Kawhi Leonard – along with teammate Tony Parker, fellow NBA player Carmelo Anthony, and former NBA player Michael Finley – is co-producing a documentary about Earl Lloyd, the NBA’s first African-American player. The documentary is titled “The First To Do It” and is scheduled to premiere at the start of the 2017-18 NBA season. Leonard spoke about it with Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated:
“The guy was like 22 years old when he was the first African-American basketball player,” Leonard told The Undefeated. “He was a guy who paved the way for us on and off the court. He was loved by fans and other races while he’s playing, then walks off the court and gets treated a different way just because he didn’t have the same skin color. I learned from his experiences and take them into my everyday life.”
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“About two or three years ago I wanted to check out who was the first African-American basketball player,” Leonard said. “I just searched it on the internet and I came up with Earl Lloyd. I didn’t want to read too much on him. I just wanted to figure out the answer. Two years later, I hear from people that are going to do this documentary. …
“[The Lloyd] story was very informative. It just makes you love your job even more just the way society is today.”
Executive producer Arka Sengupta told Spears that the addition of Leonard to the team has been “huge.”
