On May 24, Nathaniel Sweetwater Clifton was the second African-American player to sign an NBA contract. Earl Lloyd was the first to play in the NBA. Hank DeZonie also played that year. With the emergence of African-American players by the 1960s, the NBA game was stylistically being played faster and above the rim.Many of the league's great players were black.he first non-white player entered the league in 1947. According to racial equality activist Richard Lapchick, the NBA in 2011 was composed of 78 percent black players, 17 percent white players, four percent Latinos (of any race), and one percent Asian.