Boycott by NBA players brings back memory of Boston Celtics boycott in Lexington
When the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted their NBA playoff game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, an action that led to all three of the day’s games being canceled, it produced references to one of the shameful days in Lexington’s history.
Many journalists who cover the sport said the the last time NBA players refused to play a game was in 1961 when the Boston Celtics were in Lexington to play the St. Louis Hawks in an exhibition game.
The Celtics were staying at the Phoenix Hotel whose coffee shop denied service to the Black players on the Celtics.
“We had gone downstairs to eat, and they said, ‘Well, we really can’t serve you people,’” said Thomas “Satch” Sanders in 2018 of himself and teammate Sam Jones.
Upset about the incident, Celtics star Bill Russell told Boston Coach Red Auerbach that the team’s five Black players — Russell, Jones, Sanders, K.C. Jones and Al Butler — would not play in the game. According to The Associated Press, two St. Louis Hawks players, Woody Sauldsberry and Cleo Hill, joined the Celtics in refusing to play.
“We went to the coffee shop of the Phoenix Hotel after the boys had registered there with no problems,” Auerbach told the AP. “Bang! They said, ‘We can’t serve you here.’
“The Negro boys got real emotional. They said they’d like to go home. We talked with them for two hours and I couldn’t change their minds.”
Auerbach took the players to Blue Grass Airport, where they flew back to Boston. Left with just seven players, the Celtics lost to the Hawks 128-103 that night.
According to the AP, Phoenix Hotel manager Art Lang said the refusal to serve was a misunderstanding and that the hotel did not have “discriminatory policies.”
The exhibition game was being played in Lexington to showcase two former UK stars, Frank Ramsey of the Celtics and Cliff Hagan of the Hawks. Ramsey said he gave “100 percent” support to his black teammates.
“No thinking person in Kentucky is a segregationist,” Ramsey said then. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am as a human being, as a friend of the players involved and as a resident of Kentucky for the embarrassment of this incident.”
Years later, Russell told Ed Linn of Sport magazine, “I couldn’t look at my kids or myself in the face if I played there. A man without integrity, belief, or self-respect is not a man. And a man who won’t express his convictions has no convictions. I feel the best way to express my convictions is not to play. If I can’t eat, I can’t entertain.”
The Bucks’ protest Wednesday was in reaction to the shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 40 miles from Milwaukee.
“We’re tired of the killings and the injustice,” Bucks guard George Hill told ESPN.
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 7:16 AM.
