Meschery, Tom: - TOM MESCHERY is the author of the memoir Caught in the Pivot and four books of poetry: Over the Rim, Nothing We Lose Can Be Replaced, Some Men, Sweat: New and Selected Poems About Sports, and Time Out. Meschery was born Tomislav Nikolaevich Mescheriakov in Harbin, Manchuria. He and his mother and sister spent four years during WWII in a Japanese internment camp in Tokyo. Following the war, the trio were reunited with father and husband in San Francisco where Tom Meschery attended Lowell High School, played on the basketball team and was named an All American Player. He attended Saint Mary's College on a basketball scholarship and earned College All American honors in 1961. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors (now Golden State Warriors). He played NBA basketball for the Golden State Warriors and the Seattle Sonics from 1961-1971. After retiring from the NBA, he earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. He believes he inherited my love of writing from ancestors on his maternal side, The Tolstoy's: Leo, the Novelist, and Alexie, the poet. Meschery was inducted into the State of Nevada's Writers Hall of Fame in 2002. Meschery has traveled extensively through West Africa, coaching basketball and lecturing about American Literature. In retirement, he continues to write poetry and fiction. He lives in California with his wife, artist Melanie Marchant Meschery.