The New York Times has a story about Wataru “Wat” Misaka’s first trip back to Madison Square Garden since the he played three games for the New York Knicks in 1947.

Misaka is the first non-white and first Asian NBA player (the NBA was known as the Basketball Association of America at the time). From the New York Times:

(Misaka) is remembered as the first non-Caucasian player in modern professional basketball, three years before African-Americans were included.

Misaka recalls a few so-called teammates giving him faulty advice to make him look bad on the court, but he seems to accept that a 5-7 guard was at a disadvantage, even in 1947. The Knicks had given him a rare guaranteed contract, worth $4,000, but they cut him, anyway.

(Misaka) was offered a place with the all-black Globetrotters, but he declined. He went home, earned his degree, married and worked as an engineer.

His name and his life are celebrated in a documentary, “Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story.”

He is part of basketball history but also part of American history, having lived through the internment period during World War II and later serving in the United States army in Hiroshima, three months after the atomic bomb was dropped there.

For as much as the United States treasures personal stories that helped to break the color barriers in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, somehow Misaka’s story gets lost in the history books.

Asian Trailblazer

More than fifty years before Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming played in the NBA, Misaka footprints can be barely be seen these days.  It’s a crime that Wat is unknown to even the most fervent of NBA fans.

Not only did he overcome race, but he also overcame height (he was a 5-7 guard), and was the New York Knicks’ first ever draft pick.

The short, Japanese-American, who wore size seven Converses, played in what would become the NBA  in 1949 (a year before the league admitted its first black player), that’s nothing short of amazing.

Previous to going pro, Misaka played for the University of Utah and helped the team defeat Dartmouth in the NIT.

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