He attended segregated schools until he enrolled at West Virginia State, where he starred on outstanding basketball teams.
He was quickly accepted by his white teammates, many of whom were from northern cities and had already played with African-Americans in high school and college.
He was one of the first three African-American players in the NBA. (The others were Chuck Cooper and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton.) Lloyd was the first of the three to take the court in 1950, when the Washington Capitols opened the season against the Rochester Royals. (Cooper made his debut the next night, followed a few days later by Clifton.).
He was often denied a room in hotels, and he faced frequent abuse from spectators, even in Washington, which was still a segregated city in 1950. A lifelong jazz fan, he found solace on the road in jazz clubs, where race was not an issue.
He played only seven games with the Capitols before being drafted into the Army. He returned to the NBA in 1952 with the Syracuse Nationals, the franchise that eventually became the Philadelphia 76ers.