Asian basketball players haven't had a big impact on the NBA until recently, but their influence is growing steadily.
The first Asian player to appear in a pro basketball game is actually an excellent trivia question, since most NBA fans would get it wrong.
1. Wataru Misaka, a Japanese-American from Ogden Utah, was drafted by the New York Knicks in 1947, and played with them for just three games.
The 5'7" guard had previously played for Weber Junior College (now Weber State) and the University of Utah. Misaka (or "Wat" as he was called) led the Utes to championships in the 1944 NCAA tourney as well as the 1947 NIT.
2. Most people had forgotten him, however, by 1999, when the Dallas Mavericks drafted Chinese center Wang Zhizhi, who is the first foreign-born Asian NBA player.
A seven-footer with a decent 255-lb. build, Wang had played with the military's "August 1 Rockets," whom he guided to six straight championships before securing permission to play in the States.
He played two seasons with the Mavs, only getting real playing time in his second season, 2001-2, when he came off the bench in 55 games, averaging a little over 10 minutes a game, scoring 5.6 per, pulling down 2.0 boards, but only 0.3 blocks.
The performance was enough to get him a 3-year deal with the Clippers the following season, but a season and a half of declining numbers led to a swap to the Miami Heat, where he slowly faded into obscurity.
He did enjoy some playoff excitement, as the Mavs advanced to the conference semis both seasons he played with them, and the Heat got just as far in his first season with them.
3. Though Wang was the first Chinese player to be drafted, he was not the first to start an NBA game. That honor goes to Mengke Bateer, a 6'11" 300-lb. center nicknamed "Dinosaur" who signed with the Denver Nuggets in 2002.
The Nuggets had traded away Raef LaFrentz and needed a big man, so Bateer started 10 of the 27 games he appeared in that season, performing well enough for Greg Popovich to trade for him just days after he'd been traded to the Pistons. While with the Spurs, he became the first Chinese player to play for a championship team, although he never appeared in a playoff game for San Antonio.
The next season, he appeared in 7 games for the Raptors then was picked up by the Knicks before the 2004 season, though they waived him before he could appear in a game.
4. Wang, Zhizhi and Bateer had made small contirbutions, but Yao Ming would change everything. Drafted as the first overall pick in 2002 by the Houston Rockets, Yao's impact was immediate, on and off the court.
The Rockets stepped up their Asian marketing, and found themselves flooded with Chinese media and fans. This, on the heels of Ichiro Suzuki's similarly huge splash in MLB in 2001, cemented the idea in sports executives that Asia was an untapped reserve of both marketing dollars and talent.
Yao's size and skills eclipsed Wang's, giving the Rockets their best big man since Hakeem Olajuwon, who retired the season before Yao was drafted.
The 7'6" center was a bit too wiry to excel in his first season, as he had to adjust to the much more physical NBA game. His .498 shooting percentage, 13.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game averages would all be career lows for him. But Yao arrived in 2003, appearing in all 82 games and averaging 17.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, and 1.5 assists per game.
That last category showed the extra dimension Yao brought to the floor. Never a dominant shot blocker, Yao moved and passed like a guard, with fluid moves away from the basket that puzzled defenses and made his teammates better.
Sadly, this would be the last year where Yao was healthy enough to play in 82 games, and the nearly 2700 minutes he played would also be a career high. After missing two games in 2004, a series of lower-body injuries cut short each of his seasons from 2005 to the present.
First, it was osteomyletis in his big toe, requiring surgery midway through the 2005 season. In 2006, he broke his right knee, but did return in March 2007, in time for the playoffs. He made it through the rest of the 2007 calendar year without injury, but ended his season abruptly in February of 2008 with a stress fracture in his right foot.
This past year, he made it through the season largely unscathed, but bad luck would once again strike, as the Rockets—looking like they might finally make it to a title with Yao—lost their big man to a hairline fracture in his right foot two games into a second-round showdown with the Lakers.
Though the injury was expected to heal on its own, it didn't, and now Yao will undergo a series of surgeries that will keep him out the entire 2009-10 season, but hopefully allow him to continue his career without more lower-body problems.
5. Yuta Tabuse, called the "Michael Jordan of Japan" for his popularity there, became the first native Japanese NBA player when he appeared in 4 games for the 2004-5 Phoenix Suns. He only played a total of 17 minutes, scored 7 points, and was later waived. He now plays in the Japan Basketball League.
6. The first Korean player was Ha Seung-jin, a 7'3", 305-lb center drafted by the Portland Trailblazers in the second round of the 2004 draft.
He played two seasons with the Blazers, spending some time with the NBA's developmental league because of his raw game. His size made him appealing, but he could never develop the inside presence required to succeed in the NBA.
The Blazers traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2006 offseason, but he never appeared for them, as they waived him a few months later.
7. Next to Yao, Yi Jianlian has created the greatest excitement of any player coming over from China. Like Yao, he excited scouts because of his combination of size and fluid movement. Standing 7' tall, Yi has the height to dominate inside, but can hit the outside jumper as well.
Yi was initially drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2007, causing some controversy because he'd expressed the desire to play for a playoff-caliber team in a city with a significant Asian population. The Bucks offered neither, and so there was initially talk he'd hold out or demand a trade, but in the end he reported to the Bucks.
He played fairly well for Milwaukee, starting 49 of 62 games and averaging 8.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 0.8 blocks. Whether due to his dissatisfaction with the team or theirs for him, he was traded in the offseason to the New Jersey Nets.
Finally, he'd get the chance to start for a team with playoff aspirations, in an area with a strong Asian population. But he struggled with the Nets, who had their own problems with injuries and inconsistency.
Yi's outside shooting improved, from 29% beyond the arc to 34%, even as his inside shot percentage fell from 42% to 38%. He lacked aggressiveness on the inside, often getting muscled out by smaller players, and struggled getting into the flow with his teammates.
And just as it seemed he was putting it all together, he broke his finger on January 8, an injury he never quite recovered from, as his shooting suffered the rest of the season.
He'll look to rebound next season with a Nets team now without Vince Carter, their best player, but with emerging stars like Brook Lopez and Devin Harris. He faces no significant threat to his playing time, so he should have the right atmosphere to thrive.
8. The last of the Asian stars, and another player who could emerge as a superstar, is the Los Angeles Lakers guard Sun Yue. The 6'9" point guard from China has been called "The Chinese Magic Johnson" for his ability to distribute the ball with flair, though he had little chance to show that last season, his rookie year.
He played his first game on December 8 of last season, but played in all of ten games before getting assigned to the Lakers' D-League team, the D-fenders. He returned for the playoffs, though he didn't appear in a game, traveling with the team and gaining valuable experience for next season.
The Lakers drafted him 40th overall in 2007, so they're likely to give him a chance at some point to really shine. Expect that to be in the 2009-10 season, probably in a more significant reserve role.
Keep reading the Asian-American Sports Examiner to see how these players perform next season!
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