Tom Meschery

Thomas Nicholas Meschery ( ; born Tomislav Nikolayevich Meshcheryakov; October 26, 1938) is an American former professional basketball player. Born in China, 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. He played in the 1963 NBA All-Star Game, making him the first foreign-born NBA player to be selected as an NBA All-Star. The Warriors not only retired his number 14, but also gave him a unique honor by incorporating the number into the team's logo from 1967 till 1974. Early years Meschery was born as Tomislav Nikolayevich Meshcheryakov in Harbin, Manchukuo. His parents were Russian emigrants who fled from the October Revolution in 1917. The Meschery family was later relocated to a Japanese internment camp near Tokyo during World War II. After the war, Meschery and his parents emigrated to the United States. It was also in this phase of his life where his father renamed the family "Meschery" due to the anti-Communist/anti-Soviet Red Scare under Joseph McCarthy, and Tomislav Nikolayevich was renamed Thomas Nicholas, which later was abbreviated to Tom. Living in San Francisco, California, Meschery attended Lowell High School. After graduating in 1957, he went to Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga. Meschery helped Saint Mary's reach the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight in 1959. Two years later, he was chosen as a First Team All-American, and was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961.