Nearly 60 years before NBA players took a stand for racial in the Orlando bubble and called for a four-day halt to the NBA playoffs this week, four members of the Boston Celtics took part in the first NBA boycott.
When a Lexington, Kentucky hotel coffee shop declined to seat the Celtics’ Black players, Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, Satch Sanders and Al Butler flew home to Boston, refusing to play a preseason exhibition game against the St. Louis Hawks. Two Black members of the Hawks, Cleo Hill and Woody Sauldsberry, also chose not to play.