BOSTON (AP) — Sam Jones remembers the NBA landscape in the 1960s being only marginally different from what he had experienced growing up in America’s segregated South.

There were only two players on each team that were African-Americans,” recalled Jones, a member of 10 Boston championship teams, including the eight consecutive titles the Celtics won from 1958-66.

The 1960s was the decade Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points, the Celtics-Lakers rivalry took flight and the NBA’s second dynasty reigned on the Boston Garden’s parquet court.

Boston then followed with eight consecutive titles — part of 11 in 13 years won by Hall of Famer Bill Russell — the kind of on-court dominance the young league had never seen before.

And the on-court success certainly didn’t shield the league’s Black players from the realities that existed off the court as activists challenged Jim Crow’s grip in the South and the Vietnam War was becoming an increasing flashpoint.

“What we did, we did kind of behind the scenes as best we could, because a lot of us were insecure at the time because there weren’t that many of us begin with,” said Wayne Embry, who played 11 seasons in the NBA and was on the Celtics’ 1968 championship team before becoming the league’s first Black general manager in 1972.

Jones said Black players in Boston had a champion in Red Auerbach, who ruled at the helm of the Celtics’ dynasty.

Auerbach was known for his demanding style (Jones describes Auerbach as a “taskmaster” and said at times he “overdid it”), but the coach also recognized how his players were affected by what was happening in the world.

The team was in its hotel when Sam Jones asked Sanders to go to the lobby to get some food.

While the Celtics and Bruins broke the color barrier in their sports, the Red Sox were the last Major League Baseball team to field a Black player in 1959.

We were not children,” Jones said.

Russell led the team to a pair of titles in the dual role in 1967-68 and 1968-69.

There was no escaping the issues for Black players, prompting Russell to tell reporters in 1964: “I’d rather die for something than live for nothing.”″.

Russell’s actions also inspired others in the 1960s, like when Black and white players led by Jerry West, Oscar Robertson and Elgin Baylor nearly refused to play in the 1964 All-Star Game over a dispute with owners about labor conditions

The players barricaded themselves in the locker room and the game was briefly delayed