‘Sweetwater’: Basketball Film Takes Much-Needed Look at Breaking Color Barrier in NBA (Review)

When we think of the great NBA players in history, names like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain come to mind. But none of those players would exist without the one who would change the game forever, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton. In the new film Sweetwater, viewers get to see Clifton’s story of being the first Black basketball player to sign an NBA contract. And while other plotlines somewhat take away from the central focus of the film, Sweetwater fulfills its goal of showing respect to the man show started it all. 

The movie starts with a sportswriter (Jim Caviezel) sitting in a taxi cab driven by Clifton (Everett Osborne). The sportswriter is not aware he’s talking to an NBA legend, but they discuss the history of the game, leading to Clifton telling his story of how changed the NBA. Sweetwater then goes into Clifton’s journey which started with him being part of the Harlem Globetrotters. New York Knicks coach Joe Lapchick (Jeremy Piven) and owner Ned Irish (Cary Elwes) watch Clifton play and want to sign him. But Globetrotters manager Abe Saperstein (Kevin Pollack) doesn’t want to give him up, and the NBA was not ready to bring in Black basketball players, leading to Lapchick and Irish fighting for a player who knows is the future of basketball. 

The one thing that stood out is the action is strong in Sweetwater. It’s almost a given that Piven, Elwes and Pollack were going to perform at a high level, but Osborne’s portrayal of Clifton was the one that made the difference.  Osborne’s basketball background helps him pull off Clifton’s style of play. But what caught my attention is the delivery of the character as it was very smooth. 

Sweetwater also dives into a little bit of the Globetrotters’ history. There’s never been a full-length film about the basketball franchise’s history for this generation, and since Clifton was a big part of the team, it’s understandable to have some focus on the Globetrotters. Sweetwater could open the door for Hollywood to have a film or series about it soon.

One thing Sweetwater didn’t do is take a deep dive into Clifton’s life. Instead, the focus was on breaking the color barrier in the NBA, and the scene that stood out is the NBA owners talking about whether the league should have Black players or not. The back and forth with the owners was compelling and sad at the same time as it shows that some of them were afraid for all the wrong reasons.

Overall, Sweetwater, directed by Martin Guigi and distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment, is a solid film that tells a strong story about Clifton’s path to the NBA. It’s something fans haven’t seen before on the big screen, and if anything, the film is a good way to learn about what the NBA was like back in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It may not be the best sports movie to be released this year, but it’s one basketball fans will likely enjoy.