The First Non-White NBA Player
By: Daniel Choi
Tags: Sports, Sports History, NBA, History, American History

The First Non-White NBA Player

Wataru Misaka on the right (NBC)

Today, the NBA (National Basketball Association) is a basketball league of diversity, where men of all races are represented and competing. However, in its early days, the league was very monolithic as only white men were permitted to play. The first man to break this norm was Wataru Misaka, who was a Japanese American.

Early Years

Wataru Misaka was born in 1923, to first-generation Japanese American immigrant parents in Utah. Misaka’s father was a barber in the small town of Ogden and his family lived in a small space above his father’s barbershop. Misaka’s childhood was shaken when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Many Japanese Americans were deemed a potential enemy of the state and were forced to give up their lives and put in internment camps. Lucky for Misaka, his family was able to avoid the camp because there were not many Japanese Americans in Utah. However, Misaka faced harsh racism from those around him.

College Years

Misaka was very athletic and despite his height of 5'7", was an excellent basketball player from a young age. He was inspired by the Harlem Globetrotters, which was an all-black performance basketball team. He led his team to the Utah state championship as the starting point guard in his senior year and was offered a scholarship to play basketball for the Weber State University in 1941. He led the team to two straight division championships and transferred to the University of Utah in 1943, where he was the starting point guard after the previous starting guard was injured. There, he aided the team’s 1944 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) championship tournament win, where multiple NBA teams started to take interest in Misaka.

Misaka in Utah (NPR)

After the NCAA title, his academic career came to a halt when he enlisted to serve in the military during World War II. His career in the military was short-lived, due to the war coming to an end on August 15, 1945, with the surrender of Imperial Japan. Misaka returned to school in 1946 and won the division title in 1947, where he was made known to many NBA scouts.

NBA

During this time, the NBA that we know today did not exist. There were two major men’s basketball leagues: the BAA (Basketball Association of America), and the NBL (National Basketball League). The NBA that we know is the product of the merger of the two leagues in 1949 and the merger with the ABA (American Basketball Association) in 1976.

Misaka in New York (The Score)

In 1947, the New York Knicks of the BAA picked Misaka as the first pick in the seventh round of the draft, making Misaka the first non-white player in the league. Misaka came off the bench in a total of three games as a rookie, averaging 2.3 points. He was cut from the team after his third game, which many still speculate to be racially motivated. Although his numbers were subpar, it was not common to cut a rookie player after just three games of limited game time.

He was later offered a spot on the Harlen Globetrotters which he declined to earn an engineering degree at the University of Utah.

Legacy

Misaka at an old age (The Undefeated)

Wataru Misaka was later officially recognized as the first-ever non-white NBA player by the association. He was also inducted in the Utah Sports Hall of Fame, being recognized for his superb performance with the University of Utah. His legacy paved a way for many non-white NBA players in the future, being a pioneer for a people of color in sports. Now the NBA is one of the most diverse sports leagues in the world, with players from more than 38 nationalities as of 2019. Misaka lived a long life and died on November 20, 2019.