Breaking Basketball’s Barriers
By Jason Kornwitz
(8-4-09) Boston, Mass. - Northeastern University has a unique connection to the first person of color drafted by the Basketball Association of America, a precursor to the NBA.
In 1947, Japanese-American college basketball star Wat Misaka was drafted by former New York Knicks coach Joe Lapchick. Thirty-seven years later, Lapchick’s son, social justice pioneer Richard Lapchick, founded Northeastern’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society, which uses the power and appeal of sport to foster diversity and promote social responsibility.
Richard Lapchick credits his father for influencing his commitment to equality. “My dad had a huge influence on my life and my values,” said Lapchick, who is now Sport in Society’s director emeritus. “Seeing some of the negative response to his signing of Nat Clifton (the first African-American to break the NBA color-barrier) reinforced his—and later—my desire to stand up for justice and not block its path.”
Now a little-known instance of Joe Lapchick’s commitment to justice has been captured on film, in a documentary chronicling Misaka’s ascent to the NBA at a time when anti-Japanese sentiment ran high.
“Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story” will premiere at the Rhode Island International Film Festival in Newport on August 8, cohosted by Northeastern’s center, the film festival, and ReImagined World Entertainment. The documentary features interviews with Wat and his family, teammates, basketball historians and sportscasters who discuss Misaka’s barrier-breaking journey during the end of World War II, when many Japanese were still in internment camps around the country.
To create a fuller educational experience, Sport in Society teamed up with filmmakers Bruce and Christine Johnson to develop a curriculum on Japanese-American history for young people who watch the Misaka documentary. And on the same day as the film’s screening, the center will hold a fundraiser, hoping to attract university alumni and others interested in the intersection of sport and social justice.
“Misaka is one of the unsung heroes of sport,” said Jarrod Chin, director of the violence prevention and diversity program at Sport in Society. “In a lot of ways, he’s basketball’s version of Jackie Robinson. He is a figure for social justice and inclusion.”
Though Misaka’s initial playing days preceded those of “Sweet Water” Clifton and Robinson, the first African-Americans to break the color barrier in the NBA and Major League Baseball, respectively, most have never heard of the 5-foot-7 guard who was so instrumental in the University of Utah’s championship runs in 1944 and 1947.
Now, more than 60 years after he first donned a Knicks jersey (he was cut from the team after playing just three games), Misaka is finally getting some well-deserved recognition.
While the Johnsons did not set out to make a feature film on the hoop hero, the deeper they dug into his basketball career, the more fascinated they became with the Utah native’s tenacious spirit, leadership and basketball prowess. They were surprised to learn, too, that Misaka was conspicuously absent from the Basketball Hall of Fame’s “Diversity in the NBA” showcase.
“As an Asian-American writer and citizen of the world, I have always felt that Asian-American stories are swept under the rug,” Christine Johnson explained. “Part of our goal was to shed light on this important story that has not been given its due.”
It can be easy for some to overlook Misaka’s achievements, she said. “He was an excellent athlete and I think because he didn’t play for the Knicks for very long, people are quick to dismiss him. But, it remains that he was the first person of color to be drafted by the NBA in a time when Japanese-American’s were experiencing tremendous amounts of prejudice even after World War II.”
Misaka, himself, who fell victim to racial slurs and taunts from the opposition’s fans (“I kind of assumed that’s just part of the razzing you get from your rivals”), speaks modestly of his triumph, downplaying his role in breaking sports’ color barrier. “I didn’t think there was that much of an impact,” he said, “but some may have felt that there was.”
He has not been shy, though, about touting his on-court play. The speedy guard famously shut down college basketball’s greatest offensive threat during the 1947 NIT championship game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Madison Square Garden, holding Ralph Beard, the All-American “Player of the Year,” to just one point.
“The team seemed to play better when I was in the line-up,” he recalled. “I felt like I played with a lot of energy and it was kind of contagious and carried over to the rest of the team.”
For information about the Rhode Island International Film Festival, visit www.film-festival.org