Tom Meschery

Thomas Nicholas Meschery is an American former professional basketball player. Born in China to parents who had fled Russia, he spent his childhood in a Japanese internment camp during World War II before he moved to the United States with his family in 1946. Meschery was a power forward with a 10-year National Basketball Association career from 1961 to 1971. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors and the Seattle SuperSonics. Meschery played in the 1963 NBA All-Star Game as the first foreign-born NBA All-Star. After his playing retirement, he worked as a basketball coach and then a high school teacher. Meschery has written poetry, memoirs and novels.