boutons
01-06-2005, 12:12 AM
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/01/05/sports/05misaka.jpg
Size 7 Sneakers Are Still Hard to Fill
January 5, 2005
By LIZ ROBBINS
More than a half-century after Wataru Misaka became the
first Japanese-American to play professional basketball at
the highest level in the United States, he remains a gentle
reminder of the sport's first steps toward diversity.
Misaka's brief career in New York is now a faded souvenir,
resting in the soles of his size 7 Converse hightops. The
Knicks let him keep the shoes after Ned Irish, the team's
owner, cut Misaka, a 5-foot-7 point guard, after three
regular-season games in 1947.
Although he was a pioneer in the Basketball Association of
America, which became the National Basketball Association
in 1949 (a year before the league admitted its first black
player), Misaka recalls his stint as nothing more and
nothing less than an athletic opportunity.
"I felt about the same with our team as I had all the other
teams I played with," Misaka said about the Knicks in a
recent telephone interview from Salt Lake City. "I never
know that I'm different. I only see what I see, and
everybody else I see looks alike."
After he was waived by the Knicks, who had drafted him out
of the University of Utah, Misaka gathered his belongings
from the Belvedere Hotel, took a train that stopped in
Chicago, turned down an informal invitation to play for the
Harlem Globetrotters and continued on to Utah, where he
finished earning a degree in mechanical engineering.
On Dec. 21, Misaka celebrated his 81st birthday. He was
disappointed to hear that the Phoenix Suns had cut Yuta
Tabuse, a 5-7 point guard, who was the N.B.A.'s first
Japanese-born player, because Misaka had been hoping to
meet Tabuse this month when the Suns play the Jazz in Utah.
Last week Portland signed its second-round pick,
19-year-old Ha Seung Jin, a 7-3 center, who is the first
Korean-born player to be drafted by an N.B.A. team. Of
course, Yao Ming's success in the league has spawned a new
international following and highlighted the growing
international talent pool in basketball.
Misaka appreciates his role as a pioneer, but does not
overplay it. Growing up in Ogden, Utah, playing basketball
or serving in the United States Army in Japan after World
War II, Misaka has always seemed to be on the outside
looking in.
He said he has no regrets or resentments, and he is wistful
about his brief stint with the Knicks.
"I just kind of smile," said Misaka, who is known as Wat.
"Before I went, I said: 'I don't know what's going to come
of it, but if I don't go, I'll always wonder. I've always
got my career to get back to.' "
He laughed. "It was a good thing I did," he said.
Carl
Braun, the Knicks' star forward, was a rookie from Colgate
that season with Misaka. They were roommates during the
team's training camp and on the weekends the players were
given off, Braun took Misaka home with him to Long Island.
They became friends.
"My parents found him to be such a nice person, they were
delighted," Braun said from his home in Stuart, Fla. Misaka
and Braun, 77, were reunited by telephone for the first
time in more than five decades on N.B.A. TV last month.
Afterward, they spoke about one another.
"He was a baby-faced, handsome boy," Misaka recalled. "He
had this shot he developed, two-handed over his head. I
remember him smiling a lot. He was friendly, had a good
disposition. I liked him a lot. He was good to me."
Braun chuckled when recalling their telephone reunion.
"Fifty-seven years later, it's very strange," he said. "Wat
really wasn't around that long at that time. I remember I
was so impressed with him as a person at that time. It was
nice to renew it, even though it was a short acquaintance."
The Knicks drafted Misaka shortly after a memorable
defensive performance in the championship game of the 1947
National Invitation Tournament. He held Ralph Beard of
Kentucky to 1 point, and his six-man Utah team upset
Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp, 49-45, in Madison Square
Garden.
An article in The New York Times on March 25, 1947,
described his impact: "Little Wat Misaka, American born of
Japanese descent, was a 'cute' fellow intercepting passes
and making the night miserable for Kentucky."
Braun remembered that game. "Wat had gotten a tremendous
amount of publicity because of how he played against
Kentucky," he recalled.
Misaka agreed. "When I look back over my career, that
probably was the best game I played over all," he said. "I
was lucky, being in right place. I got a lot of rebounds
and had a few steals."
With the Knicks, however, it did not bounce his way for
long. He was limited by his height and struggled with his
shooting. He scored 7 points in the three games he played.
Irish called Misaka to his office to tell him that he was
being cut.
"I guess at the time I felt like it didn't have to be a
reason," Misaka said. "Being a minority, we learned to live
with that sort of thing without complaining. So that was
not anything new."
The only intolerance Misaka said he experienced from his
Knicks teammates was typical rookie hazing. He does not
think he was cut for racial reasons.
"There were a couple of New Yorkers on the team," he said.
"They were a lot smarter than I gave them credit for, as
far as looking for their own spots on the team. They gave
me information on how to guard certain people that made me
look bad. Before one game, they told me: 'He's the star
player. Don't worry about him going right, he always goes
left.' "
Misaka went left and the star, whose name he could not
recall, went right.
"He was so small to be put in that position to make it into
the pros," Braun said. "He got so much out of what he had,
but to put someone in that size is difficult. You have to
have an exceptional toughness or quickness."
In college, Misaka helped Utah win two championships with
his defensive skills.
The first came in 1944. Although the Utes lost to Kentucky
in the first round of the more prestigious N.I.T., they
were invited at the last minute to the eight-team N.C.A.A.
championship. Utah won the N.C.A.A. crown, and shortly
afterward, Misaka enlisted in the Army. He spent nine
months in Japan during the American occupation.
Being Japanese-American left him feeling oddly displaced.
"Most of the Japanese people viewed us as being different,"
he said.
Misaka's father had emigrated to California in 1902 and
then moved to Utah, where his mother's uncle was farming in
Ogden.
"I was interested in all kinds of sports and basketball was
one of them," Misaka said. "My father was an avid baseball
fan and encouraged me to do whatever I wanted. In school, I
was also captain of the football team, a shortstop, ran
track, played basketball."
Misaka, who worked for the Sperry Corporation as an
engineer, holds season tickets for the University of Utah
basketball games. "I like the playoffs of N.B.A., but
during season there are so many games the players don't
seem to put as much energy or effort into them," he said.
"I'm not a real fan of the N.B.A. I prefer the college
game."
Misaka was featured in 2000 in an exhibit of sports
pioneers in the Japanese-American National Museum in Los
Angeles, where his Knicks sneakers were displayed along
with his Utah jersey and shorts.
"Not the bloomers they wear today," Misaka said, his voice
evoking a time when being different was not yet
fashionable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/05/sports/basketball/05misaka.html?ex=1105988188&ei=1&en=207589382d0d9a2f
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
Size 7 Sneakers Are Still Hard to Fill
January 5, 2005
By LIZ ROBBINS
More than a half-century after Wataru Misaka became the
first Japanese-American to play professional basketball at
the highest level in the United States, he remains a gentle
reminder of the sport's first steps toward diversity.
Misaka's brief career in New York is now a faded souvenir,
resting in the soles of his size 7 Converse hightops. The
Knicks let him keep the shoes after Ned Irish, the team's
owner, cut Misaka, a 5-foot-7 point guard, after three
regular-season games in 1947.
Although he was a pioneer in the Basketball Association of
America, which became the National Basketball Association
in 1949 (a year before the league admitted its first black
player), Misaka recalls his stint as nothing more and
nothing less than an athletic opportunity.
"I felt about the same with our team as I had all the other
teams I played with," Misaka said about the Knicks in a
recent telephone interview from Salt Lake City. "I never
know that I'm different. I only see what I see, and
everybody else I see looks alike."
After he was waived by the Knicks, who had drafted him out
of the University of Utah, Misaka gathered his belongings
from the Belvedere Hotel, took a train that stopped in
Chicago, turned down an informal invitation to play for the
Harlem Globetrotters and continued on to Utah, where he
finished earning a degree in mechanical engineering.
On Dec. 21, Misaka celebrated his 81st birthday. He was
disappointed to hear that the Phoenix Suns had cut Yuta
Tabuse, a 5-7 point guard, who was the N.B.A.'s first
Japanese-born player, because Misaka had been hoping to
meet Tabuse this month when the Suns play the Jazz in Utah.
Last week Portland signed its second-round pick,
19-year-old Ha Seung Jin, a 7-3 center, who is the first
Korean-born player to be drafted by an N.B.A. team. Of
course, Yao Ming's success in the league has spawned a new
international following and highlighted the growing
international talent pool in basketball.
Misaka appreciates his role as a pioneer, but does not
overplay it. Growing up in Ogden, Utah, playing basketball
or serving in the United States Army in Japan after World
War II, Misaka has always seemed to be on the outside
looking in.
He said he has no regrets or resentments, and he is wistful
about his brief stint with the Knicks.
"I just kind of smile," said Misaka, who is known as Wat.
"Before I went, I said: 'I don't know what's going to come
of it, but if I don't go, I'll always wonder. I've always
got my career to get back to.' "
He laughed. "It was a good thing I did," he said.
Carl
Braun, the Knicks' star forward, was a rookie from Colgate
that season with Misaka. They were roommates during the
team's training camp and on the weekends the players were
given off, Braun took Misaka home with him to Long Island.
They became friends.
"My parents found him to be such a nice person, they were
delighted," Braun said from his home in Stuart, Fla. Misaka
and Braun, 77, were reunited by telephone for the first
time in more than five decades on N.B.A. TV last month.
Afterward, they spoke about one another.
"He was a baby-faced, handsome boy," Misaka recalled. "He
had this shot he developed, two-handed over his head. I
remember him smiling a lot. He was friendly, had a good
disposition. I liked him a lot. He was good to me."
Braun chuckled when recalling their telephone reunion.
"Fifty-seven years later, it's very strange," he said. "Wat
really wasn't around that long at that time. I remember I
was so impressed with him as a person at that time. It was
nice to renew it, even though it was a short acquaintance."
The Knicks drafted Misaka shortly after a memorable
defensive performance in the championship game of the 1947
National Invitation Tournament. He held Ralph Beard of
Kentucky to 1 point, and his six-man Utah team upset
Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp, 49-45, in Madison Square
Garden.
An article in The New York Times on March 25, 1947,
described his impact: "Little Wat Misaka, American born of
Japanese descent, was a 'cute' fellow intercepting passes
and making the night miserable for Kentucky."
Braun remembered that game. "Wat had gotten a tremendous
amount of publicity because of how he played against
Kentucky," he recalled.
Misaka agreed. "When I look back over my career, that
probably was the best game I played over all," he said. "I
was lucky, being in right place. I got a lot of rebounds
and had a few steals."
With the Knicks, however, it did not bounce his way for
long. He was limited by his height and struggled with his
shooting. He scored 7 points in the three games he played.
Irish called Misaka to his office to tell him that he was
being cut.
"I guess at the time I felt like it didn't have to be a
reason," Misaka said. "Being a minority, we learned to live
with that sort of thing without complaining. So that was
not anything new."
The only intolerance Misaka said he experienced from his
Knicks teammates was typical rookie hazing. He does not
think he was cut for racial reasons.
"There were a couple of New Yorkers on the team," he said.
"They were a lot smarter than I gave them credit for, as
far as looking for their own spots on the team. They gave
me information on how to guard certain people that made me
look bad. Before one game, they told me: 'He's the star
player. Don't worry about him going right, he always goes
left.' "
Misaka went left and the star, whose name he could not
recall, went right.
"He was so small to be put in that position to make it into
the pros," Braun said. "He got so much out of what he had,
but to put someone in that size is difficult. You have to
have an exceptional toughness or quickness."
In college, Misaka helped Utah win two championships with
his defensive skills.
The first came in 1944. Although the Utes lost to Kentucky
in the first round of the more prestigious N.I.T., they
were invited at the last minute to the eight-team N.C.A.A.
championship. Utah won the N.C.A.A. crown, and shortly
afterward, Misaka enlisted in the Army. He spent nine
months in Japan during the American occupation.
Being Japanese-American left him feeling oddly displaced.
"Most of the Japanese people viewed us as being different,"
he said.
Misaka's father had emigrated to California in 1902 and
then moved to Utah, where his mother's uncle was farming in
Ogden.
"I was interested in all kinds of sports and basketball was
one of them," Misaka said. "My father was an avid baseball
fan and encouraged me to do whatever I wanted. In school, I
was also captain of the football team, a shortstop, ran
track, played basketball."
Misaka, who worked for the Sperry Corporation as an
engineer, holds season tickets for the University of Utah
basketball games. "I like the playoffs of N.B.A., but
during season there are so many games the players don't
seem to put as much energy or effort into them," he said.
"I'm not a real fan of the N.B.A. I prefer the college
game."
Misaka was featured in 2000 in an exhibit of sports
pioneers in the Japanese-American National Museum in Los
Angeles, where his Knicks sneakers were displayed along
with his Utah jersey and shorts.
"Not the bloomers they wear today," Misaka said, his voice
evoking a time when being different was not yet
fashionable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/05/sports/basketball/05misaka.html?ex=1105988188&ei=1&en=207589382d0d9a2f
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company