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Promise to prominence for Asian athletes

By Richard Lapchick
Special to ESPN.com

Thursday, May 18, 2006

It has been almost 60 years since the New York Knicks selected the University of Utah's Wat Misaka in the first round of the 1947 draft, making him the NBA's first player of Asian descent. My dad was the Knicks' coach back then, and liked what he'd seen of the Japanese-American, a 5-foot-7 guard, at Utah. There was no big reaction to Misaka's signing, nor was there much reaction when he was let go only three games into the Knicks' season. He had scored seven points. Three years later, in 1950, ...

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