As the 2022 NBA playoffs draw to a close, let’s take a look at one of the major themes in the league in recent years: the growing prominence of international players. Over the past decade, non-American players have become ubiquitous in the NBA — in some cases dominant. By any measure, we’re at a point where at least a quarter the top 100 players are originally from outside the U.S. That might not seem like a lot to you, but based on how U.S.-centric the history of basketball has been, it’s actually quite remarkable.
When I was a kid growing up in the 1990s, there were a handful of good non-U.S. players and a few great ones. Players like Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigerian), Patrick Ewing (Jamaican-American), and Dikembe Mutombo (Congolese) all had a major presence in the NBA in the 90s.
Then came the 2000s, and a whole new crop of non-U.S. talent took the game by storm, namely Dirk Nowitzki (German), Steve Nash (Canadian), Tony Parker (French), Pau and Marc Gasol (Spanish), Manu Ginobli (Argentinian), Peja Stojakovic (Serbian), and Yao Ming (Chinese). These guys were all fun to watch and helped bring the outside world into the NBA — and the NBA to the outside world — in a way we’d never seen before. Basketball really started to become global for the first time, and it has truly changed the game.