The Japanese-American we don’t know about – was taken in the first round of the NBA draft 21 years ago – Rex Walters

 

In the 1993 NBA draft, Rex Walters was drafted 16th overall.

Rex Andrew Walters (born March 12, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player and current men’s basketball coach at the University of San Francisco. Walters played college basketball at Northwestern University and the University of Kansas and played professionally for ten years, including seven seasons in the NBA, from 1993 to 2003.

In an interview with Rick Quan, Rex Walters responded to the question of feeling that he was a pioneer for Asian-Americans. He responded – “I consider myself Japanese-American. I just don’t look it. People are always surprised. Now we got a guy like Jeremy Lin breaking barriers, I’d like to think I played a small part in that”. He later added, “People ask me who I am? What I am? I am a Japanese-American, I take great pride in that.”

See the interview:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4b0nLia7c0&w=560&h=315]