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“Dave got a call from Don Wattrick and asked me, ‘Would I mind leaving the room,’” recalls Thorn. “Fifteen, 20 minutes later, he called me back in and said he had just been named a coach of the Pistons.” DeBusschere was 24 years old at the time. DeBusschere’s hiring as coach was strange because there was a far more qualified candidate within the organization. Earl Lloyd had been in the running to replace Wolf. Lloyd had previously been a Pistons assistant coach under McGuire, and was still employed as a team scout. He had the experience of playing in the NBA for a decade, as the first Black player to appear in a game in the league’s history. In his capacity as a scout, he had been influential in the Pistons drafting Howell. Joe Caldwell, who was Detroit’s lone rookie that 1964-65 season, had become close to Lloyd. “I was kinda like under Earl Lloyd, more or less, in training camp,” says Caldwell. “And I thought he was a man for the job.”
Wattrick also believed Lloyd was the man for the job. But one detail got in the way. “The quote that he had for Earl Lloyd was that ‘If you were a white guy, you’d solve all my problems,’” says former Pistons forward Ray Scott. Wattrick simply did not have the stomach to be the GM who hired the NBA’s first Black head coach. He had no hesitation, however, about becoming the GM who hired the youngest head coach in the history of U.S. professional sports when he awarded the job to DeBusschere. “I think almost all the players were shocked, because you just never heard of a 24-year-old coach,” Thorn says. “I think even he was surprised by it, when he was offered the job.”
Dr. Clarence B. Jones, King’s speechwriter, will address the Warriors team during pregame on MLK Day before they play the Celtics. The Oakland Unified School District MLK Oratorical Festival will perform at halftime. The Grizzlies partnered with FedEx to host a community basketball clinic for 100 youth from Memphis community centers during their MLK Day of Service on Jan. 8. On Jan. 14, the Grizzlies Foundation and the Community Engagement Department joined with local youth artists to showcase King’s legacy through are during the “Visualizing the Dream” event. On Sunday, the Grizzlies and National Civil Rights Museum will host Junior Grizzlies Coaches and League Directors in a discussion on how to support the Mid-South youth participating in the Junior Grizzlies League with a panel discussion featuring Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller, Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins and Hall of Famer Grant Hill. The Grizzlies will host the Earl Lloyd Sports Legacy Symposium on Monday at FedEx Forum in Memphis with a conversation with Sports Legacy Award winners Miller, track legend Tommie Smith and former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire. The Earl Lloyd Sports Legacy Symposium is free to attend with a Grizzlies gameday ticket.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is developing a docuseries about pioneering Black basketball players including Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd and Nat Clifton. The NBA legend has teamed up with Cineflix Productions, the company behind Nancy Buirski’s recent feature doc Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, and his longtime business partner Deborah Morales, who runs Iconomy Multi-Media & Entertainment, on The Pioneers.
Activist athlete Abdul-Jabbar, who will exec produce, will be interviewed on camera to frame the dual nature of basketball’s story through time —one of success layered with struggle and setbacks.
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Bobby Portis to play Earl Lloyd in Nat Clifton biopic
The Milwaukee Bucks' Bobby Portis has many titles. NBA champion and the people's champion, underdog, fan favorite, (unofficial) mayor of Milwaukee, and the city's hype-man. Now, he'll be adding actor to that list. Portis will appear in "Sweetwater," a full-length feature film about Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, the first African American to sign an NBA contract, according to Portis' business manager, Patrick Frazier. The movie — written and directed by Martín Guigui — stars Everett Osborne as Clifton.
While Clifton was the first African American player to sign an NBA contract, Earl Lloyd was the first African American to play in an NBA game. And Chuck Cooper was the first African American to be drafted by an NBA team, according to an NBA.com article. In the film, Portis portrays Lloyd.
Blessed to play a part in telling this incredible story! Watch the official trailer for SWEETWATER, inspired by @NBA Hall of Famer Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, the first African American to sign an NBA contract. Only in theaters April 14. #SweetwaterMovie pic.twitter.com/en0fy81o27
— Bobby BP Portis (@BPortistime) February 17, 2023
Basketball, by contrast, is a team game in which any of the five players can demonstrate their abilities at any time — if permitted and encouraged to do so. Apparently, in the NBA of the 1950s, the Black pioneers might be asked to rebound, pass and play defense. But shooting the ball and scoring was for their white teammates. “The NBA wasn’t going to go from no African-Americans to turning over the keys and letting one of them be the star of his franchise,” Cooper III said. “It didn’t happen in corporate America and it wasn’t going to happen in the NBA back in 1950. “If you were the third or fourth guy in line to touch the ball, it probably was going up before it got to you.”
Jump ahead 72 years from that historic, barrier-bending season, and the NBA is about 75% Black, with more than 100 players from around the globe. On its courts, the league presents the closest to a real meritocracy as society offers. “I think my father would have a great big smile on his face,” Kevin Lloyd said. “So would Cooper and Sweetwater. They’re a part of something. For the kinds of salaries the players have today, the kind of lifestyles they have, it’s because of them.” Said Jataun Robinson, Clifton’s daughter: “He watched all the games up until his death. He said he liked the fact that they could do more, score more points, all the kind of things they had not been allowed to do.”
A marker will be unveiled in front of NBA trailblazer Earl Francis Lloyd’s childhood home in Alexandria. The city announced today (Friday) that the historical state marker will be at 1020 Montgomery Street and an event will be held for its unveiling, featuring remarks from Mayor Justin Wilson, Kevin Lloyd, son of Earl Loyd, and others.
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Marc J. Spears: The Grizzlies say the honorees of the 17th Annual National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award are Muggsy Bogues, Elvin Hayes and Allan Houston. The honorees will be celebrated on game day during the Earl Lloyd Sports Legacy Symposium.
A special dedication to the late NBA-player Earl Lloyd takes place in his hometown of Alexandria, Virginia, this weekend, where a statue was raised in his honor. Lloyd was a game-changer, being the first African American to play in the NBA. He was then the first Black NBA assistant coach and later the head coach of the Detroit Pistons.
Alexandria placed a matching statue of Lloyd inside the Charles Houston Recreation Center. The statue is part of a bigger Alexandria African American Hall of Fame that includes doctors, lawyers and judges. “Hopefully it can inspire future generations to become what Earl Lloyd was and give them some hope and understanding of the significant Black history of Alexandria,” said Julian “Butch” Haley, the chair of Alexandria’s African American Hall of Fame.
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