Flashback Friday: Wataru Misaka Drafted by New York Knicks Sixty-Nine Years Ago Today

By Dat Winning

On July 1, 1947, the New York Knicks made Wat Misaka the first non-white player ever taken in the NBA draft, the same year that Jackie Robinson was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Misaka played 3 games for the Knickerbockers, scoring seven points during the 1947–1948 season before being cut from the team. He has long said he did not feel any discrimination during his time in New York, but he wasn’t exactly friends with anyone either. Later, Misaka was offered a spot with the Harlem Globetrotters, which he declined.

Today, sixty-nine years later, fellow Asian American, Jeremy Lin, signed a 3 year, $36M deal with the Brooklyn Nets.