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. This film tells the story of the All-Black professional basketball team the New York Renaissance or Harlem Rens.

The story of the Harlem Rens and the playing style they exhibited was exactly like the popular brand-new sound of that era, jazz. Like jazz, the Rens were brash, young, strong, and black; all of which frightened the status quo. Which meant that, no matter how good they were, the Rens would not be given the opportunity to prove it by playing against a white team for a professional title. The best they could do was to finally arrange 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 – would no longer be ignored. And indeed, all of Harlem expected a win. The Celtics might be world champs, but the Rens – with jazz in their blood, and the moves to prove it – had an impressive win record. Harlem expected a swift victory against their white opponents, and they got one: in reverse. The final score was not even close and the Rens, considered the pride and the hope of Harlem, had lost. It was the Depression that began to turn things around, putting many basketball teams, black and white, on the road. The Rens, with their jazz-inspired moves, played the Original Celtics and other white teams, winning many more games than they lost. Even though constant contact turned former enemies, the Harlem Rens and the Original Celtics into friends, racism was still a powerful nemesis. Bob Douglas’s goal, to have his team compete professionally against white teams, still seemed out of reach.