Un-Covering Stories You Never Heard Of: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s On the Shoulders of Giants and The History of (African-)American Basketball

Drawing from various disciplines from cultural history to semiology and communication studies, this article examines the part played by documentary films in the re-writing of the history of American basketball, focusing on former-player-turned-historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 2011 work, On the Shoulders of Giants: The Story of the Greatest Basketball Team You Never Heard Of. Indeed, this documentary film directed by Deborah Morales raises many questions regarding the treatment of African-American athletes in the writing of the history of American sport. First, this article focuses on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's political life and works, and especially his conscious effort as a historian to highlight forgotten stories and give them back their true historical dimension. Then, it shows how this documentary film turns the New York Renaissance team into a political myth which crystalized the politics of their time—the 1920s—as well as the new political concerns and efforts of the African-American community at the time of the filming of the documentary. Last, it questions the part played by documentary films in de-invisibilizing the history of African-American athletes, their filiation with autobiographies, and the politics of self-representation as a political instrument. In sum, this article uses Abdul-Jabbar's work to reflect on a conscious, transmedia effort by African-American athletes, historians and scholars alike, to redefine the communication scheme and rewrite American and African-American history. Sport and athletes happen to play a key part in this process, as they have used their media exposure to push this very political agenda.