1948 Globetrotters-Lakers Game

The 1948 Globetrotters-Lakers game was a dramatic matchup between two of the best basketball teams in the country at the time: the Harlem Globetrotters, which was all black, and Minneapolis Lakers, which was all white. Played in Chicago Stadium, the game took place two years before professional basketball was desegregated. The Globetrotters’ victory – by two points at the buzzer – challenged prevailing racial stereotypes about the abilities of black athletes.

The idea for the game, which was held on Feb. 19, 1948, was hatched by Globetrotters owner and coach Abe Saperstein and Lakers general manager Max Winter, two friends who both believed they had the best basketball team in the country. Each had good reason to think so. For two decades, the Globetrotters had traveled the country winning game after game. It was because the team was so unbeatable that the players first started clowning around to make the game more interesting. When the Globetrotters arrived at the Chicago Stadium to face the Lakers, they were on a 102-game winning streak.

The Lakers, on the other hand, were a new team, formed only six months earlier. But they were already on their way to becoming a powerhouse, with two future Hall of Famers: The 6’10” George Mikan, who is described by the NBA as the league's "first superstar," and Jim Pollard, whose leaping ability – he could dunk from the free throw line – inspired the nickname, "The Kangaroo Kid."

The Lakers, who took their name from Minnesota’s designation as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” were members of the Basketball Association of America, which was the precursor to the National Basketball Association. As a black team, the Globetrotters were not allowed into that league, or any professional league. A year earlier, Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in professional baseball, but basketball remained segregated. Four black basketball players had briefly been on various teams in another league, the National Basketball League. But when a fight between a white player and a black player during a game in Syracuse, N.Y., triggered a riot in the stands, black players quietly disappeared from the league.

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Wikipedia