Thomas Nicholas "Tom" Meschery (born October 26, 1938 as Tomislav Nikolayevich Meshcheryakov (Russian: Томислав Николаевич Мещеряков)) is a Russian American former professional basketball player. He was a power forward with a 10 year National Basketball Association career from 1962 to 1971. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors and the Seattle SuperSonics. He led the league in personal fouls in 1962 and played in the 1963 NBA All-...
more
Thomas Nicholas "Tom" Meschery (born October 26, 1938 as Tomislav Nikolayevich Meshcheryakov (Russian: Томислав Николаевич Мещеряков)) is a Russian American former professional basketball player. He was a power forward with a 10 year National Basketball Association career from 1962 to 1971. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors and the Seattle SuperSonics. He led the league in personal fouls in 1962 and played in the 1963 NBA All-Star Game. His jersey, number 14, was retired by the Warriors.
Meschery was born as Tomislav Nikolayevich Meshcheryakov in Harbin, China. His parents were Russian emigrants that 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,...
less
