SALT LAKE CITY -- Wataru "Wat" Misaka, the first player of Japanese descent to play in the league that was the predecessor to the NBA, has died. He was 95.
The University of Utah athletic department said in a news release Thursday that Misaka died Wednesday in Salt Lake City. He grew up in Ogden, Utah.
"We are saddened to learn of the passing of Wat Misaka," said Director of Athletics Mark Harlan. "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.