Nikola Jokić, with the ball against Anthony Davis, in the first game of the NBA season, this Tuesday in Denver.David Zalubowski (AP)
The NBA ball got going this Tuesday with a confrontation between last season’s champions, the Denver Nuggets, and the Los Angeles Lakers. The big attraction of the first game of the championship was Nikola Jokić, who was named the best player of the finals last year. Jokić, a Serbian, is one of the 125 foreign players starting the world’s most global league this year. It is a record number that surpasses the 121 of the 2021-2022 season, but which only includes three Spaniards: Usman Garuba, Santi Aldama and Ricky Rubio, the latter having been temporarily removed from the game.
Not only does the NBA have more foreign players than ever before, but some of them are also striving to be the league’s best player or top scorers. This applies not only to Jokić, but also to the star of the Dallas Mavericks, the Slovenian Luka Dončić; the leader of the Milwaukee Bucks, the Greek of Nigerian origin Giannis Antetokounmpo, or the one who was voted best player last week, the Cameroonian nationalized Frenchman (and also American) Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers. This year they will also be joined by the most brilliant rookie of the last two decades, the Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, number 1 in the draft and a great promise for the present and future of the San Antonio Spurs and the NBA.
It is the third consecutive season that squads have at least 120 foreign players and the 10th consecutive season that they have reached 100. All 30 NBA teams have at least one international player. The Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder are the most globalized, with eight foreign players each, followed by the Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs with seven. The Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns, both top title contenders, each have six.
For the 10th year in a row, Canada is the most represented country outside the United States with a record 26 players. France is the second largest foreign country with 14, also a record number. They are followed by Australia (nine players), Serbia (seven), Germany (six), Nigeria and Turkey, the latter two with five players from each country. In total, 40 countries and territories are represented in the various squads, in this case close to the record of 42 achieved in the 2017-2018 season. More than half of the foreign players, 64, come from European countries while 15 are African.
Three foreign players have won the league’s best player title in the last five seasons. Before Embiid (2022-23), both Jokić (2021-22 and 2020-21) and Antetokounmpo (2019-20 and 2018-19) did it in back-to-back seasons. The three have occupied the top three spots on the list for the past two years, displacing American players, among whom Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics has the most options this year.
In the first season rosters there are 15 foreign players who played in the NBA All-Star in one season: Antetokounmpo, Dončić, Embiid, Jokić, Rudy Gobert (Minnesota Timberwolves; France), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder; Canada) , Al Horford (Celtics; Dominican Republic), Kyrie Irving (Mavericks; Australia), Lauri Markkanen (Utah Jazz; Finland), Kristaps Porziņģis (Celtics; Latvia), Domantas Sabonis (Sacramento Kings, Lithuania), Pascal Siakam (Raptors; Cameroon ), Ben Simmons (Brooklyn Nets; Australia), Nikola Vučević (Chicago Bulls; Montenegro) and Andrew Wiggins (Golden State Warriors; Canada).
The Spaniards will have less weight than at any time in recent years. Garuba has signed with the Warriors, but on a dual contract that also allows him to play for their affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors. Ricky Rubio is still on the Cleveland Cavaliers roster but has voluntarily stepped away from the game temporarily to take care of his mental health. Santi Aldama hopes to get more minutes with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Latin American representation was reduced to almost a minimum. The most notable presence is that of Al Horford, the Boston Celtics’ Dominican. And his compatriot Chris Duarte of the Sacramento Kings is the only other Latin American. Argentina and Brazil have lost their last players in the competition.
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