The Harlem Renaissance is probably the greatest basketball team you have never heard of. They were the first all-African American professional basketball team to win a national championship, a little known fact even in sports circles. Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar co-wrote and stars in “On the Shoulders of Giants,” a documentary about the team’s rise to fame in the early part of the last century when all pro sports were segregated and all-black teams were excluded from competing in national championships. The Harlem Rens were known for their very fluid and fast style of play, not typical of professional basketball at the time. They were the first all-black team to win a national championship title when they won the World Professional Basketball Tournament in 1939. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a former Lakers assistant coach but has recently expressed disappointment with the way the team has treated him, complaining that they haven’t erected a statue of him in front of Staples Center where statues of Magic Johnson and Jerry West stand.

Guest:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Executive Producer of On the Shoulders of Giants: The Story of the Greatest Basketball Team you Never Heard Of; Basketball Legend who played with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers and was instrumental in winning six NBA championships and was voted the NBA’s most valuable player six times