Wat Misaka, 1st person of color to play in precursor to NBA, dead at 95

Wataru "Wat" Misaka, the first non-white player to appear in the league which became the NBA, died Wednesday in Salt Lake City at the age of 95, according to his alma mater.

"We are saddened to learn of the passing of Wat Misaka," Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said in a statement. "He was a part of the Utah teams that won national championships in the 1940s, but Wat was bigger than the game of basketball, blazing trails into places nobody of his descent had gone before."

Born Dec. 21, 1923, the lifelong Utah native was a staple for the local collegiate programs, playing two seasons at Weber State before transferring to Utah and helping the team win championships in the 1944 NCAA Tournament and 1947 National Invitational Tournament.

According to a 2019 profile by Gillian Brockell for The Washington Post, Misaka's family lived outside of the West Coast resettlement zone, meaning that unlike many Americans of Japanese descent, his family was not sent to internment camps during World War II. In fact, Misaka was drafted into the U.S. military following his first season with Utah. He spent two years serving in the army, where he rose to the rank of staff sergeant.

After impressing at the college level, Misaka continued to make history. Several months after Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier, Misaka became the first person of color to appear in the Basketball Association of America, being drafted by the New York Knicks ahead of the 1947-48 season.

Billed at the time as a "sensational defensive player" according to The New York Times' Richard Goldstein, Misaka's 5-foot-7 frame proved too slight at the professional level. The Knicks waived him after three appearances.

In his lone professional season, the scrappy guard scored seven total points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field and made one free throw.

In 1949, the BAA would merge with the National Basketball League to form the National Basketball Association, cementing Misaka's status as a pioneer in the world's top professional league. It wasn't until 1950 that the first African-American players - Nat Clifton, Earl Lloyd, and recent Hall of Fame inductee Chuck Cooper - appeared in the NBA.

In December 2018, Misaka visited with the Golden State Warriors, leaving an impression on several of the NBA's modern-day stars.

"I think it's necessary that you know the history and respect the people that came before you and paved the way for you," then-Warriors forward Kevin Durant said of meeting Misaka. "Any chance you get to be around greatness, which is longevity like that, somebody that has been around the game for so long ... you just like seeing that presence around, especially when you're going out there to work."