Moonfixer

"Before a small crowd in a Rochester arena in 1950, future Hall of Famer Earl Lloyd became the first African American to play in a National Basketball Association game. A warm and gracious man, widely loved and respected, Lloyd has lived what he describes as an "incredible journey" and has spent eighty years gathering passionate lessons from that experience." "He was born in Virginia, a state he recalls as "the cradle of segregation," only sixty-two years after the end of the Civil War. In college, where he gained the nickname "Moonfixer," he was twice named to black All-American basketball teams while helping West Virginia State become one of the dominant black college teams of that era. Yet Lloyd and other superb black college players were all but ignored by the mainstream press, and his school was not allowed to play against elite "white" college teams. In 1950, Lloyd was one of the first three African Americans signed to play in the previously all-white NBA, and he was the first to perform in a regular season game. He competed in seven games for the Washington Capitols before the team folded. After serving in the military, Lloyd joined the Syracuse Nationals for six playoff seasons, which included an NBA championship, and eventually retired from the Detroit Pistons in 1960." "Throughout his playing career, he quietly endured the overwhelming slights and exclusions that went with being black in America. Yet he has also lived to see basketball - a demonstration of art, power, and pride - become the black national pastime and to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama. In a series of extraordinary conversations with Sean Kirst, Lloyd reveals his fierce determination to succeed, his frustration with the continued suffering of too many black Americans, and his sincere desire for the nation to achieve lasting equality among its citizens." --Book Jacket.