Record 125 international players on NBA rosters
On the twenty-fourth of October in the year 2023, at five twenty-four in the afternoon.
According to the NBA, an unprecedented number of 125 individuals born outside of America will grace the opening-night rosters this year. The impressive figure boasts representation from 40 countries and territories spanning across six continents.
The NBA will start their new season on Tuesday, and for the 10th consecutive year, there will be over 100 international players on the opening night rosters. Every single one of the 30 teams in the league will have at least a single player who was born outside the United States.
The former highest number of foreign players was 121, which was achieved during the commencement of the 2017-2018 season and reoccurred at the start of the 2021-2022 season.
Canada has once again topped the list of foreign countries represented in the latest statistics, with a staggering 26 talented players. This puts them in a league of their own, ahead of all other nations outside of the United States.
In terms of the number of players in the NBA from different countries, France ranks second with a total of 14. One of their players is Victor Wembanyama, a rookie from the San Antonio Spurs who was chosen as the No. 1 pick in this year's draft and considered one of the most promising prospects to ever enter the league. Fans are eagerly anticipating his first game in the regular season, which will happen on Wednesday when the Spurs face off against the Dallas Mavericks.
In total, there were 64 players from Europe who participated, and one of those outstanding players is Nikola Jokic from Serbia, who has won the league's MVP award twice and is aiming to lead his team, the Denver Nuggets, to a repeat championship victory.
The Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder have an equal number of eight international players on their respective teams. The Toronto Raptors and the Spurs are tied with seven international players each, while the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns have six international players each.
In the last five years, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) honors in basketball have been awarded to players from different countries. Those players are Joel Embiid, who hails from Cameroon and won the award for the 2022-23 season, Jokic from Serbia who won it for the 2021-22 and 2020-21 seasons, as well as Giannis Antetokounmpo from Greece who won it for the 2019-20 and 2018-19 seasons.
This report was created with data sourced from Reuters.
