“He’s got the speed and he’s going through a hot streak in shooting,” Misaka said. “When they pick him up, he passes to his teammates. They’re buying into his philosophy.”

Can Lin keep it up? “That’s the $64 question,” Misaka said.

Wat Misaka never got to answer that question. He was kept under wraps at the University of Utah during the war, being taken off the bench to avoid inflaming wartime crowds. In one game at Madison Square Garden, Misaka so befuddled Ralph Beard, the Kentucky all-American, that Adolph Rupp had to sit Beard down. In 1947, Utah beat Kentucky to win the National Invitation Tournament, which was bigger than the N.C.A.A. tournament in those days.

“When we won the N.I.T., it was like being world champions,” Misaka said Monday night.

In 2009, Bruce Alan Johnson and Christine Toy Johnson, married filmmakers from New York, issued a documentary about Misaka, including images of Utah players running the weave offense and leaving opponents stumbling in their wake.

“We didn’t have the pick-and-roll like Lin does,” Misaka said. “He makes it happen. They would have called a foul for setting a pick like that. Now it’s legal.”

The documentary concentrated on Misaka’s struggles as an American citizen during World War II, and raised the question of whether Misaka had a fair chance with the Knicks. Misaka recalled the Knicks trimmed the squad to 12, and he thought he had the team made, but after 3 games, 7 points and no assists, he was cut so they could pick up a taller player.

When prodded about the possibility that some teams in the young N.B.A. did not want a Japanese-American player so soon after World War II, he has maintained that his demotion had more to do with his modest size.