The Dream Whisperer

(car engine revving) - [Announcer] First off, the sweat shooting guard with the unmistakable signature jump shot, out of Tennessee State by way of Gary, Indiana, an All Star in 1968, a Knickerbocker for nine years, including both championship seasons, he ranks at the top 10 in Knicks annals in minutes, free throws, field goals, points and assists.

- [Dick] My name is Dick Barnett.

- [Announcer] Two time most valuable player in the NAIA tournament, Dick Barnett.

- [Dick] And I used to have a hell of a jump shot.

- [Commentator] And now here he is, called the most exciting shooter in basketball, Dick Barnett.

- [Dick] When I played for the New York Knickerbockers, they called me Fall Back Baby.

- [Commentator] Barnett with that fall back style of his.

- [Dick] In college, they called me the Skull.

- [Commentator] Barnett, with the 35.

- [Commentator] Great southpaw shooting star for Tennessee State.

- [Dick] My students call me Dr. Barnett.

I've even been called names that I'd rather not repeat, but I call myself the Dream Whisperer because everything starts with a dream.

(upbeat smooth music) - [Commentator] Three, two, one.

We have a new NBA champion.

- [Commentator] One more time, pay tribute on this night, to number 12, Dick Barnett.

- [Dick] I'm 85 years old and I have a story that must be told.

A story about a team you probably never heard of.

(upbeat smooth music) A team that was almost lost to history until I decided to do something about it.

(upbeat smooth music) (upbeat smooth music continues) - [PA] Scene 102, take one, marker.

- [Dick] My story begins in Gary, Indiana when I was just a kid shooting ping pong balls into a tin cup.

Everybody in my neighborhood was Black.

Life was segregated.

The only white people I ever saw in my block were the police.

This was the America I knew in the early 1950s.

- He was real, real quiet.

We didn't have a lot, money-wise, and we lived in a basement apartment.

Mother, she was a waitress and she worked as a clerk in the grocery store.

And my dad, he worked in a mill for a while, the steel mills for a while.

I think maybe one of the reasons why I guess, Richard played ball was he wanted something better for his life, money-wise.

Probably maybe about nine or 10, I imagine he was young, he'd be over there in school all by himself over there trying to throw balls in this basket.

Till it got dark he was, my mom was "Where is Richard at?"

He had a drive towards it, I guess it was, in his heart, you know.

Had to be his freshman year at school, they were good at the basketball, but we went to all-Black school.

The boys could play basketball, but we couldn't leave the city.

So you could win city-wide, but you couldn't go to the state tournaments and all that stuff, you couldn't do it.

But then when they broke that barrier, they really started showing us some basketball.

Had the state championship in Indiana.

First time, the two Black teams were down there.

- [Dick] Man, was that court packed with talent.

There was even a guy named Oscar Robertson who'd also go on to win an NBA championship.

- When he gets to something that he want to do, seems to be driven to whatever it is he's after.

- [Dick] One night I was out alone shooting jump shots when a guy named John McLendon showed up.

I didn't know that my life would be forever changed.

McLendon coached Tennessee A&I, a school I had never heard of.

- At the time they wasn't recruiting Black ball players into white schools, but the unwritten rule was that McLendon was a trailblazer.

- White America was barely knowledgeable about HBCUs.

Coach McLendon worked to establish this as a national university using its sports teams as a way to do that.

- [Jim] Basically, all the good ball players was channeled to McLendon outta Tennessee State.

(smooth music) (smooth music continues) (distant indistinct conversation) - 35.

That's right.

Yeah, there we go.

How you doing, sir?

- Okay.

Barnett, man.

- Yeah.

I just thought about, I seen him somewhere.

- [Dick] Yeah.

- And then I just.

- [Dick] Tremendous amount of memories.

- The first time I heard about the Tennessee A&I team was in 1958.

James Walker played for Southwest Missouri State and they had played Tennessee A&I.

And he came home, I mean, just screaming about this kid by the name of Skull Barnett.

I said, what you mean they called him Skull?

He said his eyes were empty sockets.

When he grinned, I mean, he looked like a skull except for one thing.

When he had that pill in his hand, you can forget it.

Say, hey, this dude was deadly.

- I thought I was gonna be the star till Dick Barnett came in.

With his fabulous jump shot and you know what I mean?

He was shooting that thing.

And I pulled back a little bit and say, "Man, this man can shoot."

- Barnett was my idol.

He was sort of a legend in the south, because I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.

He played at Tennessee State, and actually that's why I wanted to go to Tennessee State was because of Dick Barnett and the basketball team that they had.

- "How do you get to be a great basketball player?"

I asked him, and he said, "Well", he said, "Every day for 365 days a year, I practiced and I practiced and I practiced."

In other words, he put in enormous effort into mastering his craft.

- I think the biggest thing is that we knew that the African-American kids could play well, but society accepting them as a whole was another issue.

- When you think about how good they were as a team, you have to put everything in context.

It was pre-1960s, Jim Crow.

- The argument simply does not hold that the white race should turn over to a group of people only removed from slavery 80 years and only removed from the jungle by a few hundred years, the control of our entire civilization.

- And I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.

(poignant music) - [Dick] In the first year that I got to Tennessee State, Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi.

Rosa Parks was being told to get up off of her seat on the public bus.

- Protest against the injustices, which we have experienced on the buses for a number of years.

- [Dick] Martin Luther King was forming the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

- [Crowd] Two, four, six, eight, we don't wanna integrate.

- Still have to tell the story of how they had to travel and were turned back from restaurants.

They couldn't stay in hotels.

- We stayed in private homes, find interested people who would let our players stay at their house and you'd have to go and round the players up on the days of practice or the game.

- [Dick] I went to Tennessee State, "In the land of cotton, where old times there are not forgotten."

Are not forgotten.

- And so, Jim Crow laws and segregation trickled up into basketball tournaments.

- [Harry] John McLendon began to petition to have his basketball teams participate in those tournaments.

- And at the national meetings, he was only voice that was speaking for so-called underdogs in the Black schools.

- Years of trying to get on the national scene and tried very hard to do that, lots of meetings, lots of organization, all kinds of things to try to get in.

- The NCAA turned him down cold, basically saying the fans won't like the kind of basketball that you play and your coaches are probably not up to the competition that they would be up against and so we don't want to embarrass you.

- You know, just what, you know, let me in.

I'm going beat you.

You know, don't let it be.

I don't deal with the color of the skin.

- [Harry] He finally got the NAIA to relent.

- 1953 was when historically Black schools were included into a national tournament.

But all the previous championships of NAIA were won by white teams.

- So we get there in '57, it's a big one.

- [Commentator] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

As you may have suspected from the cheering that you heard that you can hear now in the background, this is a most enthusiastic and large crowd.

- [George] Held in Kansas City, Missouri, National Championship of 32 teams, and they had to play basically all white schools.

- Those schools, they had no clue who we were.

(crowd cheering) - We played in an arena seating 10,000 people, never played in front of that many people before.

- It was a different experience for us coming from this Black league and going to this predominantly all-white college tournament.

We didn't play many white teams.

We played tough Black schools.

So when we went to play in the NAIA, I think we were just a little bit better than anywhere.

- John is a tremendous forerunner in basketball and understood the game from the concept of how it should be played, how it could be played the best way.

- And the secret is his conditioning.

- He would take us out before the season start.

He would get in his car and we get in back of his car and we had to run for about two or three miles to get ready so we could play in his system because his system was running.

He had a fast break system and he had plays where he would set up with screens and they weren't doing that back then.

And that's how we beat a lot of teams, really.

- We were ready to kick ass.

We were playing number one team and they was tickled the death that they were supposedly playing the lowest seeded team in the tournament.

- [Commentator] But as the final seconds ticked off, the scoreboard showed that Pacific Lutheran was ahead by one point with nine seconds to go.

- And then like when Barnett told the captain of the team that they were playing, he said, "You all fittin', you know, you know you all fittin' to go home, don't you?"

- [Commentator] At this point, Richard Barnett, the great southpaw shooting star for Tennessee State, he hit a jump shot from 10 feet out and that turned defeat into victory.

(crowd cheering) - [Henry] We got down to the final game to win the championship.

- [Commentator] Barnett with 35 on, hit the three.

- And this team was playing right along with us and it got down to the point where we were winning by six points.

I had the ball and Dick Barnett was in the corner and I threw it to him and he caught the ball and shot it before he came down.

Crowd was just roaring because they didn't see anything like that.

(jubilant music) (jubilant music continues) - We jumping for joy.

Black school, winning the so-called white tournament?

- [Announcer] Now will the championship team and coach, please come forward.

(crowd applauding) Coach John McLendon, Tennessee State, National Champions in 1957.

NAIA presents the James Naismith Trophy, which is symbolic of our championship for this year.

Congratulations to you, your school and team.

(crowd applauding) - [Dick] After we returned to Nashville, I went straight to the lunch counters downtown because the ugly face of racism needed to be confronted.

- [Reporter] 300 chanting racial demonstrators carried out their second day of protests in Nashville today.

The group of white and negro teenagers led by a few adults marched from the First Baptist Church, just a few blocks from the state capitol to Nashville's busiest street.

Once at the cafeteria, demonstrators were refused entrance as expected.

They then moved into the street and sat down.

Police moved in, first arresting John Lewis, then dragging the others to paddy wagons.

- This Tennessee State team, winning the national championship, returning to Nashville and going directly from the airport to a lunch counter sit-in downtown where they had to have the discipline not to respond when white people spit on them for protesting segregated restaurants.

I mean, that's an experience that's searing.

- [Dr King] Students all over the southland, decided that they could not and would not accept segregation at lunch counters any longer.

Strangely enough, by sitting down at segregated lunch counters, they were, in reality, standing up for the best in the American dream.

(poignant music) (poignant music continues) - When you start recalling the fact that sit-ins happen in Nashville during this time, you know those things that people can kind of then get a perspective on what this was all about.

What was this all about?

Oh yeah.

This team was coming up at that particular time when there was some effort that was going on towards changing our society for the better.

- In Kansas City, Municipal Auditorium, and a team came in there, they were the Red Birds and they got in the arena and they were yelling, "We are the Red Birds.

We are the Red Birds.

Who are the Black Birds?

Who are the Black Birds?"

That was the course all the way up to the arena, seats go all the way up to the ceiling, McLendon told the fellas, "I hope you were deaf when you heard that.

It has nothing to do with the game.

The thing that you're supposed to do is put that ball through that hoop."

- But we must keep moving.

If you can't fly in Nashville, run.

If you can't run, walk, if you can't walk, crawl.

But, by all means keep moving.

- What John did was to tell them, now you know, you're going to face things like this and all you have to do is to do your best and show what you are and what you can do.

- They had pressures on them, they were suspect in every regard.

Are they going to act out?

Are they gonna get in trouble?

Are we gonna have some problems here?

Are we gonna have a race this year?

(epic music) - The biggest thing about winning a championship is to do it again.

(epic music continues) (epic music continues) Then the third year is the tough year.

- The third, you have to catch lightning in a bottle.

It takes an enormous amount of physical and mental strength to be able to do that.

- They were under all that pressure.

(epic music continues) (epic music continues) And were still champions.

Three times in a row.

- Oh, it was a huge step.

The first three-peat and wasn't the three-peat by Black colleges, it was period.

- They change the game.

If Skull Barnett and those great athletes don't do what they did, then that would have been much less appeal relative to integrating mainstream basketball programs.

- For this all-Black school to go out there and to win an all-white tournament.

Brother, are you kidding me?

- But it wasn't uncommon for Black athletes to do these extraordinary things and there to be no celebration, no recognition, no mainstream applause.

- Nobody cared.

Nobody knew.

When they won, it was only in the Black paper, it wasn't in the white paper.

What paper can you go and find anything about that team?

Their exploits?

Even at Tennessee State, I don't know if they have records that they kept that what the team did.

- Somewhere, from the time that we were here until now, there must have been a big vacuum in the earth and all the people fell into it.

'Cause they don't have an iota of what went on, nor how and why it was possible.

- [Producer] How did you know about the team?

- About the team?

- [Producer] Yeah.

- I didn't.

- [Producer] You ever heard of a guy by the name of Dick Barnett?

- Yeah, sound familiar.

He's familiar, he's familiar.

I don't know too much about him.

- [Producer] You ever heard about the coach named Coach McLendon?

- [Student] Nah, Coach McLendon?

- [Student] McLendon?

No.

- [Producer] Are you on the basketball team?

- Yeah.

- [Producer] Do you know about the team from '57 through '59?

- No.

- [Producer] Did you ever hear about the championship team?

- No, I didn't.

And the sad thing is my family went here.

My mother, my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather.

Like, I never heard about this.

(poignant epic music) - [Dick] The students need to know about their past.

They need to understand whose shoulders they're standing on.

So in 2011, I decided to help wake people up.

(epic music continues) To make sure my team and my coach would be known forever.

- When you do great things, you're supposed to be honored for those.

- [Dick] I set out to get us inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, a place where greatness is immortalized.

We had not had a good experience with the Hall of Fame in the past.

Our coach John McLendon, had only been inducted as a contributor, instead of as a coach.

That was another profound disappointment.

- Would he have liked to have been elected as a coach the first time around?

I'm sure he would.

Sometimes people see contributor as a lesser category than others.

I tend to look at it as something that represents a broader piece of the game than just what you're known best for, coaching for instance.

- [Dick] We finally got on the ballot in 2011.

- [Announcer] Please welcome the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame, Mr. John Doleva.

(audience applauding) - We are here today to announce those that have been elevated to the level of finalist and have taken the next critical step in achieving the ultimate honor in basketball, induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

They got, certainly, some good discussion.

The team was clearly noticed by the Committee.

It was discussed and they didn't get the acquired votes to be elected.

But clearly they are eligible for the next three years, at least.

- [Announcer] Alvin Attles.

- You know, they were on the ballot for the first time and didn't really receive enough attention to warrant them being included into the Hall of Fame.

- [Announcer] Herb Magee.

- Now, the problem is, not everybody who's voting knows what Tennessee A&I has done.

- All halls of fame, including basketball, started as halls that are honoring white men.

- Well, there certain has to be a, something that's famous about what has happened.

- [Announcer] Congratulations to all of the finalists.

Thank you all for being here for this great announcement.

- That's what the Hall of Fame is.

It's about bringing people in to see famous people or famous teams, but fame is fleeting.

- [Announcer] Thank you again.

- [Dick] It felt like time was running out.

Every day that passed, what we accomplish faded further and further away.

I thought the best place to continue my quest was in Nashville at TSU.

One of the things that we wanted to do was bring you up to date and speed in terms of what we're trying to do in acknowledging our championship teams, which was historic, unprecedented, and really not acknowledged in terms of the Naismith Hall of Fame.

And I think it's tragic.

- And Coach McLendon and the team, I mean, it's long overdue.

There's no question about it.

What would be our plan for us to go from here all the way to the Hall of Fame?

- [Dick] It would be helpful to get the school involved.

- Maybe the Greeks can get behind it 'cause they seem to be very active and strong on campus.

(upbeat hip hop music) (upbeat hip hop music continues) (upbeat hip hop music continues) - While I'm here, I'd love to tell you about a quest.

- I think the school could push the Basketball Hall of Fame more.

They most certainly can petition as a body.

- Hopefully, we can count on you guys for our help.

Thank you very much.

(crowd cheering) - For many candidates, hundreds of candidates, there's lobbying.

From the student standpoint, the more that they can kinda respectfully bring this story forward, would that have effect on the Hall of Fame voters?

I think over time, it certainly would.

- I just think it's something that we just kind of let slip through our fingers and so we have to do something to bring some kind of national notice to get the voters.

- Trying to do with the quest, is make people aware of.

- Tennessee State University needs to get behind Dr. Barnett and push, help push this effort.

To get it done.

- Oh, fantastic.

- [Antonio] That is very important to the legacy of this institution.

- So videos, tweets, probably need to make a Facebook page or something.

We have a whole year.

- You have to campaign for things.

You have to get the word out and educate people on what this team accomplished.

- Tennessee State University.

The Tennessee State University, we are trying to get inducted the Basketball Hall of fame.

So everybody please come out to the pitch tonight and show your support.

- Well, I think if everybody gets behind it and enough people get behind it and make a lot of noise, you know, we got a good chance just as in anything else.

Tennessee State is starting to do the thing that they supposed to, everything follows in steps.

So if enough people get behind it, I think they have a good chance.

- That statistics speak for themselves.

The championships speak for themselves.

And I think recognition should be issued where recognition is due.

- [Dick] In 2012, we were on the ballot again.

- Congratulations to all of the finalists.

Thank you all for being here for this great announcement.

The first members of the Hall of Fame class of 2012.

- We were begging for this team get in the Hall of Fame, which other team should have been there?

I mean, it's (...) I mean, you know that and I know that.

- So we hope to see everyone at the Basketball Hall of Fame.

- A lot of people see all-Black schools as somewhat inferior to the overall talent that they think was out there at the time.

People think, well, it was a Black school playing against small white colleges and they didn't really play against the good white kids.

- Sometimes the votes just aren't there because we just don't have the kind of influence that sometimes it takes to just kind of get over that hump and get people to really recognize.

I mean, the stats are there, the numbers are there, the data is there.

- [Dick] 2012, another rejection.

But my teammates and I were not surprised.

(tense music) - To look at teams that have won maybe just one championship or did a back-to-back and how people just celebrate those victories.

And if that qualifies those teams and those coaches to be honored with the best in the world, look at a team that did it three times back-to-back during the period of time in which they did.

- You know, you've got the Dream Team in there, you got the Harlem Globetrotters in there, you've got the Texas Western team in there.

- But Tennessee State was the first Black team to win a national championship, not Texas Western.

- I was there when they inducted Texas Western.

They were kind of famous just because of their style and it was kind of a renegade school.

There was a lot of sentiment towards that team.

But they took on the big challenge there.

I mean, they were in the NCAA and you know, the NAIA has not had the recognition.

- Tennessee A&I was not part of the NCAA, so they were playing in the NAIA tournament.

I think that's one of the issues.

- That's just part of the justified discrimination.

It's relevant to the competition that they were restricted to play.

- So yes, he would be tremendously proud if they could be inducted as a team in the Hall of Fame.

And they certainly deserved it.

(poignant music) He would be proud of them.

- [Dick] Professor Bass, how you doing?

- This is Dr. Barnett, one of our illustrious and distinguished athlete scholars.

- And I come here really to talk about education because I was a very poor student here at Tennessee State.

Really didn't have a vision for the future, wanted to play basketball.

I came here as a snotty-nose Black teenager without resources.

And every time I speak to young people, I see a reflection of myself.

And people ask, "Well, how did you turn into Dr.

Barnett?"

I wanted to be somebody.

(poignant music) I was one of those young Black males that didn't understand the implications of education and what it would mean for your future.

Left Tennessee State without a degree, basketball was my mistress.

(poignant music) (poignant music continues) That loneliness and that existence really helped me get a doctor's degree because that is also a lonely journey.

(poignant music continues) On October the 12th, 1967, at Madison Square Garden, I ruptured my achilles tendon.

The doctor walked in and said, "Dick Barnett, you might not play any more professional basketball".

I made a transformative decision at that time.

I better go back to school and get prepared for the future and that's how I became Dr. Barnett.

I published 23 books.

I've taught at three different colleges, talking about education and dreams and the limitless dimensions of human possibility.

- When I heard about Dick Barnett, there was a joke that the teacher asked him, "What's your grade point average?"

He says, "25 a game."

(laughing) He didn't go to class.

This whole thing was just playing basketball, man.

He's got the education now.

He knows that in order to understand the present, it helps to know about the past.

- [Producer] We got your court ticket.

- Okay, so where are they now?

- [Producer] They're at will call.

- Number five?

- [Producer] Yeah.

- Okay.

And what do you, do you think Spike is coming to the game?

- [Producer] I have no idea.

- Well, I'm gonna try to run into him anyway.

He might tell me to kiss my (...) or whatever.

- [Arena Announcer] Madison Square Garden.

(crowd talking) Two minutes.

(whistle blowing) (arena music) (buzzer sounding) - [Dick] What's happening, man?

- What's up, Dick.

- Is there any way we can meet for 20 minutes or so?

I'm trying to finish this thing with Tennessee State up.

- I'm going to LA in the morning.

- This is something that we gotta get done.

(smooth music) - [Walt] When you get rejected so many times, not everybody can take that, man.

- [Dick] What's happening, man?

- [Walt] You did it.

- Okay.

- How long are you in town for?

- No, I'm here.

I'm here until the 15th.

- Okay.

- It's a microcosm of his career.

He was discriminated against, devastated, everything.

Like even with the Knicks there, he was the last guy to get his number retired.

He had to kind of put pressure on the Knicks to do that.

- [Arena Announcer] Fall Back Baby, one more time pay tribute on this night, to number 12, Dick Barnett.

- He's always been the black sheep.

So he's got the type of tenacity now, he wants to make them pay.

And he says what he says and how he wants to say it.

And he's a maverick.

(fans cheering) (fan cheering continues) Through many dangers, toils and snares We have already come - [Dick] In 2013, my teammate, John "The Rabbit" Barnhill died.

He played in the NBA for eight years.

He even was an assistant coach for the Lakers.

Another year, another loss.

Sometimes I felt like I was the only one left to carry our message.

- [Harold] Coach Hunter died.

Miller died.

- [Dick] Coach McLendon's wife died.

That only made it more urgent to get our name in the Hall before there will be no one left to tell our story.

- [Announcer] Alright, ladies and gentlemen, let's get to the business at hand of introducing the first members of the Hall of Fame class of 2014.

Today, elected from the early African American Pioneer Committee, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton.

- [Dick] 2014, still nothing, no progress I could see or sense.

What more did the selection committee need to hear?

I did not know.

(smooth music) - We are facing a critical time.

That's why our weapon is never been nothing but the righteousness of our cause.

Don't let folk tell you your story.

(audience applauding) - [Audience] No peace.

- No justice.

- [Audience] No peace.

- No justice.

- [Audience] No peace.

- [Al] Alright.

- [Dick] Okay.

I appreciate you making a little time.

- Appreciate you.

- [Dick] I want to talk about Tennessee State.

I'm trying to help our team be acknowledged for our contribution at the Hall of Fame.

- Wow.

- It would be great to have one of your programs initiated from Tennessee State to help in that regard.

- [Al] Let's go.

(upbeat music) - I was hearing about the initiative to get your team in the Hall of Fame.

So you're here tonight to get the Reverend Al Sharpton to join the push to get you guys in there.

- [Dick] No question.

- I'm coming to you live from Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee.

And I'm here because we are highlighting how the basketball team broke down the color line.

We got here because there was some folks that was winning games when they wouldn't put the score on the board, but they played anyhow and won championships and dug out a future for those that are here today.

And that is why Tennessee State is important.

The whole world needs to look at a college sports untold story.

- Reverend Sharpton, I'm very encouraged that the legacy will be revitalized.

We're not gonna stop until we are inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame.

And I think we're almost at the end of this process.

- We ought to be arguing the case for him rather than him having to argue it for himself.

He's done his work.

We now need to do the work for him and for his team.

- Thank you.

That's all the time we have right now.

- [Dick] Don't be fooled by the crowd and the noise.

Soon after he left, the cheers died down again.

And another rejection soon came from the Hall of Fame.

I had started to wonder if I'd live to see my dream realized.

- The process of the Hall of Fame has been historically a political process.

Sometimes they try to reach back and correct injustices.

- We all know the story of John McLendon.

He was inducted in 1979 as a contributor.

And while it took us a while, 2016, after a lot of discussion internally and externally, we wanted to state that the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame wanted him to be elected as a coach.

- [Dick] It's a damn shame his wife was not alive to see it.

And our team was still on the outside looking in.

- I think the folks at Tennessee State deserve that look before it's allowed to disappear from our view.

- I got a hell of an agenda and (...), man.

Okay.

- His tenacity, his conviction, his dedication to his teammates and to what the program meant, it's just really admirable.

- Dick Barnett has called me and not been so, I don't wanna say politically correct, but not so nice on the phone.

He obviously has a story to tell and he is very authentic in that story.

- We will reveal the names of the finalists for this year's Hall of Fame class, the class of 2016.

- But of course, fame, achievement, accomplishment does not override race and racism.

- That's what's rockin' it, that's what's rockin' it.

Okay?

- Let's face it.

You can't call it nothing else but what it is.

For 60 years?

- I can't say that it wasn't about people's feelings about African Americans at that time.

I can't say it was, or I can't say it wasn't about that.

- How long can a man turn his head and pretend he doesn't see?

- There are many people around the world eager to learn who has been chosen as today's finalists for the Hall of fame class of 2017.

- Is a tremendous honor.

- Denied again.

This is still white America and our grandparents, our fathers and our mothers living out a step away from slavery, had to go through all of this to give you guys opportunities that we never even dreamed of.

- This isn't just Tennessee State's story, this is Southern University's story, this is Prairie View's story.

This is Florida A&M's story.

This is America's story.

There's a value in justice.

Some things are worth battling for and fighting for, simply because it is just.

- Well, I think it's awesome that they take such a in-depth look because there's so many guys that have contributed that don't get the recognition.

(epic music) - Continuing to push the Naismith Hall of Fame has become a major part of my life.

I'm 82 years old now, so it continues, even at this age.

(tense music) (tense music continues) - I know you asking today, how long will it take?

Somebody's asking how long will prejudice blind divisions of men?

It will not be long because truth crushed the earth will rise again.

How long?

Not long.

Because no lie can live forever.

How long?

Not long.

Because you shall reap what you sow.

How long?

Not long.

Who forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.

Yet that scaffold sways the future behind the dim unknown standard.

(poignant music) (indistinct conversation) - Okay.

- [Friend] Bye.

- What?

- [Friend] Say bye.

See, say bye.

- Okay, take it easy.

- [Friend] You too, hon.

- Okay, I'll talk to you.

- [Friend] Alright.

- Okay.

(wind noise) (wind noise continues) We getting closer?

- [Driver] Yep.

- Who do we have here?

- Fans?

Can I get an autograph?

- Yeah.

- [Fan] Thank you.

- [Dick] Okay.

Yeah, that's been years ago.

- [Fan] Yes sir.

- [Dick] I don't even recognize myself.

- [Fan] Thank you, sir.

- [Hotel Employee] All right, so I have you for three nights leaving on Saturday.

So this is for you.

- Do you guys have a swimming pool in here?

- [Hotel Employee] Yes, sir.

- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today.

Welcome on behalf of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Thank you all for joining us today to welcome the newly named class of 2019.

- [Dick] A dream has to reside in your soul.

- [Announcer] This remarkable team from a small college made history by winning back-to-back-to-back championships, the first on any level of collegiate play.

- [Dick] A dream you can taste on the tip of your tongue.

- [Announcer] Led on the court by John "Rabbit" Barnhill and Dick Barnett, the team broke important social barriers as they traveled to national tournaments, helping break down the walls of segregation.

- [Dick] A dream lives in your heart.

- [Announcer] Led by Hall of Fame Coach John McLendon, they're elected to the Hall of Fame as a team.

The Tennessee A&I championship teams of 1957 to 1959.

- [Dick] A dream is gotta be a part of you.

(epic music) - The Basketball Hall of Fame is celebrating the final day of Enshrinement Weekend.

The 2019 Hall of Fame class will officially be inducted tonight at the Enshrinement Ceremony.

- This is one of the biggest nights for the Hall of Fame and the entire basketball community.

Fans are here, excited.

They're starting to line up.

- Dick Barnett called me and then I was like, "Wow.

He did it!

They're in."

And it was really exciting, man.

It was hard to believe because it had been a long time.

It had been a lot of efforts.

- [Assistant] Mr. Barnett.

Oh, that's awesome.

This is Barnett, John Doleva with the Hall of Fame.

- Okay.

- How are you?

- Finally get a chance to meet you, man.

- [John] Nice to see you.

- Okay, good.

Same here.

- The cream always rises to the top, but it might not be when everybody wants it to.

Should this team have gone in prior to?

Maybe it should have.

It wasn't nominated until recently, relatively recently.

At all discussions over the past four or five, maybe eight years, we have talked about the Tennessee A&I team.

It's a great story and finally, we recognize that.

And while it took us a while, I hope Mr. Barnett is pleased.

They're taking good care of you?

- Yeah, yeah, very.

- I like your jacket.

- I appreciate it.

Yeah, yeah, it's a suit yeah.

- All right, if you need anything, you've been introduced to all of our staff members that can take care of you.

- Okay, fantastic.

Yeah.

- All right.

- Okay.

(indistinct distant conversation) - I'd like to welcome all of our guests assembled here today, Hall of Famers, award winners and fans of this great game.

In just a few moments, we'll meet the class of 2019.

- I mean, when Dick Barnett decided this was gonna happen, that was the difference.

I mean, he got himself organized.

He decided to make an effort and he made it happen.

Just like he was the captain of the team that won the three championships, just like he contributed to the Knicks, just like he writes poetry.

I mean, he makes up his mind he's gonna do something, he makes it happen and tenacious.

- Sometimes with just a little bit of initiative on your part, something be done, you know.

Sometimes it don't take but one person to take a step forward.

- [Announcer] They're now elected to the Hall of Fame as a team, the Tennessee A&I Championship Teams of 1957 through '59.

Representing that team is Dick Barnett.

(audience applauding) (epic music) - Not a bad fit.

- [Photographer] Fits right.

Fits right.

- Not a bad fit.

After all my team went through, after everything I went through, we finally made it.

- Is Dick Barnett.

- [Dick] Because I'll always knew that no lie can live forever.

(audience applauding) (epic music) (epic music continues) (distant indistinct conversation) (distant indistinct conversation continues) - All right, fellas, I'm honored today to have this opportunity to have somebody as legendary as we have come to speak to you guys.

This guy was part of the '57, '58, '59 National Championship Tennessee State Tigers team, just got inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame.

And I want y'all to give y'all undivided attention to Dr. Barnett.

- Okay.

I'm glad to be here and have a opportunity to talk to you young men.

What brought us to this induction to the Hall of Fame?

Let me tell you guys what happened.

As we traveled across the South kicking ass.

My job isn't finished.

I have a tremendous legacy and it's a legacy I'd like to pass on.

It's time for these young people to take the baton and move America ahead where it should be.

(poignant music) Down by the riverside - [Protestors] Black lives matter.

Black lives matter.

Black lives matter.

Black lives matter.

Black lives matter.

Black lives matter.

- [Protestors] No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

- [Dick] A lot of dreams in this room.

A lot of dreams.

But do I understand who I am?

Do I understand the history of how I came to be?

There's a legacy I can leave you.

- Tiger's on three, brothers.

One, two, three, Tigers.

- Okay.

- Yes, sir.

- [Fans] T S U.

(calm hip hop music) (calm hip hop music continues) (calm hip hop music continues) - I am the carrier of my dreams.

I am the master of my life's thing.

Live your dreams.

(calm hip hop music continues) (calm hip hop music continues) (gentle drum music) In 1912, tradition began, and in 1957, history was made As a result, four players were drafted into the NBA Yes Definitely historic, motivated to change Three championships blowing opponents out of the frame A moment made out of purpose, deserving higher respect Legendary and bold, regarded one of the best Yes, my name belongs in the Hall of Fame Molded by McLendon, respected around the game Making a statement in the time of separation One team on a mission that changed the whole nation Recognize me as a great It's our time, decorate us with honor Yeah, it's time to enshrine Recognize me as a great It's our time, decorate us with honor Yeah, it's time to enshrine Recognize me as a great It's our time, decorate us with honor Yeah, it's time to enshrine Recognize me as a great It's our time, decorate us with honor Yeah, it's time to enshrine Yeah, we were the first (logo chimes) (logo whooshes) (sweet music) (patriotic music)