The first African-American in the NBA

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1950 is one of the most important years in the history of basketball and especially of the National Basketball Association of the USA and Canada. This is the year that for the first time in the "alien league" a black basketball player is allowed to play for one of the teams that are in the championship.

In the 1950/51 preseason draft, as many as three African-Americans were selected by NBA teams, but only one of them may be the first to log minutes in a basketball game in the world's biggest championship. And this is Earl Lloyd.

On October 31st, the Washington Capitals play their first game of the season, and Lloyd (thanks to the NBA program) plays a day earlier than the other black players selected in the preseason draft. He recorded an excellent debut with 6 points and 10 rebounds. Of course, his debut does not go "smoothly", after the announcement of Washington's lineup and Lloyd's appearance on the floor, a fan in the front rows pours violent racist insults at the basketball player. However, then no one pays attention to it, as it is considered "normal". Despite the treatment from some fans, Lloyd himself claims that he has been well received by his new team-mates and has been given great treatment.

The player himself does not expect to be part of the NBA. However, on the eve of the draft, his girlfriend tells him that there is word at West Virginia State (the college where Lloyd studied and played) that NBA teams are interested in his services. The rumor became reality and the Capitals took him at #100 in the draft.

After only 7 games, Lloyd was drafted into the army and sent to Korea for 2 years. After he returned, his team no longer existed, but he became part of the Syracuse Nationals and later the Philadelphia 76ers. His career, which included 9 seasons in the NBA, ended with the Detroit Pistons. What's more, in 1970 he became the first black head coach in NBA history, making him a two-way pioneer in the strongest championship on the planet.

Unfortunately, he waited until 2003 to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2015, at the age of 86, he died, leaving behind one of the most important traces in basketball - the one that paved the way for black people to take over the NBA and turn it into the strongest basketball championship on the planet.

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