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Townsend honored as alum of year - First Pilipino NBA Basketball Player, Member of 1975 UCLA Basketball National Champions

http://www.insidesocal.com/ucla/2009/05/townsend-honored-...

Townsend honored as alum of year
By Jill Painter on May 1, 2009 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | ShareThis
The UCLA Pilipino Alumni Association is honoring Raymond Townsend (UCLA, 1978) as its distinguished alumnus of the year. Townsend was a member of John Wooden's 1975 national championship team.
Here's more:

UCLA PILIPINO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION TO HONOR RAYMOND TOWNSEND '78 AS DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR


First Pilipino NBA Basketball Player and Member of Coach John Wooden's 1975 UCLA National Champions to be Honored at Annual Scholarship Fundraising Dinner


LOS ANGELES, CA (MARCH 31, 2009) - The Pilipino Alumni Association of the University of California, Los Angeles (PAA of UCLA) will host its 8th Annual Fundraising Benefit, "A Golden Foundation for the Hope of Our Future," on Saturday, May 2, 2009 at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel. Proceeds will benefit the PAA of UCLA Scholarship Endowment, which recognizes outstanding student achievement through annual scholarship awards.

In addition to awarding 12 scholarships to deserving students, PAA will also be honoring distinguished UCLA alumni and community leaders for their outstanding accomplishments and considerable contributions to the community and to the University:

Distinguished Alumni of the Year
Raymond Townsend '78 - First Pilipino NBA Basketball Player, Member of 1975 UCLA Basketball National Champions
A true pioneer among Pilipino athletes, Raymond Townsend played four seasons on the UCLA Basketball team, and was a member of legendary coach John Wooden's 10th and final NCAA championship team in 1975. He went on to become a starting point guard and was named captain during his senior year. Raymond was selected in the first round of the 1978 National Basketball Association Draft. He played for the Golden State Warriors and the Indiana Pacers, becoming the first and only Pilipino American ever to play in the NBA. Raymond is now a youth sports development coordinator in San Jose, California.

Never knew about this guy until I read this article in the Daily News.

Steve
Bruins

yap, raymond townsend is the first filipino to play in the NBA. but because he was a fil-am, he was not recognized as the first asian to play in the NBA.

Who was the first asian to play? Yao Ming? Nah, I think he's the first well known asian to play.

Wang Zhizhi, if I'm not mistaken was the first Asian to play in the NBA. He was then followed by Mengke Batere and then by Yao Ming and Milwaukee's Ji Yinlian (?).

There was also a Korean as well as a Japanese guard.

Last edited by Fridrik at 5/2/2009 8:52:06 AM

There was also a Korean as well as a Japanese guard.

Thanks for this. I just remembered that the first asian to play an NBA game was the Japanese American, Wataru Misaka. He was drafted by the New York Knicks and played 3 games scoring 7 points for them in the 1947-1948 season.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wataru_Misaka

Hopefully, this message is still on the right place in the forums. :D

Wikipedia for the win! :-)

the first asian player to play in the nba was HA from the korea

HA?? stands for?

no. Greedy was right, it was Wataru Misaka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wataru_Misaka