The Book Drop Mic with Jason Wright

Emily Huey: Wat Kept Playing: The Inspiring Story of Wataru Misaka and His Rise to the NBA

• Season 1 • Episode 10

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Emily Huey paid a visit to the Book Drop Mic to introduce her brand new illustrated children's book: Wat Kept Playing: The Inspiring Story of Wataru Misaka and His Rise to the NBA. Learn why Emily chose this particular true story and the impact this unsung hero had on her life. You'll find both the author and her book equally inspiring.

Buy Emily's book:
https://shadowmountain.com/product/wat-kept-playing-the-inspiring-story-of-wataru-misaka-and-his-rise-to-the-nba/

Learn more about Emily's work:
https://emilyhuey.com/

Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com

About the book:
As the child of Japanese immigrants, Wataru “Wat” Misaka often felt like he didn’t fully belong in either Japanese or American culture. He was sometimes excluded, treated differently, and bullied, even though he was born in the United States. As he grew up, however, Wat discovered he had a very special talent for playing basketball. Even at just five foot seven, he was unstoppable.

After leading his high school team to a state championship, Wat played for the Utah Utes and helped the team win the 1944 NCAA championship. Wat kept playing even as Japanese Americans from the West Coast were sent to incarceration camps for the duration of World War II. Then, after two years serving in the United States Army, Wat returned to basketball, leading the University of Utah to Madison Square Garden and winning another national championship. The cheering crowd recognized Wat the way he wanted to be seen—as a person who was both Japanese and American and an amazing basketball player. Talent scouts from the New York Knicks were so impressed, they drafted Wat to their team. Wat’s undeniable talent changed history as he became the first person of color to play in the NBA.

This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.

Speaker 1:

Hello, hello friends, Welcome to the Book Drop Mic brought to you by Inc Vane's, your source for book publicity, promo and pressure releases. This is Jason Wright. How are you? I am really excited about some of the guests coming up over the next few weeks.

Speaker 1:

Okay, first, before I forget, a reminder if you follow my work on social media, if you're on my email list, whatever, you know that Skardakoda is available for pre-order on Amazon. You can do me a huge favor. You can right, Sure you can. You can do me a huge favor and go to Goodreads and mark the titles, Want to read it. Super helpful for the Amazon algorithm and authors appreciate as much pre-book buzz as we can get Re-release buzz, and we'll talk about that in a minute with our guests. Also, by the way, if you're on NetGalley, you can request the title and read it for free. Today I can just approve your request because I will, because you're cool.

Speaker 1:

Okay, for a lot of our guests I don't have an opportunity to read the book first, but I did read today's guest book first. In fact, I read the press release, which was kind of cool. I'm kind of geeked out by that. Actually. That is a first for me to have done a little again pre-release, marketing and press work on a book, to then have the guest on the show. Her book is called you Know what, Emily? I'm going to hand this to you out of great respect for you and the family and the fact that I'm going to butcher the name. Emily Hupe, what is the name of your new book?

Speaker 2:

The book is called what Kept Playing the Inspiring Story of Watarumi Saka and His Rise to the NBA, and thank you for the press release. I really appreciate it Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Folks, this is the coolest story that you probably have not heard. I'm a sports guy, I like the NBA, I've followed the NBA for most of my life and I consider myself a bit of a fan of sports history. This story was really really new to me, and so that's exciting. I love to dive into something that is both new and so unbelievably inspiring, which I believe this is going to prove to be many, many readers. All right, emily, first tell us a little bit about you and why you and this book, because I'm always interested in the marriage between an author and the material. So tell us about Emily.

Speaker 2:

So I am a Japanese-American who lives in Utah and I would not call myself a sports Well, I would not call myself an athlete, let's put it that way. But I happened to know this man that this book's about, watarumi Saka. He was my Well, I thought he was my uncle for years, but it turns out that as I got older I found out that he's actually my uncle's brother, so he's my great aunt's husband's brother and so not related by blood no athletic blood in this body. But I knew who he was and he's just this incredibly wonderful man who was just always no-transcript until I was an adult, that he had actually been this amazing athlete who played in the NBA and all these things broke all these barriers. I didn't know any of that. He never talked about it. He was incredibly humble.

Speaker 2:

But you know, when I got married, I remember my well, even before that, someone else told me his story. And then, when I got married, my husband's father was like, oh, I know his story. You know he had inspired all these people because he's this five foot seven Japanese American living during the time when Japanese Americans were put in these, in prison camps, you know, during World War two, and despite the fact that all that's going on here he is like Winning championships, becoming the first ever person of color to play in the NBA. So kind of an inspiring person and someone I wanted my kids to know about. I got involved.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if we said this, but this is an illustrated children book. But it's important to know and I want to know why why you chose that path. You probably could have mind a full length Bio. So why a children's book? And how? How did you get paired up with your illustrator?

Speaker 2:

Well, so I write for children. I write for teens and children, and so I think that's always my interest. But I think, especially the time when I started writing this book, I had two little boys. I now have three little boys, but at the time I had two little boys who were really into sports. I also have a daughter who's also into sports, but I especially had one son who is very into basketball and he is Shorty, shorty and.

Speaker 2:

I remember after one junior jazz game he came home he'd been over a head shorter than some of the other kids and he was kind of disappointed in how he played that day and I told him the story of this man who I admired and I saw how he reacted to it and I thought, oh, this is a story lots of kids need and that's I think it's always in my mind because of his age at the time that happened. It's always been a children's book in my mind. So yeah, I think it could be an incredible novel to. I think His story I mean you could go outside of what happened in his basketball world as well he's he's a hero in many, in many ways to me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I was chatting with Becky Conley I don't know if you know Becky. She's a writer same publisher believes you and she's Just a brilliant storyteller as well, and she was telling me about her, her upcoming book, hidden yellow stars, and her belief, really deep belief, that the book Shows her that she didn't really choose the story as much as it kind of found her and asked her to be written. And I sort of feel like you had to be the one then to write this, given your relationship with the family. I love that. You thought it was your uncle, that's my favorite part of the story.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, at the time, you know, as a kid, I just knew that he's at these family dinners and he sat at the same table with all the other uncles and aunts and I didn't know.

Speaker 1:

but yeah, now I do my, so my, my take away from the story, both from. You know I haven't read the book and a little bit research for the press release that I wrote Is that you don't Okay. So spoiler alert he did not go on to win an NBA championship or become league MVP five times in a row or when a scoring title none of that. He had a relatively short, well not intended career with New York, right, but I think the message that is so powerful and that I would want my kids and anyone listening and considering the book for your family, or for yourself, for that matter, the message I would want people to take away is that here's the thing I'm gonna go for. This ceiling I'm going to break, and if that's all that happens, that's okay. That's the success.

Speaker 1:

The success is that he is still, I think, number six or seventh shortest player ever to play in the NBA Asian American. He breaks these barriers and that's kind of it. He doesn't go on to have this long, illustrious career and that doesn't matter at all. I'm sure that if he were with us right now, he wouldn't say, well, I was kind of a failure, I kind of burnt out. Right. Here's the goal, here's the finish line. I did this incredible thing. I wanna talk about it in his own humble way. I understand from your telling that he's a very, very humble man. Don't you think there's a message there that it's about setting the goal, identifying, setting, reaching, achieving and then being satisfied with that, and there doesn't have to be more.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, no, and I would say, actually I don't think, probably in his mind that becoming a member of the NBA was like the goal. I think you talk about stories coming to you. I feel like this title is one that just kind of came to me what can't playing? And for him I think it was just I'm gonna keep playing, I'm gonna keep playing, I'm gonna keep doing these things. There's all these things against me, but I'm just going to keep doing it and trying and doing my best.

Speaker 1:

But he had to know he was making history right and naive to that.

Speaker 2:

I think it was. I mean, obviously he played incredibly well. Obviously he accomplished these amazing things, but at the time he became the first player of color in the NBA the same year that Jackie Robinson crossed that line in Major League Baseball. But there wasn't a big hoopla about what he said. I think he said it wasn't a big thing, nobody cared, and so I don't know if he was, like, ever thought that it would be this historically significant moment. In fact, I don't really think it was until kind of the turn of the century. Can you believe we call it the turn of the century now, but the turn of this century that people started acknowledging it, and I think it was 2009, when you know it was really kind of acknowledged in, you know, across the nation that he had been that barrier breaker. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I think, to clarify I think I said first Asian-American he was the first player of color period, right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And at the time it was called the Basketball Association of America, but eventually it became the NBA, so yeah, I think it became the NBA the very next year, didn't it?

Speaker 1:

if I read that right.

Speaker 2:

Boo, I don't have the year with me and I'm afraid to say that Come on, anthony, come on. It was, yeah, it was soon. It was soon after that, but I can't remember the exact year.

Speaker 1:

So how did he spend? He passed away in 2019,. How did he spend those twilight years of his life?

Speaker 2:

You know he continued to play sports his whole life. So you know, actually he was a very good baseball player. I think in high school he played basketball. I think he played baseball and football too, is my understanding and then, after the NBA, he came back and was an engineer for years and years and years well into well past when most people retire and then he also was this really avid bowler and he did that far longer than he actually played basketball. But he just kept going and going with it and you know he just kept playing. You know that idea of he just keep going with the things that you wanna do In those goals, yeah, Love it.

Speaker 1:

So okay, so you are. You're standing in front of 500 elementary school, you know, in some school district somewhere in America, and you've just got 20 seconds to tell them why the book and more importantly what kept playing, why this story matters not then, but today, in this world. We're living in 2024, why do these young people need this story in their lives?

Speaker 2:

What I want them to know is that, no matter what other people think about you and no matter what other people think you should do, you can pursue the things you want to pursue. He's not the typical basketball player in any way not in height, not in race, not in family background, nothing. He challenged all those barriers and became this person he wanted to be. I think that they can do that too. I think every kid can.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. I love that I can see why you write for kiddos and why you feel sort of drawn there. What is next for you? The book releases March 5, although we have heard that it might be a little early for my few folks. You might even see it somewhere, but the official date is March 5 and it's going to blow up and be huge. I have no doubt what comes next.

Speaker 2:

I'm working on another novel. I have YA novel out beneath the wide-silk sky and I'm working on another one of those. And, oh, wrestling with it. Sometimes books are easier than other times and right now I'm wrestling, I know the wrestle.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's a part of that creative process. The books that you wrestle the most tend to be the ones that really resonate with readers and I think they appreciate very much the wrestle. I was talking to an author at BEA Book Expo, america years ago, which I don't think exists anymore, at least not as a traditional trade show convention. But we're in New York and we're chatting and it was the first time we'd met and he had a book that had gone nuts and we were chatting a little bit about kind of that origin story and he said you know, I wrote this thing in like 10 days, like it was the easiest thing I've done. I just sat down and it just there it was. He's like I almost feel guilty at how easy it was and I said maybe don't tell a lot of aspiring writers that story, or even readers for that matter, because they love. I love knowing.

Speaker 1:

You know, I interviewed, uh, uh, steve Wilkinson. Um, folks can catch that interview in a week or two, but he's been working on this book. It's phenomenal and it's a 15 year passion project for him. Um, a nonfiction book on this balance between faith and science that I think people are really gonna love. But 15 years of his life, blood, sweat and tears into this nonfiction title.

Speaker 1:

And so I compare that to my friend at BEA a decade ago. I was saying, yeah, it just kind of fell out of me. And I actually had a friend, um, who writes romance, who for a while we shared the same agent and she went home on Friday from her day job and on the subway in New York city had an idea for a new romance novel and she was already under contract for a different project and she wrote that thing between Friday on the subway heading home and Monday morning and sent it back into her agent and at the time Monday morning is, the doors were opening. So in in two full days and a few hours on the two others, she wrote a full 80,000 word manuscript. Yeah, I can't wrap my head around that.

Speaker 2:

So I love the. I'm so jealous.

Speaker 1:

I know, I know, I know, I know. Well, you know what, with uh, with AI and chat, gpt and all that, no one's going to be writing real books anymore, are they?

Speaker 2:

I don't know, I I got one of those, um, those word trackers on my computer. It tells you how many words you write, and I tend to be someone who writes and then I erase, and write, and erase and it doesn't count if you erase it right. And it told me that I was writing 28 words an hour and I I got rid of that app. I did not want to know anymore.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's hilarious. I, I track, I track my word count um by hour and it, it, can, it can range. Let me tell you a range, and I wish people could see the zoom, because you are, you are a bright, hopeful, happy, joyful person, and every son oh, thank you.

Speaker 2:

That's so nice of you. No, it's true.

Speaker 1:

You look like the kind of person people want to be around, because you make them feel like you know what it's all going to be okay.

Speaker 2:

Well, I do believe that. I do believe, you know, and I think that's something that, um, I really admire about Mr Misaka too. He was the kind of person who made you just, you know, even looking back at some of the hard things that happened to him, he was always, he's always had, a positive outlook, so yeah, Well, that's a great place to wrap.

Speaker 1:

May we all have such a positive outlook as what and Emily. Oh, by the way, we should shout out your illustrator real quick before we go, oh yeah, I love K-King and she is, um, someone that I've never met.

Speaker 2:

I sent her thank you one time, but that's all. That's all. It's someone that the publisher just picked for me. But, man, I'm so grateful for these illustrations that just oh, it's my first time with an illustrated book and it just brings it to another level and it's better than anything you could have thought it would be.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a unique style. I love it. It's very different, I think, than what most folks might be used to seeing, particularly in the contemporary world. You go into Barnes and Noble and you look at the bestselling children's books and this is the most, this will be the most unique, I think, illustrator book that you see. Even just in the cover it has this really cool old school um, I mean, it almost looks like it was drawn in 1947, 48 a month. It's lovely, so shout out to her for her work.

Speaker 2:

I really appreciate it. Yeah, I'm really grateful.

Speaker 1:

Well, we are grateful to have had you on the show. What a fun book. We will put links to you and your good work and this book and your other books, of course, in the show notes. I invite people to follow your work to pick the book up. Thank you again, emily. You're the best. Let's do this with your next book, shall we?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much. We'll tell you.