Longreads Best of 2019: Sports Writing

Nicole AuerbachSenior writer at The Athletic.

妮可·奥尔巴赫《The Athletic》的资深撰稿人。

## The Unbreakable Bond (Mina Kimes, ESPN the Magazine)

## 牢不可破的纽带（Mina Kimes，ESPN 杂志）

A beautifully written, wrenching story from one of the best feature writers in America.

这是美国最优秀的故事作家之一撰写的优美而痛苦的故事。

It’s about football, sure, but it’s actually about a son and the mother who raised him — a mother who was blinded in her late 20s by a bucket of bleach mixed with lye.

当然，它是关于足球的，但它实际上是关于一个儿子和抚养他长大的母亲的——一位母亲在二十多岁的时候被一桶碱液混合的漂白剂弄瞎了眼睛。

DeAndre Hopkins was 10 years old at the time.

德安德烈·霍普金斯当时10岁。

Mina Kimes’ brilliant prose tells an incredible story of resilience and love.

米娜·基姆斯精彩的散文讲述了一个关于坚韧和爱的令人难以置信的故事。

It’ll stick with you for quite some time after: If her son scores, she explains, her daughter will help her stand up and lean over the barrier so she can accept the football from Hopkins.

此后的很长一段时间里，它都会伴随着你：如果她的儿子得分，她解释说，她的女儿会帮助她站起来，靠在栅栏上，这样她就可以接受霍普金斯大学送来的足球。

This ritual serves as a reminder that, while she can’t see her son, he still sees her — and he wants the world to see her too.

这个仪式提醒人们，虽然她看不到儿子，但他仍然能看到她——而且他希望全世界也能看到她。

## Jackie MacMullan is the Great Chronicler of Basketball’s Golden Age (Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker)

## 杰基·麦克穆兰 (Jackie MacMullan) 是篮球黄金时代的伟大编年史家（路易莎·托马斯 (Louisa Thomas)，《纽约客》)

This isn’t exactly a feature, but to label it simply a Q&A is to sell it short.

这并不完全是一个功能，但简单地将其标记为问答就等于低估了它。

It’s just a lovely, lovely interview with Jackie MacMullan, one of the all-time greats in sports journalism.

这是对体育新闻史上最伟大的人物之一杰基·麦克穆兰 (Jackie MacMullan) 的一次可爱、可爱的采访。

Personally, I can’t imagine being a female sportswriter right now without someone like Jackie Mac to look up to, without someone like Jackie Mac paving the way.

就我个人而言，我无法想象如果没有像杰基·麦克这样的人值得尊敬，没有像杰基·麦克这样的人铺平道路，我现在无法想象成为一名女性体育记者。

She opens up about her crazy career path and her issues with access journalism (preach!) in this day and age in the NBA.

她讲述了自己疯狂的职业道路以及当今 NBA 时代的新闻报道（布道！）问题。

She also discussed the problems with writers being fans (again, preach!) openly.

她还公开讨论了作家成为粉丝的问题（再次，说教！）。

I loved all of it, and it’s worth sitting down to read.

我喜欢这一切，值得坐下来阅读。

It’s not quite a feature, but you’ll feel you have a good read on the GOAT by the end.

这不是什么特色，但到最后你会觉得你已经很好地阅读了《山羊》。

(Also, she references her relationship with Celtics great Red Auerbach …

（此外，她还提到了她与凯尔特人队伟大的红奥尔巴赫的关系……

who is the person I named my dog after!

我给我的狗取名的人是谁！

Bonus points for that.)

奖励积分。）

## 2019 Sportsperson of the Year: Megan Rapinoe (Jenny Vrentas, Sports Illustrated)

## 2019 年度最佳运动员：梅根·拉皮诺（Jenny Vrentas，《体育画报》）

One of the best stories I read this year came in just under the wire, in SI’s Sportsperson of the Year issue in mid-December.

我今年读到的最好的故事之一就在 12 月中旬《体育画报》的年度最佳运动员杂志上。

Jenny Vrentas wrote a masterful piece on an athlete I thought I knew quite a bit about.

珍妮·弗伦塔斯（Jenny Vrentas）写了一篇关于一位我自以为很了解的运动员的精彩文章。

But it became clear as I began reading this that there were layers to Megan Rapinoe I was totally unaware of, layers that made her even more intriguing both as an athlete and person.

但当我开始读到这篇文章时，我开始清楚地意识到，梅根·拉皮诺 (Megan Rapinoe) 身上有一些我完全没有意识到的层次，这些层次使她作为一名运动员和一个人都更加迷人。

There’s a care and precision to the reporting and writing of this piece that comes through in each and every word.

这篇文章的报道和写作的每一个字都体现出谨慎和精确。

You can tell it’s important to Jenny that just the fourth unaccompanied woman to be named Sportsperson of the Year have her story told honestly and fairly.

你可以看出，对珍妮来说，只有第四位被评为年度最佳运动员的无人陪伴的女性能够诚实、公平地讲述她的故事，这一点很重要。

And she does just that.

她就是这么做的。

Britni de la CretazFreelance sports writer and sports columnist at Longreads.

Britni de la Cretaz 是 Longreads 的自由体育作家和体育专栏作家。

## The Maddening Promise of Diamond DeShields (Katie Barnes, espnW)

## Diamond DeShields 的疯狂承诺（Katie Barnes，espnW）

Katie Barnes’ writing is always a treat, and this story is a great example of why.

凯蒂·巴恩斯的写作总是令人愉悦，这个故事就是一个很好的例子。

With this profile, Barnes shines a light on Diamond DeShields, a player poised to break out in the WNBA, and elevates her apart from famous athlete father and famous athlete brother, allowing her to shine on her own terms.

通过这篇简介，巴恩斯让戴蒙德·德希尔兹 (Diamond DeShields) 成为了一位即将在 WNBA 崭露头角的球员，并将她与著名运动员父亲和著名运动员兄弟区分开来，让她能够按照自己的方式发光发热。

## Don’t Forget Jordan McNair (Tyler Tynes, The Ringer)

## 不要忘记乔丹·麦克奈尔（泰勒·泰恩斯、《林格》）

With this story about the death of Jordan McNair, the Maryland football player who collapsed during a team practice, Tynes refuses to allow us to look away from a tragedy that should hold our attention but is too willingly forgotten.

通过这个关于马里兰州橄榄球运动员乔丹·麦克奈尔（Jordan McNair）在球队训练中倒下的死亡的故事，泰恩斯拒绝让我们将目光从这场应该引起我们注意但却被我们轻易遗忘的悲剧中移开。

He uses McNair’s death as a window into the exploitative world of college football, one that routinely and systematically harms young, Black men, and implores the reader to reckon with it.

他把麦克奈尔的死作为一扇窗户，让我们了解大学橄榄球的剥削世界，这个世界经常性地、系统性地伤害年轻的黑人，并恳请读者正视这一点。

It is a great example of a human story that ripples far beyond a single person and challenges entire worlds and structures that many people hold dear.

这是人类故事的一个很好的例子，其影响远远超出了一个人的范围，并挑战了许多人所珍视的整个世界和结构。

## Muffet McGraw is Done Hiring Men (Lindsay Gibbs, Think Progress)

## Muffet McGraw 不再招聘男性（Lindsay Gibbs，Think Progress）

This is the story heard ’round the Twittersphere and the entire NCAA Women’s March Madness tournament.

这是 Twitter 圈和整个 NCAA 女子疯狂三月锦标赛上流传的故事。

Gibbs went to South Bend, Indiana to spend time with Notre Dame WBB coach Muffet McGraw and came away with the sound bite that would make waves when the story was finally published: Muffet McGraw had an all-women coaching staff, and that was intentional.

吉布斯前往印第安纳州南本德与圣母院 WBB 教练马菲特·麦格劳 (Muffet McGraw) 共度时光，并在故事最终发表时留下了一段引起轰动的原话：马菲特·麦格劳 (Muffet McGraw) 的教练组全部是女性，这是故意的。

But rather than rest on just the juicy quote, Gibbs uses McGraw and the Notre Dame WBB program to examine why the gender disparity in women’s basketball still exists, why there aren’t more women coaching this women’s sport, and what needs to happen for that to change.

但吉布斯并没有仅仅依靠这句有趣的引言，而是利用麦格劳和圣母大学 WBB 项目来研究为什么女子篮球中的性别差异仍然存在，为什么没有更多的女性教练这项女子运动，以及需要采取什么措施才能改变这种情况。

It’s not often that women’s March Madness gets the headlines; Gibbs and McGraw made sure they would.

女性疯狂三月并不经常成为头条新闻。吉布斯和麦格劳确信他们会这么做。

Lauren TheisenFormer sports writer at Deadspin.

劳伦·泰森（Lauren Theisen）Deadspin 前体育作家。

## They Want Her to Be the Next Yao Ming.

## 他们希望她成为下一个姚明。

But What Does She Want?

但她想要什么？

(Everett Cook, Deadspin)

（埃弗雷特·库克，《Deadspin》）

Through just one conversation with the 19-year-old New York Liberty rookie (via a translator), Everett Cook dives far beneath the simple quirk of Han Xu’s existence as both the tallest active player in the WNBA and its first Chinese draft pick since 1997.

通过与这位 19 岁的纽约自由人队新秀的一次对话（通过翻译），埃弗雷特·库克深入了解了韩旭作为 WNBA 最高的现役球员和自 1997 年以来第一位中国选秀球员的存在的简单怪癖。

Instead of wondering what everyone else wonders when they first see Han — when will she fulfill her destiny as the female Yao?

与其想知道其他人第一次见到韩时所想的问题，不如说她什么时候才能完成她作为女瑶的命运？

— readers will finish the piece simply hoping that she’ll soon feel less alone.

——读者读完这篇文章只是希望她很快就会感到不那么孤独。

As captured in the profile, Han ducks to avoid ceiling fans, scrapes pickled chiles off her pizza after ordering from a menu she can’t read, and struggles to both pass the time and develop as a player in a place where everyone’s a stranger and few speak her language.

正如个人资料中所记录的那样，韩躲开吊扇，在从她看不懂的菜单上点餐后，把披萨上的腌辣椒刮掉，在一个每个人都是陌生人、很少有人会说她的语言的地方，她努力既要打发时间，又要发展成为一名球员。

Though nobody will ever experience the kind of year that Han Xu had, it’s impossible not to feel a deep empathy for this lonely, gifted, and unique basketball player after reading this profile.

虽然没有人会经历韩旭那样的一年，但读完这篇简介，我们不可能不对这位孤独、有天赋、独特的篮球运动员产生深深的共鸣。

## Lesbians Won the Women’s World Cup (Shannon Keating, Buzzfeed)

## 女同性恋赢得了女子世界杯（Shannon Keating，Buzzfeed）

This is my favorite take on my favorite sports story of the year, because in this article, Shannon Keating is all of my queer women friends who told me, “I’m not a sports fan, but I am a fan of these hot girls” as the USWNT spent the summer pummeling all competition en route to another World Cup win.

这是我对今年最喜欢的体育故事的最喜欢的呈现，因为在这篇文章中，香农·基廷是我所有的酷儿女性朋友，她们告诉我，“我不是体育迷，但我是这些性感女孩的粉丝”，因为美国女子国家队整个夏天都在击败所有比赛，争取另一次世界杯胜利。

In my experience, sports and the gay community don’t mix as often as they ought to—when I tell someone in a queer space that I’m a sportswriter, a longer explanation is almost always necessary.

根据我的经验，体育和同性恋社区并没有像他们应该的那样经常混合——当我告诉酷儿空间中的某人我是一名体育记者时，几乎总是需要更长的解释。

But in just a handful of games over a few weeks, players like Megan Rapinoe, Kelley O’Hara, and Ashlyn Harris helped invite countless outsiders (like Keating) to bask in the joy of their victories.

但在几周内的几场比赛中，梅根·拉皮诺、凯利·奥哈拉和阿什琳·哈里斯等球员帮助邀请了无数局外人（如基廷）享受胜利的喜悦。

Keating’s writing would have been very entertaining in itself even if the piece was just confined to unfettered praise for the team’s abilities and attitude, but it’s also important in the way it confronts how odd it feels to be in love with this United States soccer team while feeling sick about the country as a whole.

基廷的写作本身就非常有趣，即使这篇文章只是局限于对球队的能力和态度的无拘无束的赞扬，但它也很重要，因为它面对了爱上这支美国足球队同时对整个国家感到恶心的感觉是多么奇怪。

As she chants “Lesbians!” instead of “USA!” at a bar, while watching a match where the game-winning goal was scored by an openly gay women who knelt in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and preemptively blew off the White House before her team even won the trophy, Keating finds what we all needed in 2019: something to be proud of.

当她高呼“女同性恋者！”时而不是“美国！”在酒吧里，在观看一场比赛时，一位公开的同性恋女性打进了制胜一球，她跪下声援科林·卡佩尼克，并在她的球队赢得奖杯之前先发制人地炸毁了白宫，基廷发现了我们在 2019 年都需要的东西：值得骄傲的东西。

Katie BarnesESPN writer/reporter.

凯蒂·巴恩斯 ESPN 作家/记者。

## The Line of Fire (Natalie Weiner, SB Nation)

## 火线（Natalie Weiner，SB Nation）

We’ve all read stories about how sports – usually football or basketball – are a ticket out of poverty and violence.

我们都读过有关体育运动（通常是足球或篮球）如何成为摆脱贫困和暴力的门票的故事。

Usually for a black kid.

通常是针对黑人孩子。

Natalie Weiner’s treatise on the ways in which gun violence has affected football players takes that idea and turns it on its head.

娜塔莉·维纳（Natalie Weiner）关于枪支暴力如何影响足球运动员的论文接受了这一观点，并将其颠覆。

In a masterful piece of gritty reporting, Weiner takes readers through an emotional hellscape, imploring them to look closer at something they’d rather ignore.

在一篇精彩的、坚韧的报道中，韦纳带领读者经历了情感地狱，恳求他们仔细观察他们宁愿忽视的东西。

Even in the national discourse around gun violence, little attention is paid to its omnipresence in urban communities beyond the statistics.

即使在关于枪支暴力的全国性讨论中，除了统计数据之外，也很少有人关注枪支暴力在城市社区中的普遍存在。

Weiner uses football as a way to explore the people and communities oft-ignored, deftly navigating the intersections of race and class therein.

韦纳利用足球作为探索经常被忽视的人和社区的一种方式，巧妙地驾驭其中种族和阶级的交叉点。

When a football player dies, Weiner notes that “football player” is often splayed across the headline, the subtext being “this is not just another kid, this is a football player.

韦纳指出，当一名足球运动员去世时，“足球运动员”一词经常出现在标题中，潜台词是“这不仅仅是另一个孩子，这是一名足球运动员。

A kid who tried; a kid who worked; a kid who was doing all the Right Things…”

一个尝试过的孩子；一个工作过的孩子；一个做了所有正确事情的孩子……”

Even as numbers of youth football participants continue to drop, these coaches still fill their teams with students who are looking for…something.

尽管青少年足球参与者的数量持续下降，这些教练仍然在他们的球队中塞满了正在寻找……某些东西的学生。

Perhaps safety or opportunity.

也许是安全或机会。

One of the coaches sums it up with this quote: “Football is going to come down to the people who have an option.

一位教练用这句话总结道：“足球将取决于有选择的人。

My guys don’t have an option.” Weiner asks us to consider what it means when that option isn’t safe either – when the poor black kids who tried still died?

我的人别无选择。”韦纳要求我们考虑一下，当这种选择也不安全时——当尝试过的可怜的黑人孩子仍然死亡时，这意味着什么？

And what will we do now that we can’t unknow this?

既然我们不能不知道这一点，我们现在该怎么办？

It is one of the most important pieces of sports writing this year.

这是今年最重要的体育写作作品之一。

Sam RichesAn award-winning journalist, writer, and editor, based in Toronto.

Sam Riches 是一位屡获殊荣的记者、作家和编辑，居住在多伦多。

## Robyn Hightman Found a Life on Bikes.

## 罗宾·海特曼 (Robyn Hightman) 以自行车为生。

In an Instant It was Gone (Peter Flax, Bicycling)

刹那间它就消失了（彼得·弗莱克斯，《骑自行车》）

“What’s up with that bike?” a friend visiting Toronto asked me on a recent walk.

“那辆自行车怎么了？”一位来多伦多的朋友最近散步时问我。

He was motioning to a bicycle across the street that was painted white and chained to a hydro pole, with bright plastic flowers curling out from the spokes.

他指着街对面的一辆自行车，这辆自行车被漆成白色，拴在一根电线杆上，辐条上卷着鲜艳的塑料花。

I explained what it meant, that a cyclist had been struck and killed at that location — that it was a ghost bike — and his face dropped.

我解释了这意味着什么，一名骑自行车的人在那个地方被撞死了——那是一辆幽灵自行车——他的脸垂了下来。

“I didn’t know that was a thing.”

“我不知道那是一件事。”

In far too many cities, it’s an extremely prevalent thing.

在很多城市，这是一种极其普遍的现象。

For Bicycling, writer Peter Flax traced the story of how one of those ghost bikes came to appear on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.

在《自行车》一书中，作家彼得·弗莱克斯（Peter Flax）追踪了其中一辆幽灵自行车如何出现在曼哈顿第六大道的故事。

It resulted in a deeply reported piece on the life of Robyn Hightman, who found freedom and happiness on a bike, until a crash stole their life.

这导致了一篇关于罗宾·海特曼 (Robyn Hightman) 生活的深度报道，她在自行车上找到了自由和幸福，直到一场车祸夺走了他们的生命。

Flax weaves a heartbreaking tribute to a cyclist and the community impacted by their sudden death.

亚麻向一名自行车手和受其突然死亡影响的社区表达了令人心碎的敬意。

Written from a place of empathy and understanding, this is the type of journalism that can lead to positive, tangible change.

这种新闻报道是从同理心和理解的角度撰写的，可以带来积极、切实的变化。

It is also a reminder that every ghost bike has a story to share, of a life lived and then tragically lost.

这也提醒人们，每辆幽灵自行车都有一个可以分享的故事，一个曾经经历过的生活，然后悲惨地失去了生命。

Shakeia TaylorContributor, Baseball Prospectus and SB Nation.

Shakeia Taylor 棒球章程和 SB Nation 撰稿人。

## “You’re Going to Have to Run Faster”: How Football Neglects Black Coaches (Tyler Tynes, The Ringer)

## “你必须跑得更快”：足球如何忽视黑人教练（泰勒·泰恩斯，《林格》）

Over the years, there have been many conversations surrounding the NFL and race/social justice.

多年来，围绕 NFL 和种族/社会正义进行了许多对话。

Tyler Tynes tackles one of those issues, the underrepresentation of Black head coaches, by speaking with Black coaches and introducing us to the NFL’s annual occupational mobility data.

泰勒·泰恩斯通过与黑人教练交谈并向我们介绍 NFL 的年度职业流动性数据，解决了其中一个问题，即黑人主教练代表性不足的问题。

Racial disparities in hiring practices are not exclusive to the NFL and are deserving of further study and conversation.

招聘实践中的种族差异并非 NFL 所独有，值得进一步研究和对话。

Tynes’ story is a reminder that not only is the Rooney Rule ineffective at preventing bias in hiring, but that more can be done.

泰恩斯的故事提醒我们，鲁尼规则不仅无法有效防止招聘中的偏见，而且还可以做更多的事情。

Tynes’ reporting is methodical, and it imparts care and insight that the topic deserves.

泰恩斯的报道很有条理，并且传达了该主题应有的关怀和见解。

It is a reminder that sports are political, no matter how hard people try to tell us otherwise.

这提醒我们，无论人们多么努力地试图告诉我们，体育是政治性的。

Dvora MeyersFreelance journalist and author.

德沃拉·迈耶斯（Dvora Meyers）自由记者和作家。

## The Olympics are Over, but Tessa Virtue is Just Getting Started (Genna Buck, The Walrus)

## 奥运会结束了，但 Tessa Virtue 才刚刚开始（Genna Buck、海象）

Very early into Genna Buck’s profile of Tessa Virtue, the Canadian three-time Olympic gold medalist in figure skating, the skater says, “Whatever I take on next, I’m never going to be the best in the world.” This is what I imagine every Olympic gold medalist at least thinks when they’re contemplating retirement or in the early stages of the transition — I’ll never be as good at anything else in my life as I am at [insert sport].

在吉纳·巴克 (Genna Buck) 对加拿大三届奥运会花样滑冰金牌得主泰莎·维图 (Tessa Virtue) 的简介中，这位滑冰运动员说：“无论我接下来做什么，我永远都不会成为世界上最好的。”我想象每一位奥运金牌获得者至少在考虑退役时或在过渡的早期阶段都会这么想——我一生中永远不会像我在[插入运动]方面那样擅长。

I, who have never been the best in the world at anything (though I am internationally ranked in kvetching), don’t know how you move on from that, and neither does Virtue, at least not yet.

我，在任何事情上都不是世界上最好的（尽管我在国际上的抱怨方面排名第一），不知道你如何继续前进，美德也不知道，至少现在还不行。

Buck’s profile of the skater, who is one half of one of the greatest figure skating teams in Olympic history, shows a talented, focused woman trying to figure out what to channel her relentless drive towards now that she’s done with her sport.

巴克对这位奥运历史上最伟大的花样滑冰队之一的滑冰运动员的介绍显示，这位才华横溢、专注的女性在结束了这项运动后，试图找出她不懈的动力的方向。

The story keeps coming back to Virtue’s desire to the best at something and her paralyzing fear of putting a foot wrong, which is unsurprising given the nature of her perfection-oriented sport.

这个故事不断地回到美德对某件事做到最好的渴望和她对出错的极度恐惧，考虑到她追求完美的运动的本质，这并不奇怪。

Buck, in her prose, skates in circles, because Virtue, though she’s staying busy, really doesn’t know where she’s going yet.

巴克在她的散文中一直在兜圈子，因为美德虽然很忙，但真的不知道自己要去哪里。

Virtue has climbed to the top of the mountain but she doesn’t know how to get down.

德已经爬到了山顶，却不知道如何下山。

Matt GilesFreelance writer and head of fact-checking at Longreads.

马特·吉尔斯 (Matt Giles) 自由撰稿人兼 Longreads 事实核查主管。

## Climate Change is Sabotaging the World’s Most Dangerous Canoe Race (Eric Stinton, GEN)

## 气候变化正在破坏世界上最危险的独木舟比赛（Eric Stinton，GEN）

Since 1952, the Molokaʻi Hoe — otherwise known as the world’s most challenging canoe race — has annually enthralled 40,000 competitors off the coast of Oahu, but as Stinton explains in this deep-dive, the Molokaʻi Hoe is threatened not by modernity, analytics, and improved training but by climate change.

自 1952 年以来，摩洛凯锄头赛（也被称为世界上最具挑战性的独木舟比赛）每年都会吸引欧胡岛海岸的 40,000 名参赛者，但正如斯廷顿在这篇深入探讨中所解释的那样，摩洛凯锄头赛受到的威胁不是现代化、分析和改进的培训，而是气候变化。

It’s an angle I have long thought about, specifically how the planet’s warming will affect the Bonneville salt flats, and this piece succinctly explains how the overall warming of the waters through which the course flows could cause this race to forever be delayed — and with that, the impact on the culture and heritage of its competitors.

这是我长期以来思考的一个角度，特别是地球变暖将如何影响博纳维尔盐滩，这篇文章简洁地解释了赛道流经水域的整体变暖如何导致这场比赛永远推迟——以及对竞争对手文化和遗产的影响。

## How the Harlem Globetrotters Integrated the NBA (Eric Nusbaum, Sports Stories)

## 哈莱姆篮球队如何融入 NBA（埃里克·努斯鲍姆，《体育故事》）

Earlier this year, Nusbaum debuted Sport Stories, a subscription-based newsletter which highlights oft-forgotten characters and incidents in sports history.

今年早些时候，努斯鲍姆推出了《体育故事》，这是一份基于订阅的时事通讯，重点介绍了体育史上经常被遗忘的人物和事件。

This installment, from early November, is one of my favorites, in that it involves Goose Tatum, George Mikan, and Ermer Robinson, a World War II vet whose specialty was lofting one-handed shots thirty feet away from the basket (truly, THE OG Steph Curry).

十一月初的这一部分是我最喜欢的部分之一，因为其中涉及古斯·塔图姆、乔治·麦肯和埃尔默·罗宾逊，后者是一名二战老兵，专长是在距篮筐 30 英尺处单手投篮（真正的 OG 斯蒂芬·库里）。

But what makes this Sports Stories’ articlr so interesting is how it goes beyond the game, and gives credit to the Harlem Globetrotters for irrevocably altering the NBA: following this 1948 contest, in which the Harlem Globetrotters defeated the dynastic Minneapolis Lakers, the National Basketball League merged with the American Association of Basketball, and by 1953, three black players would make their professional NBA debut, a first for the league.

但这篇《体育故事》的文章之所以如此有趣，是因为它超越了比赛本身，并赞扬了哈莱姆篮球队不可逆转地改变了 NBA：在 1948 年哈林篮球队击败王朝明尼阿波利斯湖人队的比赛之后，国家篮球联盟与美国篮球协会合并，到 1953 年，三名黑人球员首次在 NBA 职业生涯中首次亮相。

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