NBA Creates Annual Game Honoring First Black Players

For years, Chuck Cooper III heard people mistakenly credit Bill Russell as the NBA's first Black player, and it broke his heart. His father, Chuck Cooper, along with Earl Lloyd and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, actually integrated the league in 1950, three years before Russell's debut.

Now Cooper can finally celebrate instead of correct. The NBA launched the Pioneers Classic on Feb. 1, an annual game that will honor these three trailblazers at the start of Black History Month every year.

The inaugural game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics at TD Garden brought the pioneers' families to center court. Fans cheered, cameras flashed, and for the first time, these names received the recognition they deserved on basketball's biggest stage.

The story began in 1950 when Cooper became the first Black player drafted by the NBA. Lloyd became the first to play in an actual game that October. Clifton's signing was perhaps most important because New York Knicks president Ned Irish pressured other owners to end their secret four-year ban on Black players so the team could sign the Harlem Globetrotters star.

Kevin Lloyd, whose father Earl passed away in 2015, said his dad would be smiling from above. "This is a special game and he's a part of this," he said.

Current Celtics star Jaylen Brown connected the past to the present. "To know where you're going, you have to know where you came from," Brown said after the game.

The Ripple Effect

The Pioneers Classic creates more than just a moment of recognition. The NBA Foundation and the Players Association are each contributing $75,000 in scholarships to West Virginia State University, where Lloyd graduated, and Xavier University of Louisiana, where Clifton attended.

Over the next five years, the organizations will provide $750,000 to support students at historically Black colleges and universities. Cooper calls it proof that "when you make the right decisions for the right reasons, good things happen."

Boston proved the perfect host city. The Celtics were the first team to draft a Black player, the first to start five Black players, and the first to hire a Black coach in Russell.

All three pioneers enjoyed solid six-season careers, though none became superstars, which partly explains why their contributions were overlooked for decades. By 2019, all three had been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and the NBA named three division championships after them.

The momentum kept building until Sunday's game, where history finally got its spotlight and the future got its scholarships.