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NBA NBA Season Latest Earl Lloyd, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton and Chuck Cooper integrated the NBA 75 years ago. Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Sporting News Archive / Getty, NBA Photos / Getty Kevin Lloyd leaned forward, his tone marking the seriousness of his point. “If you (were to) go to my father’s house, ” Lloyd said. “You’d never know he played basketball unless he told you. ” Such is the fate of the NBA’s pioneers. The NBA debuts 75 years ago of Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the league’s first Black players didn’t garner headlines. Advertisement Technically, Wataru “Wat” Misaka, a 5-foot-7 point guard of Japanese descent, broke the NBA’s color barrier in November 1947 as a member of the New York Knicks in the Basketball Association of America (BAA). Seven months before Misaka’s debut, Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers for the first time. In 1950, the NBA was still a niche league, and college basketball was more popular. Baseball was still America’s pastime. Robinson’s presence, coupled with his 1949 MVP award, was bigger news. Today, Lloyd, Cooper and Clifton are relatively unknown to both the modern fan and the modern player. This season, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) will try to change that. They’ll be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the NBA’s first Black players throughout the 2025-26 season with the first Pioneers Classic game, which will become an annual event, and awarding an NBA Pioneers trophy to highlight the trio’s impact. The journeys of the three men who integrated the NBA may have been overshadowed by the weight of history shifting all at once, but the stories of Lloyd, Cooper and Clifton have been woven into the fabric of the game. Philadelphia 76ers rookie guard V. J. Edgecombe had no idea. At this year’s NBA Draft in New York, Edgecombe and other draftees had an opportunity to meet the families of Lloyd, Cooper and Clifton and learn about the early days of three Hall of Famers who helped integrate the NBA, now a multi-billion dollar global enterprise. “I wasn’t familiar with the players’ stories prior to meeting their families, ” Edgecombe said. “Just getting to meet them helped open my mind about the history of the game. ” Born and raised in Bimini, in the Bahamas, Edgecombe migrated to America as a 9-year-old before rising up the high-school prospect ranks ahead of his lone collegiate season at Baylor. Advertisement “I learned about the first African Americans to play in the NBA and their pain and just the different experiences of life and what they had to go through for future generations, and I’m reaping what they sow, ” Edgecombe said. “It’s just a blessing, though, to be in this position. It helped me cherish the game more and helped my passion grow for the game. ” Carter Bryant, selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the 14th overall pick, also wasn’t aware of the pioneers’ stories before meeting the families, but he said the opportunity made him even more grateful to have joined the NBA’s brotherhood. “It was a dope experience, understanding the heritage and what we’ve come from before us, the people that laid the path for me to be able to be a professional in the sport I love and always dreamed of, ” Bryant said. “Because obviously growing up, you don’t necessarily see who was the pioneer of it all. You didn’t see the first people to break through that barrier. You see the people that reap the benefits, in terms of Michael Jordan, Le Bron James, all the guys that we watch play nowadays. ” For both Edgecombe and Bryant, the stories of Lloyd, Cooper and Clifton inspired them and reminded them just how far the game they love has come. On Oct. 31, 1950, when Earl “Big Cat” Lloyd stepped onto the court at Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester, N. Y. as a member of the Washington Capitols, he quietly made basketball history as the first Black player to play in an NBA game. Lloyd had been a basketball star at West Virginia State College, known now as West Virginia State University. Listed as a guard in his pro debut, he recorded six points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a 78-70 loss to the Rochester Royals. Although his stat line wasn’t jaw dropping, Lloyd had changed the NBA forever. Selected in the NBA Draft’s ninth round earlier that year, the lanky 6-5 forward was a two-time All-America selection and conference champion. In the 1947-48 season, Lloyd and the Yellow Jackets went unbeaten throughout the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association, now the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), in regular and postseason play. Advertisement “One of my father’s biggest accomplishments was (being from) where he came from, ” Kevin Lloyd said. “He went from dirt poor in Alexandria, Va. , into the Hall of Fame. And his main thing was, in order to get to the Hall of Fame, he had a lot of handprints on him that helped him along the way. “My father never wore fame on his sleeve. He had nothing around the house. He had a closet where he kept everything, even his Hall of Fame trophy. That’s how modest he was. ” One day after Lloyd’s debut, Chuck Cooper, former Duquesne star and the first Black player to be drafted (second round, third pick), made his debut with the Boston Celtics in Fort Wayne, Ind. , alongside future Hall of Famers Bob Cousy, “Easy” Ed Macauley and head coach Red Auerbach. Cooper contributed seven points in the season opener. “He was a barrier breaker, ” Chuck Cooper III said about his dad. “Beginning at Duquesne University, team captain at a predominantly White college and becoming the second consensus All-American in college basketball history. He played in the college All-American game as co-captain, along with his eventual good friend and teammate, Bob Cousy. ” Four days after Lloyd, Nat ”Sweetwater” Clifton, a 6-8 center, scored 16 points with 12 rebounds as a member of the New York Knicks against the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. Clifton had played at Xavier University of Louisiana for two years before serving in the United States Army. “They kicked in the door at the same time, ” Kevin Lloyd told The Athletic. Sports across the country were integrating, but acceptance was not a given. “When our fathers got into the NBA, the league wasn’t ready for Black stars, ” Chuck Cooper III said. “They primarily were brought in to rebound and play defense and on some occasions protect the White stars. “I think (my father) was more disappointed with not really having the opportunity to fully display his talent. And when you look at all three of the pioneers, my dad, Lloyd and Clifton, all three of them could have been absolute stars in the NBA if they were afforded that opportunity. You’re talking about the 1950s before the Civil Rights Act, right? So it was still legal to discriminate. Advertisement “This was pre-Emmett Till America. ” Because of racial barriers denying full participation, Black players and other non-White athletes were forced to form segregated leagues and barnstorming teams, often playing in environments that were less than desirable. “(For) Black players, period … Well, there was nowhere else to go, ” said Louis “Sweet Lou” Dunbar, a former Harlem Globetrotters player and coach and current director of player personnel. “If you wanted to be a professional athlete, you wanted to play the game of basketball, the Harlem Globetrotters was your ticket. “And where everybody started. I don’t think Earl Lloyd ever came to the Globetrotters, but, you know, other than that, everybody else did. And, of course, they had the New York Rens back in the day as well. So, a lot of players played with the Rens, but this was the only avenue — the Harlem Globetrotters. ” With teams like the Globetrotters, players were entertainers. There was an element of showmanship to their game. But in a newly integrated league, they often had to suppress their on-court flair. “My father said that, when he played, they always told him to play down, don’t try to be a star, ” Clifton’s daughter Jataun Robinson said. “So he had to stop doing some of the tricks from his time with the Globetrotters. “But every once in a while he would do some of those things just to get the crowd roaring. And he would like what they gave him. They made him feel wanted. He says he got in trouble, but then they always let it go, because of the crowd. ” The growth of sports in post-World War II America mirrored the country’s labored progress on racism. The process was often painful. “(My dad) used to always say out of everything that he went through in his career, he forgave, but never forgets, ” Kevin Lloyd said of Earl. “Some cities he went through, like Fort Wayne, St Louis, he couldn’t stay with the team at the hotel. Advertisement “In some cities he went to, he could stay with the team, but he couldn’t eat with them. He had to sit in his room until game time. Our parents took a lot of heat for all of today’s players. ” American professional sports’ path to collective integration spanned eight decades, a slow crawl enabled by legalized public separation of people based on race. Segregation was ingrained into baseball before the NBA (founded in 1946 as Basketball Association of America before the 1949-50 merger with National Basketball League), National Football League (1920) and National Hockey League (1917) were even created. Although basketball has globalized since Dr. James Naismith invented it in 1891, the sport took its own roundabout route to inclusivity. This season, an NBA record-tying 135 international players represent 43 different countries and territories, but the game’s globalization is traced with consistent contributions from Black pioneers across the early 19th century — trailblazers who, by their own hoops-centric spearheading, helped paved the way for Lloyd, Cooper and Clifton to do their parts. “We’re always looking for ways to continue to educate our players on the history of the game, ” Erika Swilley, executive director of the NBPA Foundation, told The Athletic. “These guys, at 18-19 (years old), weren’t born. They have a context. You know, if you were to ask them who the pioneers are of the game, a lot of them say, like, Bill Russell or, you know, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and I don’t think they can even fathom that there was a time that the NBA (and basketball) wasn’t integrated. ” In 1902, an 18-year-old, 150-pound hooper named Harry “Bucky” Lew debuted for the Pawtucketville Athletic Club in Massachusetts, beginning what became a two-decade career, which started not long after the world’s first pro hoops league was organized. Advertisement Scarce opportunities existed for Black hoopers of the early 19th century. Not only was segregation legal, but formative basketball was hardly organized because players — White, Black or otherwise — were rarely bound by contracts, so it was common for players to switch teams on a day-to-day basis and quit before games. “I think sports has played a significant role, over time, in breaking down cultural barriers, breaking down race, because, on the court, the beautiful thing about sports is it is a meritocracy, ” NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum told The Athletic. “At the end of the day, I think what people realize in sports and in basketball specifically, is that if you could play, you deserved the spot on the team. And it didn’t matter what color, what creed you were — if you could play the game of basketball, if you could play at that level, you should be on the team. “And I think sports has played a significant role over and over in history, in helping to break those different barriers. ” Lloyd, Cooper and Clifton very well might have had different fates if not for the NBA. Their reaching the game’s highest level — whether direct or roundabout — followed the milestones of Lew, Cumberland Posey (the most dominant hooper of the early 20th century), Edwin B. Henderson (responsible for introducing basketball to Washington D. C. ), Robert Douglas (created the New York Renaissance, the first-ever Black professional hoops team) and other pioneers who spent decades contributing to the early growth and mere possibility of integration in basketball’s early days. Lloyd’s rookie season lasted only seven games because he was drafted by the U. S. Army to fight in the Korean War. Washington folded in early 1951, shortly before Lloyd started fulfilling his military duty. During his time fighting the Korean War, the Syracuse Nationals picked him up on waivers, beginning a six-year stay that included winning the 1955 NBA championship, when he was one of six Nationals players to average double figures in the postseason. Once his career finished in 1960, after a two-season stint with the Detroit Pistons, Lloyd spent 10 years as a scout and assistant coach, becoming the Pistons’ first Black coach during the 1971-72 season after Butch van Breda Kolff resigned. Unfortunately for Lloyd, the Pistons went only 20-52 the rest of the season, and he was fired seven games into the 1972-73 season. In his post-basketball life, he also spent more than a decade working for the Detroit Board of Education. Despite Lloyd’s array of accomplishments, he never stopped being the person his loved ones knew him as away from basketball. Advertisement “I never saw my father as being famous, ” the younger Lloyd said of his father, who passed away in 2015. “He was just Dad, who happened to coach the Pistons. ” Their situations were the result of not only skill and temperament, but chance, and they lived modest, humble lives having felt lucky — grateful — to even have had the experience. Fame in their era looked much different than it does for a professional basketball player today. “My father wasn't a braggadocious type of person, so he didn't really bring it up, ” Chuck Cooper III told The Athletic of his Hall of Fame father. “But if asked questions about it, he was willing to share his stories, accomplishments and experiences. ” Although Cooper was the youngest of the pioneering trio, he lived a life of distinction before Auerbach brought him aboard Boston’s early days preceding its Bill Russell-led dynasty. As a rookie for the 1950-51 Celtics, Cooper was a key contributor to the first winning season in the franchise’s storied history, as Boston went 39-30 and finished second in the Eastern Division during Auerbach’s first season at the helm. Over the first four seasons of Cooper’s career, the Celtics’ 166 wins trailed only the Minneapolis Lakers (178) and Rochester Royals (170) for the NBA lead from the 1950-51 to the 1953-54 season, during which Cooper was one of Boston’s most consistent contributors. During that time, his 1, 850 points ranked fourth among Celtics as he trailed only Macauley (2, 345) for team lead in rebounds (1, 807). By May 28, 1954, the Celtics sold Cooper’s rights to the Milwaukee Hawks, who, after the 1954-55 season, moved to St. Louis. By January 1956, Cooper was a free agent, so he signed with the Fort Wayne Pistons for a 32-game stint to finish the 1955-56 campaign before retiring at the age of 29. Advertisement Once his career ended, Cooper enrolled at the University of Minnesota and graduated with a master’s degree in social work in 1960. Upon returning to his hometown of Pittsburgh, he served on the city’s school board and was its first Black director of parks and recreation. For Cooper — who, during his Duquesne days, became the first Black college player to play below the Mason-Dixon Line — his life and basketball accomplishments were as varied as he was well-traveled. Duquesne’s home arena, UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, is named in his honor. By the time Clifton stepped into the Association, he was already 27 years old and able to contribute to a title-hungry New York Knicks team for the next seven years. Few athletes journeyed a path like Clifton, who fought in World War II while serving with the U. S.  Army for three years. He joined the Rens upon returning from the war and eventually played for the Globetrotters before playing first base for the Chicago American Giants of Negro Leagues. By 1950, his Globetrotters contract was purchased by the Knicks, leading to him becoming the second Black player to sign an NBA deal. Harold Hunter holds this distinction after inking a contract with the Washington Capitols on April 26 of that same year. Hunter was cut during training camp and never played for an NBA team. During the first season of that stint, Clifton was second on the Knicks in rebounds per game (7. 6, trailing only fellow future Hall of Famer Harry Gallatin) while ranking fourth on the team in assists (162) and rounding out its top five in points (562). By Clifton’s second NBA season, he and Gallatin became the first Knicks in franchise history to average a double-double. The 1951-52 Knicks went 37-29 and finished third in the Eastern Division before suffering the second of three consecutive NBA Finals losses. But despite coming up short in the title round, Clifton left what remains an undeniable on-court impact for the Knicks and the NBA, becoming the league’s oldest first-time All-Star during the 1956-57 season at 34 years old. New York had the NBA’s fourth-highest win percentage during Clifton’s seven-season tenure (. 557), which included those three finals runs, winning campaigns in each of the first six seasons and two first-place division finishes. Advertisement On April 3, 1957, less than a month after his final game with New York, the Knicks traded him, Gallatin and Dick Atha to the Fort Wayne Pistons for Mel Hutchins. Clifton spent one season with the Pistons before retiring from the NBA. He dabbled in basketball and baseball afterward, but he made his retirement permanent at the age of 40 after the American Basketball League folded in 1962. He worked as a cab driver in Chicago suffering a fatal heart attack on Aug. 31, 1990 at the age of 67. A man who lived many lives, Clifton made an impact that, combined with Lloyd and Cooper, has been protected by each of their children doing all they can to carry their fathers’ collective legacies forward. To carry any of these legacies  forward, it helps to have companionship and support from the league their fathers pioneered. In February 2018, Kevin, Chuck III and Jataun met for the first time when the Cleveland Cavaliers honored “the First Three” Black players in the NBA along with former Cavs general manager Wayne Embry. Embry, who spent 13 seasons with the Cavs, was the first Black GM and team president in league history when he was named Milwaukee Bucks GM in 1972. They’ve since become inseparable through their fathers’ shared experience and decided to work together to elevate their fathers’ legacy. “We three are connected at the hip just like our parents were, ” Kevin Lloyd said. “I want (people) to understand the struggle, ” Jataun Robinson said. “It's much easier now, but it was very hard for the first three. ” The resilience of these pioneers while dealing with the difficulties of segregation made them cornerstones of the league and helped shape the modern NBA. Their fathers may not have talked much about their experiences and historic accomplishments, but the game they gave so much to hopes to ensure the names of Lloyd, Cooper and Clifton are more than a passing mention in a game story. Advertisement “All of our parents gave Jackie Robinson a tremendous amount of credit, ” Cooper III said. “But the one thing about Jackie Robinson (is) once they stopped throwing at the great Jackie Robinson, they had to pitch to him. And baseball has enough individual elements to the game that you get a chance to really show your full array of talent. ” “So unfortunately, our fathers didn't do that, because in the game of basketball, you need somebody to feed you the rock. If you didn't get the ball, you're not scoring. It was a sacrifice. They sacrificed a lot. They were great ballplayers. They were great men. They were great family men. And as we move forward, the fact that the world is going to finally get an opportunity to understand what they contributed to this great game, we just couldn’t be more grateful. ” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle