Good morning Obots!
This week we’ll look at African American Trailblazers in the NBA.
National Basketball Players Association (February 1, 2012)
“On Halloween night of 1950, a rugged rookie power forward with the Washington Capitols named Earl Lloyd made history as the first African American to play in an NBA game. Today, at age 83, Lloyd pulls no punches – speaking with the same honest grit and spirit that characterized his nine NBA seasons as a fearless defender and rebounder.
“If you were a black baby born in segregated Virginia in 1928, your prospects were slim and none,” Lloyd said when asked to look back more than six decades to his NBA debut. “I call it an incredible journey. 61 years is a long time. To me, it was just a basketball game. Now as years wear on, things crystalize as you climb that chronological ladder.”
Lloyd only played seven games for Washington that season before being drafted into the Army. But he returned in 1952 to play for the Syracuse Nationals, after the Caps folded, and became a key component of Syracuse’s 1955 NBA Championship squad.
And while he’s slow to admit it, the humble and charming Lloyd opened doors and helped make playing in the NBA possible for thousands of African Americans since his debut in 1950. Baseball’s Jackie Robinson receives far more acclaim for breaking his sport’s racial barrier in 1947, but Lloyd had a similar impact on basketball.
“People try to compare me with Jackie Robinson, but I don’t know about that,” Lloyd said. “He was one of my heroes. There was a totally different attitude in basketball than baseball. It was going to be somebody sooner or later.” Yet as he downplays his role as a racial pioneer, Lloyd readily admits the racial climate of Washington D.C. in 1950 was anything but welcoming to African Americans.
“If the truth sounds bitter, it’s not me being bitter … it’s just the truth,” Lloyd said. “Hatred is a terrible thing and supersedes everything. Of course you’d get angry, but you couldn’t let anger control you. You had to manage your anger and – if channeled properly – that’s a weapon.”
Lloyd harnessed that weapon to the tune of 8.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game during his nine-year NBA career. Today – as a proud Basketball Hall of Fame inductee – Lloyd said he and his wife Charlie are “extremely retired.”
