Washington Wizards rookie Rui Hachimura made waves this summer after becoming the first Japanese-born player to be drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft, but he wasn’t the first person of Japanese descent to play in the league — a mark he missed by more than a half-century.
That honor falls to Wataru “Wat” Misaka, who was not only the first player of an Asian background to play in what would become the NBA, but the first player of color to grace the hardwood for any team.
The two players crossed paths in Salt Lake City, Utah briefly in March 2019, before Hachimura’s Gonzaga squad dispatched their first-round matchup with Fairleigh-Dickinson, and before Misaka’s passing earlier this week.
Despite the pioneer’s relative fame in nearby Ogden, Utah and their shared heritage, the future Wizard knew little of “Kilowatt”, as Misaka was sometimes called in his playing career.
What moment.
Rui Hachimura just met the first non-white and first player of Asian descent, Wat Misaka after shootaround. 96 years old. @ZagMBB pic.twitter.com/2DKrhcyqH2
— Alyssa Charlston (@Alyssacharlston) March 20, 2019
“Honestly, actually in Japan we don’t talk about him that much. I think people should know more about him,” Hachimura said (via the Standard-Examiner’s Patrick Carr).
“It looks like he’s got all the tools,” Misaka said of his time-distant counterpart (via the Spokesman-Review’s Jim Meehan). “It’s exciting and I’m really wishing him all the luck in the world. He seems such a nice person besides being such a good athlete.”
Misaka played for the New York Knicks in the 1947-48 season back when the NBA was still known as the Basketball Association of America (BAA), having previously played in the NCAA ranks for the Utah Utes in 1944 and 1947, winning an NCAA title in 1944, serving in the US Military’s post-World War II occupation of Japan in the interim.
The former Ute would land himself in the NBA by virtue of a strong performance in the 1947 National Invitation Tournament title game, and would later be drafted by the Knicks (for whom he played a mere three games) in the 1947 BAA Draft, breaking the sport’s color barrier in the same year Jackie Robinson did so in baseball.
RIP to Wat Misaka.
As thousands of Japanese-Americans were stripped of their freedom during World War II, he helped break down basketball's racial barriers first in the college ranks and then as the only non-white player to suit up in the BAA.https://t.co/GO2olSy3le pic.twitter.com/0VBbxDvb5J
— Pro Hoops History (@ProHoopsHistory) November 22, 2019
Despite the short career he had with New York, Misaka never believed he was discriminated against by teammates (though he recalled being given bad advice on purpose from teammates who were competing for final roster slots with him, per the New York Times’ Liz Robbins), but hedged when pressed as to whether he thought race might have been a factor in being cut.
“I guess at the time I felt like it didn’t have to be a reason,” Misaka explained. “Being a minority, we learned to live with that sort of thing without complaining. So that was not anything new.”
If anything, much like today, the bulk of discrimination the briefly-tenured Knick experience came from the general public more than anywhere else.
“I wouldn’t go into a nice restaurant without my teammates,” he said (via the Ottawa Citizen’s Bryan Meler). “[or] go out much at all. It was just basketball, eat, sleep.… The New York fans were probably better than the fans back home. But I still heard a few yell, ‘Jap, go home.’ And they weren’t talking about Utah.”
Misaka’s stature was likely a factor behind his being cut by New York, as he stood only 5-foot-7, diminutive even in those formative years.
Using words that could very well be used to describe a number of college stars who never made the leap to the NBA in the seven decades since, Hall of Fame teammate and friend Carl Braun related, “He was so small to be put in that position to make it into the pros … to put someone in that size is difficult. You have to have an exceptional toughness or quickness.”
So ended Misaka’s brief playing career, as the NIT finalist would decline to join the Harlem Globetrotters, returning to Utah, where he’d earn a degree in engineering. “The salary for a rookie and the salary for starting engineer weren’t much different,” he explained (courtesy of Sports Illustrated’s John Wertheim). “So I was fine. History has a way of smoothing things out.”
Wat rarely spoke of his time as an NBA player even with his own family — his daughter did not learn of it herself until she was in college; “I didn’t want to put pressure on my children when they were growing up,” he offered, instead channeling his love for the game into steadfast attendance of Jazz and Utes games, and supporting Asian-American players through the decades.
Really cool watching Wataru Misaka the first non-white and person of Asian decent to play in the NBA, meet @rui_8mura for the first time. Misaka says Rui has all the tools to make it. #GoZags #kxly pic.twitter.com/ZJKz9BlW4k
— Keith Osso (@OssoKXLY) March 20, 2019
One of those players was Hachimura, who was lucky enough to meet Misaka in the final months of his 95-year life just as he was about to embark on his own pro career, already considerably longer than the Ogden legend’s brief stay in the league was.
“He was nice, he was very honored … he gave me a picture that showed me when he was playing in the NBA. It was very cool,” offered Hachimura, who stands at a much more robust 6-foot-8 and appears poised to have a long career ahead of him, unlike his modest predecessor.
“I was never that good to make more than anybody else. I wanted to be good, even if I was Japanese,” Misaka explained via NBC’s Doha Madani. “It made you feel good if you’re good. I never had any idea that I wanted to be the first Japanese player to win an NIT trophy or anything like that.”
But, his excellence helped pave the path for players like Rui, Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming (among others) to forge a path to even bigger achievements for Asian and Asian American players in the NBA today. Despite his modesty, stature, and brief time in the league, his role in their careers will not go unnoticed.
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