How Does the International Boom Effect NCAA and High School Basketball? (featuring Fran Frashcilla)
Not all paths to the NBA for foreign-born players are replicable — not everyone is Luka Dončić.
Dončić left his home country of Slovenia at 13-years-old for Real Madrid. He was simply too big, too skilled, too dominant to stay put. In a rare move most commonly seen in top level international soccer, Real Madrid’s basketball organization signed Dončić to their youth development program. At 16, he debuted for the professional team, making him the youngest in club history. Just two years later he led Real Madrid to the EuroLeague title, winning regular season MVP and final four MVP. And how could you forget that a year earlier, at 17-years-old, Dončić led Slovenia, along with veteran NBA point guard Goran Dragić, to the country’s first ever EuroBasket title. Simply put, the writing was on the wall.
In 2018, at 19-years-old, Dončić was taken third in the NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks on his way to winning Rookie of the Year. When the 2019–2020 season resumes, Dončić will likely finish top five in MVP voting.
While replicating Dončić’s path to the NBA may prove nearly impossible, many international players do take a similar route to the league through European professional basketball. “The EuroLeague is the best teams in Europe from various countries, that when they are not in their domestic league on the weekend, are playing against each other during the week,” said Fraschilla, former NCAA basketball head coach at several division I programs, and current ESPN NBA draft analyst specializing in international talent current. “That’s the second best league in the world… it is like Triple-A baseball compared to the MLB.”
Even in recent history, NBA organizations were skeptical of the transferability of talent from abroad to the NBA. Too many high draft picks with international success proved to be busts in the league (Darko Miličić, Ricky Rubio, Andrea Bargnani), while relatively unknown European players drafted late in the draft (Manu Ginóbili, Tony Parker), or not drafted at all (J.J. Barea, José Calderón), were making meaningful impacts.
Interestingly, many experts have recently made comparisons between Ricky Rubio’s expected success, and Luka Dončić’s actual success ten years later. Whether the quality of play in the EuroLeague was weaker at the time, or whether international scouting had not yet reached today’s level is up for debate. There is also a legitimate possibility that the run of draft busts was a bit of a fluke.
Today, that sentiment is fading. “It’s now proven that very good young players having success in the EuroLeague will translate to the NBA,” said Fraschilla. “Dončić was the MVP of the EuroLeague at 18, which is unheard of — it’s impossible to fathom. That’s a good indication that you’re going to have success in the NBA, but it’s turned out that he is having way more success than anyone could have realized.” Hints of the old-school sentiment are still evident in that two teams passed on Dončić in the draft.
For players without the acumen of a Dončić in the EuroLeague, there are still plenty of paths to reach the NBA. Giannis Antetokounmpo was an incredibly raw 19-year-old with mediocre production, still playing for his hometown professional team in Athens, Greece — Filathlitikos. At times, he didn’t even play for the “A” team. Regardless, his unteachable combination of size, strength, athleticism, and age convinced the Milwaukee Bucks he was worth the risk as the 15th pick in the 2013 NBA draft.
Stories like these only further inspire NBA organizations to enhance their international scouting focus to find the next diamond in the rough. For every Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Dončić, however, there are many foreign-born players taking the traditional “American” path to the NBA — through the NCAA.
Interestingly, as we continue to see more and more elite level US-born talent opt to forgo NCAA basketball for either the NBA’s developmental league — the G-League — or for one year stays at overseas professional teams, this is not the case for many foreign-born prospects. “For a family to be able to send a son or daughter to the United States to attend a university on a scholarship and play basketball is a very, very, very big deal because they value that education and academics as much or more than we actually value it here,” said Fraschilla.
Pascal Siakam, the 2018–2019 NBA Most Improved Player and NBA Champion, started in the Basketball Without Borders program. (MORE ON THAT HERE: LINKED TO OTHER BLOG) Born in Cameroon, Siakam’s potential for exposure was slim, but there within lies the value of BWB. After being discovered by African-native NBAer Luc Mbah a Moute, Siakam was invited to the camp. Here he turned heads for his athleticism, relentless motor, and rapid development. Under the wing of Mbah a Moute and the advice of NBA executives at the camp, Siakam followed his three older brothers to the US, where they had already played Division I basketball on various scholarships.
Siakam enrolled at a preparatory school in Texas where he began to refine his game. He would eventually receive a scholarship from New Mexico State on his way to becoming the 27th pick in the 2016 draft by the Toronto Raptors. The President of Basketball Operations for the Toronto Raptors, Masai Ujiri, was one of the NBA executives at that BWB camp.
With that, US preparatory high schools, and division I programs across the nation, are starting to look for the next big international talent as well. Joel Embiid came to the US at 16-years-old to join perennial high school powerhouse Monteverde Academy, before joining perennial college powerhouse Kansas on a full scholarship. After one year at Kansas, Embiid was the third pick in the _______ NBA draft. Not every story ends as happily, but worst case scenario these international prospects are getting a free education in the US, like Siakam’s three older brothers.
Admittedly, choosing where to best launch your attack toward an NBA career can be tricky. Fraschilla rates the EuroLeague — and most of the domestic European leagues that make up the EuroLeague — in addition to Australia/New Zealand’s NBL (National Basketball League) as better than the NCAA in terms of overall level of play. Which leagues are better launching pads to the NBA is up for debate, primarily because many pathways are still largely untested.
In this year’s upcoming NBA Draft, we may see both LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton drafted in the lottery. Both American-born players forwent the NCAA to play in the NBL where they made $500,000 playing against true professionals. LaMelo Ball, along with the celebrity of the Ball family, recently purchased his NBL team, the Illawarra Hawks. Many believe the team figures to become a breeding ground for American-born talent looking to profit off their play before gaining eligibility to join the NBA draft the following year.
As Fran Fraschilla put it best, “the basketball world is shrinking.”
