The first Black NBA player was Earl Lloyd in 1950. He played for the Washington Capitols and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame more than half a century later, in 2003.
The top defensive player later joined the Syracuse Nationals and became the first black player to win an NBA championship. Later with the Detroit Pistons, he was the first African American to be named an assistant coach and the first to be named a bench coach.
Chuck Cooper was the first African American drafted by an NBA team. Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton of the Harlem Globetrotters was known as the first black to sign an NBA contract when he signed with the New York Knicks.
Rounding out the trio, Earl Lloyd, after he left West Virginia State and was drafted in the ninth round to the Washington Capitols, was the first black to play in an NBA game. On October 31, 1950, Lloyd played in that historic game against the Rochester Royals. Although the Royals defeated the Capitols 78-70, Lloyd scored 6 points and began the inevitable acceptance of African Americans in the NBA.
Although making history, Lloyd spent only seven games with the Capitols before leaving for a two-year stint in the army. In 1952 he returned to the NBA to play for the Syracuse Nationals.
Source: http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/sports-and-games/sports-biographies/earl-lloyd
