SECTION C


September 1-7, 2010 Pistons’ Lloyd: ‘I’d never


seen anything like Detroit!’ Lloyd: First African American to play in NBA


In the Game By Leland Stein III McClendon


represented many Detroit men


By Leland Stein III We all have been bombarded with a cavalcade


of innuendo, supposition and accusations tossed about concerning the state of education in urban schools thoughout America.


Likewise the overwhelming increase of single


parent households and the fatherless homes have been debated and analyzed. Most of the conclu- sions about the state of education and fatherless homes have merit; however, there are just as many men and women throughout the country on the front line helping to uplift youth.


Men like Keith “Fatdog” McClendon, who re-


cently transitioned to the heavens, have been turn- ing boys to men without any fanfare or monetary concern.


By Leland Stein III I just concluded reading “Moonfixer: The


Basketball Journey of Earl Lloyd.” His auto- biography was released in November 2009.


The narrative highlights Lloyd’s long jour-


ney from a segregated childhood in Jim Crow America, his 42 years in Detroit, to his being selected to the NBA Hall of Fame in 2002.


COMMENTARY I’ve read many sports books about people


like Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Dr Leroy Walker, Spencer Haywood, John McLendon and Willie Horton, to name a few. However, Lloyd’s nar- rative was especially interesting in its pre- sentation of how he negotiated the negative, segregated times he grew up in.


“This is not just a sports book,” Lloyd


told me. “It is a book about the human spirit. If you are not dreaming about the possibilities, you could miss the mes- sage.”


Lloyd, an All-American at West Vir-


ginia State, is a true pioneer in Ameri- can sports lore, even though he did not lead the league in scoring or rebounding during his tenure in the NBA. He played for Washington Capitols, Syracuse Nation- als and Detroit Pistons. What he did do was become an ultimate teammate, superior de- fender and an impressive character guy.


I suppose those aforementioned things are


just a few of the reasons Lloyd has produced a résumé that has a number of noteworthy firsts attached to it. Like being the first Afri- can American to play in an NBA game (1950 with Washington), first Black player to win an NBA title (1955 with the Syracuse), first Black assistant coach in NBA (1968 with the Pis- tons), and the NBA’s first Black bench coach (1971 with Pistons).


Lloyd, who was born in 1928 in Alexandria,


MACKENIZE COACHES Bob Dozier (left) and Keith McClendon.


McClendon was an assistant coach at Detroit


Mackenzie High School for 20 years. Now I know that the head coaches in all sports who command the headlines get paid the most money and get most of the credit and blame for wins and losses. I concur with the order of things.


However, in every nook and cranny in America’s


struggling urban cities, there are men like McClen- don fighting the good fight. This remembrance may be about McClendon; however, it really represents men throughout American who work others’ jobs, get off work and promptly make their way to little league or high school practice fields to impart more than football, baseball or basketball skills to wide- eyed young men and/or women just begging for someone — anyone — to take a real and sincere interest in their lives.


Sure, the head coaches have touched many lives


and many have gone down in sports lore for what they have done with the inner city population they teach. But I guarantee if you look deeper into a suc- cessful coach’s team, he or she will uncover men like McClendon who had more than the back of his boss; he had a sincere love for the kids and the game.


“I never had to worry about any task that I gave


Keith,” said former Mackenzie head coach Bob Dozier. “If I asked him to scout a team he would come back with a report that was unbelievably de- tailed. There was no doubt he built relationships with kids that even I could not reach. He had a love for young people that was real and it showed in how they responded to him.”


Added Thomas Brown, who was an assistant


coach with McClendon: “There was not a better person on this planet than Keith. He was a monster of a football player and a teddy bear off the field. He had a unique, quiet way of demanding respect and discipline from his players.”


It has always bothered me how men like McClen-


don fall so far under the radar. When the discourse moves to the men, Black men in particular, the names of the thousands of McClendons giving of themselves unconditionally do not seem to come up.


I’m not so naive that I do not understand there is


a problem with many urban men and their house- holds; however, all one has to do is go to a local gym, track or field and I’m sure he or she will find thousands of McClendons out here cajoling and de- manding effort from youth that are clamoring for guidance.


At one school I went to, we did a count on how


many of the players came from two-parent house- holds. Out of 50 kids only 15 or so lived in a home with two parents.


I respect and admire men like McClendon, who


worked 9 to 5 and put in another three to six hours every day. He told me, “Stein, you know I have some good kids over here, come see them. Or Stein, this young man has turned his life around.”


Said coach Charley Shannon: “Fatdog was the


complete assistant coach. He was dedicated and that was evident by how he would take the time to listen to the kids’ concerns. That is his real legacy. Sure he was an excellent coach, but you have to serve and he really helped so many kids get on the path for living productive lives.”


There are too many stories that focus on the


plight of Black men in the United States. The dire statistics may all be true, but with thousands of McClendons in inner cities through out America out there fighting the good fight, I’ll place my bet on the McClendons any day, every day.


Leland Stein can be reached at lelstein3@aol. com.


Calvin Johnson scores first quarter touch down. – Andre Smith photos


Rookies Ndamukong Suh and Willie Young.


Virginia, explained in his book many of the realities of his living there: “My parents never had it easy. To be Black in Alexandra in the 1920s, ’30s or ’40s meant that you were treat- ed like you were subhuman. At my high school we had no facilities. One coach coached every sport and we did not even have a bus to take us to games. We rode in the back of friends’ trucks.”


“That’s why when I hear our young people


use the N word it makes me cringe,” Lloyd told me, “because I’ve seen it used in the worst way, by experts. It is like seeing the Confeder- ate flag being flown over American cities. The fact of the matter is millions of families have


been brutalized and torn apart under that flag and what it represented to the ruling gentry.”


Lloyd said his time in Syracuse was not


wrought with overwhelming negative racial experiences because all knew their place. When he got to Detroit it all seemed


in 1958 to


“crystallize” for him. “Sure, D e -


and basketball at UCLA. And you know base- ball was not his best sport. Add in the fact he was told to turn the other cheek and not fight back. That took something special from that man.


“When I came into professional basketball


folks were used to seeing integrated teams at the college level. There was a different men- tality because Jackie had already (paved the road).”


Lloyd noted that he had


much respect for Dave Bing who played for him, Pistons owner Fred Zollner who hired him and allowed him to hire Ray Scott, making them the first all Afri- can-America coaching staff. He also said Dick McGuire was someone he would go to war with.


“He asked me to be his


assistant coach in 1960,” Lloyd recalled. “I remem- ber as we were getting ready for the season and I was contemplating retire- ment, we had to play Phila- delphia and Wilt Chamber-


lain. Man, I looked at him, because I had to check him and that made it that much easier for me to retire and take the assistant coaching


position after the game.” One of the many remem-


brances I like from the book is Lloyd’s recounting how when he became assistant coach he had to


troi t had its restricted areas like ev erywhere in America,” he noted, “but I had never been to a city that had as many Black homeowners and professional people.”


Lloyd wrote in his book that Chuck Cooper,


Nathaniel Clifton and he were all drafted in 1950 and broke the racial barrier and helped integrate the NBA. He noted that it was just the luck of the draw that he was the first to suit up for an NBA game. Still he refuses to look at his good fortune as something special he did.


“I’m no Jackie Robinson,” he said. “When


he broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945 it was a hostile situation. He was a re- naissance man who played baseball, football


wear a suit and tie. “We were playing in San Francisco,”


he said, “and a fan yelled at me, ‘What’s the


matter? Are you injured?’” This antidote is just a sample of the many


things he had to endure. “In a way I understood,” he said. “I had no


predecessors. He could not imagine a black man in a suit actually coaching from the bench. It was just that way.”


Lloyd’s book is about life lessons, the


value of education, family and community footprints and the human spirit faced with daunting social challenges. “A challenge will reveal your character,” he said. “How one responds to pressure will show and dictate what your success level will be.”


Leland Stein can be reached at lelstein3@ aol.com. LIONS VICTORIOUS!


Chris Houston recovers a fumble and scores touch down. For more photos visit www.andresmithphotos/Lions pre-season.


Touch’em All: Tigers Weekly Review


By Michael Niziolek A strong homestand gave the Tigers some


momentum and with three critical games against the division-leading Minnesota Twins looming, they know it’s do or die time.


“We haven’t played well on the road all


year, we’ve got to bring it all together now,” Gerald Laird said. “We have to play well and win seven out of ten or eight out of ten, that’s basically where we’re at. We have to go into Minnesota and win every game.”


Laird said the formula that worked at home


— strong starting pitching, timely hitting — is what the Tigers need to keep doing in order to climb back into the division race with only a month left in the season.


Detroit is home sweet home for Johnny


Damon — The Boston Red Sox claimed Johnny Damon on waivers last week, but the 36-year-old used his partial no-trade clause and killed the deal. Damon played for the Red Sox for four seasons but left as a free agent after the 2005 season.


Boston fans haven’t been kind to the out- fielder on return visits and Damon didn’t feel


jumping into that circus with one month left in the season would be a good idea.


“I didn’t want to leave a place where I’m


very happy and go to a place where I know it’s going to be an absolute (beep!) show,” Damon said. “That’s the bottom line.”


He continued: “It was going to be such a


huge story and for media outlets and every- thing. It wasn’t going to be about the team, the Red Sox. It was going to be about me every single day. I felt like I could have pos- sibly helped them, but you know what? This is where I want to be.”


Damon said the combination of Detroit’s


loyal fans, committed management (and own- ership) along with teammates who wanted him to stay also factored heavily into the de- cision. He’s only on a one-year deal with the Tigers, but is hoping to be back wearing the Old English D next year.


Valverde having month to forget — No


one was more important to the Tigers first- half success than Jose Valverde, but the closer has been struggling mightily over the last month.


“His splitter isn’t darting like it was,” Jim


Leyland said. “It’s just kind of rolling, he’s struggling a little bit.”


Since the end of July he’s only blown one


save, but he isn’t shutting teams down like he was in the first half. From July 30 to Aug. 27 his earned run average went up over a full point and he gave up almost as many runs in those 29 days (8) as he did the rest of the season (9).


Laird agreed with Jim Leyland and said his


strikeout pitch just isn’t there right now. “(The slider) Doesn’t have that bite that it


had early on,” Laird said. That’s increased the number of walks he’s


given up as well. In his last eight appearances he’s given up 11 of them to opposing hitters.


Neither Leyland nor Laird think it’s going


to be a long-term problem. Leyland said it wasn’t injury related and he had confidence that Valverde would be able to work it all out quickly.


Comments? Questions? E-mail Michael Niziolek at mniziolek@ymail.com.


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