War II. The film also discusses how Clifton\u2019s faith helped him persevere despite challenges. In one scene, his mother is shown instilling in him a sense of God-given worth: \u201cYou were made for a higher purpose,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Osborne, a Christian himself, told The Christian Post, \u201cWhether you play sports or not, I think there is a divine purpose, and God built us for something greater than what we\u2019re doing, some higher purpose.\u201d Moorman and Osborne emphasized the importance of recognizing the sacrifices and risks taken during those times to pave the way for positive change. \u201cSweetwater\u201d is rated PG-13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1950, Nat \u201cSweetwater\u201d Clifton became the first Black man to sign an NBA contract, breaking the longstanding color barrier and changing the game of basketball forever. Despite his undeniable impact on sports, Clifton\u2019s story and faith\u2019s fundamental role in his career and life have remained unknown. However, \u201cSweetwater,\u201d a new movie starring Jim Caviezel,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":28082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3630,7,3388,3],"tags":[5795],"class_list":["post-28073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletes","category-entertainment","category-faith-based","category-movies","tag-sweetwater"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Sweetwater&quot; Honors the Story of the First Black Player in the NBA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;Sweetwater&quot; tells the story of Nat Clifton, the first Black player to play in the NBA. Throughout his life, Clifton used faith to persevere.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Sweetwater&quot; Honors the Story of the First Black Player in the NBA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;Sweetwater&quot; tells the story of Nat Clifton, the first Black player to play in the NBA. Throughout his life, Clifton used faith to persevere.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-05T15:44:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-movie-credit-briarcliff-ent-youtube-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"508\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren McKeithen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Sweetwater\" Honors the Story of the First Black Player in the NBA","description":"\"Sweetwater\" tells the story of Nat Clifton, the first Black player to play in the NBA. Throughout his life, Clifton used faith to persevere.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Sweetwater\" Honors the Story of the First Black Player in the NBA","og_description":"\"Sweetwater\" tells the story of Nat Clifton, the first Black player to play in the NBA. Throughout his life, Clifton used faith to persevere.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2023-09-05T15:44:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":508,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-movie-credit-briarcliff-ent-youtube-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Lauren McKeithen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html","name":"\"Sweetwater\" Honors the Story of the First Black Player in the NBA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-movie-credit-briarcliff-ent-youtube-1.png","datePublished":"2023-09-05T15:44:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-05T15:44:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a"},"description":"\"Sweetwater\" tells the story of Nat Clifton, the first Black player to play in the NBA. Throughout his life, Clifton used faith to persevere.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-movie-credit-briarcliff-ent-youtube-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-movie-credit-briarcliff-ent-youtube-1.png","width":768,"height":508,"caption":"Briarcliff Entertainment\/YouTube"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/09\/sweetwater-honors-the-story-of-the-first-black-player-in-the-nba.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"&#8220;Sweetwater&#8221; Honors the Story of the First Black Player in the NBA"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a","name":"lmckeithen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/113\/113fb9cc9b1ebdaacbc1f17d658ad52ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/113\/113fb9cc9b1ebdaacbc1f17d658ad52ex96.jpg","caption":"lmckeithen"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/lmckeithen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28085,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28073\/revisions\/28085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}