Earl Lloyd is among the players born on April 3.
With over 5,000 players in NBA history, at least one player was born on every day of the calendar year – including four Leap Day ballers. Our day-by-day breakdown of the players born on each day of the year continues.
Below is the most notable NBA player born on April 3.
Earl Lloyd (1928)
Lloyd is one of the most influential players in NBA history. “Big Cat” was the first African American to play in the NBA after being drafted with the No. 101 pick in the 1950 NBA Draft. He spent his first season with the Washington Capitols and then took a year off for military service, missing the entirety of the 1951-52 campaign. Lloyd came back and joined the Syracuse Nationals in 1952-53, playing the next six seasons there.
Lloyd closed his career by playing for the Detroit Pistons from 1958-60 before officially retiring at age 31. “The Squirrel” averaged 8.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists throughout his nine-year career. He was also a key piece of the 1955 Syracuse team that won a title, and he was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003 as a contributor for his civil rights service. Lloyd was one of three African-Americans selected in that 1950 draft, but the first to take the floor.
Want to see every NBA player born on April 3? Here is the rest of the list in chronological order:
- Phil Farbman (1924)
- Early Lloyd (1928)
- John Windsor (1940)
- Roger Schurig (1942)
- McCoy McLemore (1942)
- Charles Jones (1957)
- Pervis Ellison (1967)
- LaBradford Smith (1969)
- Logan Vander Velden (1971)
- Marcus Brown (1974)
- Thomas Hamilton (1975)
- Michael Olowokandi (1975)
- Keith Closs (1976)
- DeShawn Stevenson (1981)
- Hollis Thompson (1981)
- Frank Mason III (1994)
- Derrick Walton (1995)
- Jarred Vanderbilt (1999)
