Sweetwater plot
"The man who changed the game."
In the 1940s, African-American Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton starts playing basketball with the Harlem Trotters, an all-color team led by white Abe Saperstein. Because of their skin color, the men are not allowed to play in the NBA, trapping them in small town games. Joe Lapchick, the coach of the New York Knickerbockers, not only thinks Sweetwater is good enough to play in the NBA, he also thinks it's time to break the color line. He convinces team owner Ned Irish to give Sweetwater a chance. For this, Irish must convince the other owners, led by Maurice Podoloff. Some of them are not open to the idea of colored players in their lily white sport.