The inaugural NBA Pioneers Classic unfortunately did not provide a compelling game with the Boston Celtics defeating the Milwaukee Bucks,107-79, on Sunday at TD Garden.
Jaylen Brown scored 30 points (hitting 4-of-6 3-pointers) with 13 rebounds, leading the Celtics to their seventh win in the past 10 games. Anfernee Simons followed with 27 points off the bench, shooting 6 for 10 from behind the arc. Derrick White added 17 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists.
Milwaukee was led by 25 points from Ryan Rollins, who also had 6 rebounds and 7 assists. Kyle Kuzma was the only other Buck to score in double figures, tallying 16 points and 5 boards. Bobby Portis grabbed 12 rebounds. The Bucks have lost five consecutive games and eight of their past 10.
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Sunday's game was intended to honor NBA history.
Honoring the NBA's first Black players
The Pioneers Classic coincides with the beginning of Black History Month and commemorates the 75th anniversary of the NBA's first Black players joining the league. In April 1950, Duquesne's Chuck Cooper was the second draft pick (No. 13 overall) of the Celtics. Later in the ninth round, the then-Washington Capitols drafted Earl Lloyd from West Virginia State with the No. 101 selection.
One month later, the New York Knicks signed Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton as a free agent from the Harlem Globetrotters. He played seven seasons with the Knicks, making the All-Star team during his final run in New York during the 1956-57 campaign. His eighth and final season in the league was with the Detroit Pistons.
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Lloyd was technically the NBA's first Black player, as the Capitols tipped off the season one day before the Celtics' opening game. He played nine seasons in the league, missing the 1951-52 campaign due to military service. Lloyd went on to become the NBA's first Black scout, first Black assistant coach and the first Black head coach who wasn't also a player at the time (as Bill Russell and Lenny Wilkens were).
Cooper played six seasons in the NBA with the Celtics and Hawks (in Milwaukee, then St. Louis) before finishing his pro career with the Fort Wayne Pistons during the 1955-56 season.
"Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nathaniel Clifton transformed the NBA and inspired countless individuals through their courage and determination," said the league's deputy commissioner Mark Tatum,via NBA.com. "These men embody the values of our game, and their legacy as pioneers is integral to our history."
All three players were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Lloyd gained entry to Springfieldin 2003, followed by Cliftonin 2014and Cooperin 2019.
Doc Rivers speaks out on current events before game
Bucks head coach Doc Rivers spoke out Sunday on current events and social issues regarding immigration enforcement during his pregame news conference.
"I look at our league, look at the NBA. We're celebrating Pioneers Day today, right?" Rivers said to reporters,including ClutchPoints' Daniel Donabedian. "And I look at our league, and I think [Hakeem] Olajuwon could have been taken off the streets. But we would — right now, the way brown people feel, only the brown people would be taken off the streets, and it's just not right, and it's not morally right."
Rivers went on to encourage NBA players to voice their concerns on social issues.
"What we see on the streets right now, you cannot morally feel good about that. No American can, and that's why I speak out," he added,via reporter Noa Dalzell. "And I do tell our guys there are consequences. You know, there was an Arthur Ashe, there was a Muhammad Ali, there was a Howard Cosell. They all spoke out, and some paid consequences for it. That's just part of it."
Those sentiments made Sunday's NBA Pioneers game particularly important, in Rivers' view.
"In the political environment we are in at this time where Black history is being whitewashed with the removing of Black war heroes, civil right leaders from books, and our kids are not being taught about the atrocities of slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow and redlining, our league has decided to stand up and teach our young players and everyone the true history of our league. Bravo, NBA," Rivers said toAndscape's Marc Spears.
