Wat Misaka - a hero I never knew?

I want to thank Angry Asian Man for pointing out this story. This is actually a pretty personal discovery to me as both of an Asian-American and a fan of basketball.

Quite frankly, one of the reasons I started this blog was to spread awareness, and the urge to spread awareness came about because of my own lack there of. I'll tell you straight up there was probably a point in my life when I was young when I wanted to be in the NBA. And soon after the likes of Wang Zhi Zhi, Mengke Bateer, and Yao Ming entered the NBA. To me- they were the first Asian basketball players ever. I hadn't heard of any big name Asian players in the past. I collected basketball cards and could tell you an entire rookie class from years before I was even born, but I had never known who the real first Asian basketball player was- let alone the first man of color ever drafted in the NBA...

Wat Misaka.

Many of the greatest basketball players have been of African-American decent, a lot of them my heroes, and yet even before they came into the league Wat was drafted. Drafted #1 nontheless AND by my favorite team the New York Knicks! I was shocked. I was stunned. I was dissapointed.

How have I never even heard of this guy? My father, who also was a big basketball fan (yet born after 1947 when Wat was drafted) had never mentioned him either. Could it be the fact that he was only a player for three days before being released? I'm not sure. But he was a big star in college on Utah helping them win a national championship (you have to be pretty good to be drafted first). ***at least most of the time right Michael Oliwakandi? And he is still the first man of color to play in the NBA! That means something!

Wat's story is now being portrayed in a documentary film: Trancending- The Wat Misaka Story

I will do my best from here on out to make people aware that I love basketball and Wat Misaka is someone I look up to. m00g00.