Pits, peach baskets, and how basketball grew

A beautiful blend67 years. It sounds a pretty long time. Older than most Denver Stiffs fans. Older than Bill Murray, Kurt Russell, Phil Collins, Jane Seymour, Tom Petty, or Lynda Carter (all of whom are 66, by the way). From that lens, 67 years seems an eternity to many. But in historical terms, it’s truly a blip. A mere two-thirds of a century. Most everyone reading this should see the age of 67, and will probably think it a pretty short amount of time by that birthday, which will only make the remainder of the journey seem all the shorter.

67 years is also the rather-brief period since African-American players first played in an NBA game, with Chuck Cooper, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, and…