Sports
Nathaniel Clifton
1922–1990 · basketball and baseball player
One of the first African American players in the NBA, who closed his basketball career with the Pistons after their move to Detroit, then joined the Negro-league Detroit Stars.
- Born
Little Rock, Arkansas- Died
Chicago, Illinois
aged 67- Birth name
- Clifton Nathaniel
- Also known as
- Sweetwater
- Detroit years
- 1957–1958
- Field
- Sports
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Clifton, known as "Sweetwater" for his love of sweet drinks as a child, had broken the color line with the New York Knicks in 1950 alongside Chuck Cooper and Earl Lloyd. In 1957 the Knicks traded him to the Fort Wayne Pistons in a multi-player deal, just as the franchise relocated to Detroit; he played his final NBA season with the newly arrived Pistons before retiring from basketball. The following summer he returned to another sport he had played professionally, joining the Detroit Stars of the Negro baseball leagues alongside his former Harlem Globetrotters teammate Reece "Goose" Tatum, closing his playing career in the city that had briefly been his basketball home.
Highlights
- Broke the NBA color line with the Knicks in 1950
- Played his final NBA season with the Pistons after their move to Detroit, 1957–58
- Joined the Negro-league Detroit Stars baseball team in 1958