they left out that he was 1 of 3 black players who joined the league at the same time and was only first because his team was scheduled to play before the other 2.
i am not sure what point you are making here. please explain.
Don't want to speak for him but I think the idea is this isn't really a Jackie Robinson situation where one guy goes it alone with the weight of representing his entire race in a largely hostile environment. This is a guy who was "first" simply by a quirk of scheduling, so maybe he shouldn't be singled out as if he was a Robinson-style trailblazer.
At a minimum, instead of just honoring Lloyd, maybe they could honor all 3, since they basically did it together.
There's an article on NBA.com called: "Six Who Paved the Way"Harry Lew - basketball's version of Moses Fleetwood Walker or William Edward White to Jackie Robinson, breaking the color barrier years before it was a recognized thing in 1902.
Then you actually have five guys in 1950:
Chuck Cooper - 1st to be drafted, 2nd to play in a game
Harold Hunter - 1st to sign a contract, cut in training camp
Earl Lloyd – 1st to play in a game
Nat Clifton - 1st to play in Finals, 2nd to sign a contract, 3rd to play in a game
Hank DeZonie - the forgotten fourth to play in a game, quit in frustration, "The coach didn't know basketball, and I couldn't bother with segregation."
At the end, the article sums it up nicely:
Unlike Jackie Robinson before them, these five NBA pioneers could lean on each other. The mere presence of the others meant that no individual player suffered the brunt of the racism, as had been the case for Robinson who was easily singled out everywhere he went. However, these men had to endure the same on- and off-court segregation laws, the racial slurs, and the discrimination that Robinson endured. Like Robinson, these men paved the way for today’s players and are the reason that the best athletes in the world now play in the NBA.