NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Lessons from the "Secret Game"
"Basketball is life," Duke alum and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said to the Class of 2023 on Sunday, "No matter who they are, or what’s going on in their lives or in the world outside, they come to play. It can be fun and joyful, but also sometimes pretty chaotic and messy." Silver went on to describe a historic game played between a group of all-white Duke medical students and the 1944 North Carolina College for Negroes, what’s now known as North Carolina Central University, men's basketball team. The Eagles beat the Blue Devils that day, but that of course wasn't the point. That game later came to be known as the “Secret Game” and was the South's first integrated college basketball game.
"The Secret Game happened because those players - young people your age - challenged convention, and took a calculated risk, to do what they thought was right... And all of you graduates educated here are uniquely positioned to lead us forward."
-- Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner