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From Wilt Chamberlain to Jeremy Lin: 10 NBA 'firsts'

Jeremy Lin's rise on the NBA radar provides the impetus to look back at Wilt Chamberlain's highest-scoring game and nine other NBA 'firsts.'

4. The first black player drafted by an NBA team: Chuck Cooper

  • By Ross Atkin Staff

When it comes to identifying who first broke the league’s color barrier, things get a bit complicated. The aforementioned Wat Misaka was the first non-Caucasian when he had a “cup of coffee” with the Knicks in 1947, but in terms of integration by African-Americans, that occurred three years later. Rather than one Jackie Robinson-like figure, however, three players can stake a claim to introducing black players to the NBA.

Chuck Cooper became the first black player drafted when the Boston Celtics made him their second-round pick in 1950. On the ninth round, the Washington Capitols took Earl Lloyd. When the 1950-51 season started, Lloyd appeared in his first game on Oct. 31, the day before Cooper made his debut. Several days later, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, who had left the Harlem Globetrotters to join the New York Knicks at age 27, saw his first NBA action. Clifton helped lead the Knicks to the team’s first appearance in the NBA championship series, which they lost to the Rochester Royals in seven games.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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