Heck, I figured if they let me sleep there, I was at least halfway home. The Black Fives Era pioneered basketball in many ways all over the world and left a legacy we still feel today. On April 25, 1950, Charles Chuck Cooper made history when he became the first African-American player to be drafted by an NBA team. Thats just reality. (Not that this is directly relevant to this discussion, but UW is coached by the highly popular Lorenzo Romar, who is a former Husky player, my favorite college coach, and happens to be black. Because of their on-court dominance, the Rens were invited to the first-ever World Professional Basketball Tournament held in 1938 in Chicago. ], I think most fans would agree that the college game has never been better. A strong athletic professional basketball player skillfully dribbling up the court. However, he transferred to Duquesne University in 1946. Clifton moved back to the Windy City when his career ended in 1958 at the age of 35, and he worked as a cab driver. Made at professional photo studio. He reversed his name during his senior year at DuSable High School in Chicago, graduating in 1940. Afro american male basketball player with a ball, Basketball Player scoring an athletic, amazing slam dunk, african basketball player young man isolated white background, Portrait of confident male teenager in court, Basketball players woman teenager girl isolated shadows, Full length portrait of a basketball player with ball, Strong African american basketball player holding the ball, Female defending basketball from opponent, Close up Portrait of Basketball Player Looking Left, Female High School Basketball Player Shooting Basket. They didnt want anyone to see me. During the1954-55 season, Lloyd average 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds, helping the Nationals win the NBA title. A solid rebounder who loved to run the floor, Cliftons strength was getting to the basket. A close up of face of an African american basketball player looking left with defiant expression in the dark with one court light source. Russell was the ultimate winner in the history of the NBA. Cooper made his NBA debut on November 1, 1950, one day after Lloyd, against the Fort Wayne Pistons. Coaching is only fun if you win, said Lloyd, laughing. Smiling female defending basketball from opponent. Oh my, yes. Isolated vector One on one basketball game in the spotlight, Basketball Player dribbling on a hardwood court, street basketball player on the court in new york city, A retro action shot of an intense basketball game moment, friends playing street basketball in new york city, African American teenage boy concentrated on playing basketball. Plus, he was hilarious in Airplane! Drafted by the Celtics in the second round of the1950 Draft, Cooper had his best season as a rookie, averaging 9.9 points and 8.5 rebounds. Black Collegiate Education in the United States (1828-2019), African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters, https://biography.jrank.org/pages/2338/Clifton-Nathaniel-Sweetwater.html, https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA143225036&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=15481867&p=LitRC&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E91818bd2, https://www.nba.com/news/history-top-moments-earl-lloyd-chuck-cooper-nat-clifton-new-path-nba%3famp=1. advertising concept. Im a Pac-10 guygrew up in Seattle rooting for the Huskies, then went to Stanford, now back living in my hometownbut I love it all. The mans desire to be the best is legendary and propelled him to six championships, five MVP awards, All-Star appearances in every full season he played, and the status as possibly the best defender ever. His free-throw shooting, on the other hand. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. In fact, Cooper made his debut with the Boston Celtics just one day after Lloyd played his first game with Washington. After a game in Fort Wayne, Lloyd and one of his teammates,Johnny Red Kerr, were walking off the floor together after a victory. Black promoters would team up with Black musicians and create dance-basketball events where patrons would be able to attend and dance before and after basketball games. But ONeal wasnt just pure physicalityhe was surprisingly graceful for such a massive man and he had a deft touch with his close-range jump shots. unbranded uniform. Lloyd is so modest that many of his friends dont know about his place in history. Female basketball player. As games became more organized, Black teams would compete against each other for the "Coloured Basketball World's Champion" moniker. He racked up three championship rings and 12 All-Star appearances in his injury-shortened 13-year career. https://www.britannica.com/list/the-10-greatest-basketball-players-of-all-time. While Kareem put up a whopping 38,387 points during his playing days, I cant look past the fact that he spent a good chunk of his career receiving passes from Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson, the two greatest point guards of all time. Making a move to pass the ball. 
Confident teenage girl is holding ball. The uber-confident Bird had arguably the quickest release of anyone to ever play basketball and hed often let his defender know that the shot was going in soon after it left his hands. Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton became the first Black player to sign an NBA contract and Earl Lloyd became the first Black player to play in an NBA game. Does race in basketball matter? Henderson learned the game during summer sessions at Havard University where he was studying medicine, health and physical education and would introduce the game to young Black men upon returning to the Washington D.C. area in his Phys Ed. Where Timmy would work his way around an opponent in the post with his superb footwork, Shaq would often use his extraordinary bulk (71 and 315 pounds) to bully his way to the basket. I grew up going to diverse, urban schools, my best friend from college is black, my freshman roommate was a black football player, etc., etc., etc. Fit young man in sportswear holding basketball. Turn on a game tonightyoull probably see that eight out of the ten players on the floor at any given time are black. Most obsessively competitive to the detriment of ever having normal human relations with anybody? I remember in Fort Wayne, Ind., we stayed at a hotel where they let me sleep, but they wouldnt let me eat. Dont be fooled by his humble small-college provenance and the Hick from French Lick nicknameLarry Bird was one of the fiercest competitors and greatest smack-talkers in NBA history. In 1948, Clifton signed with the Harlem Globetrotters. Plus his 30.1 points per game is the NBAs highest career scoring average. In 1970, Lloyd became the first full-time African American head coach in the NBA when he coached the Detroit Pistons for a year. Professional basketball player standing holding basketball on an floodlight, one basketball player man Isolated on white background. On that historic night in 1950, Lloyd opened a door that thousands of others have walked through. Take a look back at iconic moments in NBA history from the 1940s and 1950s. Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Sweetwater Clifton may not be household names. Racial harmony!). They are still vastly outnumbered. They all began their college careers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). For his career, Clifton averaged 10 points and 8.2 rebounds, and he made the1956 All-Star team, scoring eight points in 23 minutes off the bench. Pretty much all you can ask for from the best ever, no? Arena's drawned. A game is in a indoor floodlit basketball arena. This effectively broke the colour barrier in the NBA and opened the door for future generations of Black players changing the league and the game of basketball as we know it today. But in his rookie year, Russell completely changed the franchises course and established the Celtics as the winningest team in the NBA. In 2019, Cooper was posthumously inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. After losing to the nemesis Celtics in the 1957 Finals, St. Louis wins the rematch a year later. This is a composite image and not an actual basketball arena. attack and decisive blow concept. Want every headline right at your fingertips?
A preteen boy looking at and holding out his basketball for the viewer with a smile and a thumb's up. Unless you agree with me, in which case this was the most meaningful thing Ive ever written. The one time in his 14-year career that he was not an All-Star was in 1970, a season in which an injured Chamberlain was limited to just 12 regular-season games and yet he still managed to will his team to the NBA finals upon his return. Today, it is not unusual for many African-American players to be on the court at once during an NBA game. Thousands of African-Americans have followed in the path of these men great players like Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, who have helped the NBA evolve into a global attraction. She is wearing blue jersey. Do you find this information helpful? During his six-year NBA career, Cooper averaged 6.7 points. (Or 20. Tim Duncan (right) of the San Antonio Spurs stretches to block a shot by Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat on June 12, 2014, in game two of the NBA finals. The term "fives" was used in reference to teams starting five players in the early days of basketball which lead to the term 'Black Fives' to describe an all-Black team in the early 1900s. The Smart Set Athletic Club of Brooklyn would be the first fully organized and fully independent Black basketball team in America in 1907. Basketball player running with ball, dribbling. The Rens were the first all-Black professional team founded and owned by an African-American, Robert Douglas. Quite possibly. They were spitting at Earl.. They were Earl Francis Lloyd (Washington Capitols), Charles Henry Cooper (Boston Celtics), and Nathaniel Clifton (New York Knicks). Earl Francis Lloyd was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 and, a decade later, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In the days before the 24-second shot clock, the game was played drastically different. If you let yourself become bitter, it will eat away at you inside. Lloyd was enshrined in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 and followed the NBA throughout his life, watching games from his home. Motion, activity, movement concepts.
Dramatically lit, intense basketball player. So Im interested in how other basketball fans, be they white or black or yellow or green, feel about this situation. When people knocked him for not winning championships early in his career, they overlooked that he almost single-handedly took an overmatched Cleveland Cavaliers squad to the 2007 NBA finals at just 22 years old. But the wheels were in motion for Black players to open that door long before Lloyd, Clifton and Cooper made their debuts in the NBA. Basketball player on big professional arena during the African basketball player with a ball in his arm, Confident female basketball player holding ball. My first love, the Washington Huskies, boast an exciting, up-tempo brand of basketball, full of highlight-reel dunks and great defense. When youre 70 years old, if you start telling people that you were the first black man to play in the NBA, people look at you like youre crazy, Lloyd said. What? For Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Nat Sweetwater Clifton, it was a time to make history. Bones was from Wake Forest, N.C., the Deep South, and he had been raised in the South during the 30s and 40s, Lloyd said. Edwin Bancroft Henderson, an educator working in Washington D.C., is credited with introducing the game of basketball to the Black community. Fit african american athlete jumping with ball. I often count up the white and the black players out there. What do you think?
Watch more top videos, highlights, and B/R original content. Moreover, his rivalry with Magic Johnsonwho, spoiler alert, youll see a bit later in this listduring the 1980s launched basketball into an unprecedented level of national popularity that the sport has never fallen from. The four highest all-time NBA single-season scoring averages all belong to Chamberlainin his first four professional seasons. They are in sports uniform. Concept of sport, movement, energy and dynamic, healthy lifestyle.
While driving his cab, Clifton suffered a fatal heart attack on August 31, 1990, at the age of 67. The NBA's embracing of Black athletes closed the book on the near-50-year history of sustained excellence that was Black basketball. Isaiah Thomas is perhaps my favorite player in all of basketball (hes 58 like me, but has a slightly better vertical). I could name a bunch for you, both past and present. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. The african man basketball player standing with ball, Portrait Of High School Basketball Player, The african man basketball player jumping with ball. (Of course, this makes him a huge favorite with the Dawg Pack student section, which has nicknamed him the human victory cigar.). Did it make me bitter? Studio shot over black. But of course, the team did stay and eat in some places where I wasnt welcome. It doesnt matter if its college or proby sheer numbers, its black players by a mile. They probably wouldnt cheer or be eager to talk to these young men. Cooper died in 1984, while Clifton died in 1990 and Lloyd in 2015. On April 25, 1950, he became the second African American drafted into the NBA when the Boston Celtics chose him as the 14th overall pick. Are there great white players? Most important player ever? The african man basketball player standing with ball on black studio background. Segregation keptBlack players from integrating with white clubs and Black teams were also prevented from playing in white-owned gymnasiums.