The last ones 7 MVP titles of the NBA (the best basketball players of the season) were won by athletes born outside the United States. Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece, x2), Nikola Jokić (Serbia, x3), Joel Embiid (Cameroon) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), have become the standout athletes of the most famous and influential basketball league in the world. This curious trend demonstrates how a sport born 134 years ago in the United States and deeply rooted in the culture of this country has become a global sport with leading athletes from all over the world. Until the 80s and 90s it was unthinkable, foreign athletes in the NBA were around 15/20 each season, in 2025/26 there will be 135 – a historical record – with 71 Europeans and 55 players born in Africa or with an African parent.
The most iconic and legendary faces like LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are still active and made in USAbut today alongside them there are international superstars like the Slovenian Luka Dončić and French Victor Wembanyamaconsidered the present and future of the game. This transformation is the result of an exponential growth that began decades ago and has made this sport a global phenomenon. The story continues with the new NBA season, which started tonight, in which we will be able to see these international talents.
The international growth of basketball in numbers: from 1980 to today
The game of basketball was born way back in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts, when physical education teacher James Naismith was tasked with inventing a new indoor sport that was less dangerous than football and could keep students active during the harsh winter months. His idea of throwing a football into a peach basket was successful and spread quickly.
This popularity led to the birth of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which in 1949 merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to create the National Basketball Association (NBA) that we know today. For decades, until the early 1980s, the league was dominated by American players. The foreigners were very rare exceptionsoften fewer than ten per season.
In season only 2025-26well 135 players born outside the USA (a new record) from 43 Villages Of 6 continents are present in the initial teams. Also this year, Canada leads the ranking with 23 players, followed by France 19 and Australia 13. Then there are nations represented by a single athletesuch as Italy with Simone Fontecchio, Bosnia Herzegovina, China, Mali, Portugal and the Netherlands. In the season that has just begun, there are 71 European players And 55 born in Africa or with an African parent.
The first ever international player was Hank Biasattiborn in Italy and raised in Canada, who played in the BAA way back in 1946. The first wave of European players arrived in the mid to late 1980s with the German Detlef Schrempfthe Soviet Šarūnas Marčiulionis and Dutch Rik Smits who demonstrated that they could compete overseas and could carve out important roles in their teams. The 92′ Barcelona Olympics marked a watershed: the undisputed success of the USA Dream Team, of the legends Micheal Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird was a global phenomenon that inspired an entire generation of talents.
In the 1990s the first European superstars arrived: the late Dražen Petrović (Yugoslavia), Vlade Divac (Yugoslavia), Toni Kukoč (Croatia), Arvydas Sabonis (Lithuania).
Where NBA champions are born in the world: the players’ map
Today’s NBA draws talent from every corner of the planet: 6 continents and beyond 90 nations several have seen at least one of their players tread the American parquet. The history of the league is dotted not only with European or Canadian stars, but also with pioneers from countries with less basketball tradition, such as Angola, Cape Verde, Iran, Iceland, Luxembourg or Taiwan.
After the United States (with 4377 players in history), the most represented country is the neighbor Canadawith 57 athletes. This is followed by nations that have become true “hotbeds” of NBA talent, such as France (42), theAustralia (32), the Germany (30) and the Serbia (26). Europe, as a whole, has made a huge contribution to the league. The interactive map below shows all the countries that have produced at least one player in NBA history – the United States in dark blue is off the charts with its 4377 athletes.
Even theItaly contributed to this story, bringing it overseas 12 professionals, including well-known names such as Danilo Gallinari, Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli, Gigi Datome, Simone Fontecchio, Nico Mannion, Stefano Rusconi, Vincenzo Esposito and Nicolò Melli.
The NBA speaks foreign: when the best are no longer Americans
The most obvious sign of how the NBA has become a global phenomenon is the recent international domination of the MVP award: in the last few seven yearsthe title of best player of the season went to players born outside the United States.
In the history of the league, out of a total of 70 MVP awards awarded, the vast majority (59) went to US players. Here is the list of 7 non-American players who won the regular season MVP:
- Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria) – Houston Rockets 1994
- Steve Nash (Canada) – Phoenix Suns 2005, 2006
- Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) – Dallas Mavericks 2007
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) – Milwaukee Bucks 2019, 2020
- Nikola Jokić (Serbia) – Denver Nuggets 2021, 2022, 2024
- Joel Embiid (Cameroon) – Philadelphia 76ers 2023
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) – Oklahoma City Thunder 2025
The future seems to lean even more towards the rest of the world. Players like Luka Dončić (Slovenia), Victor Wembanyama (France) e Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania) are already dragging their teams to the top of the league with top-level basketball. This growing global influence will be on display, to the peril of the United States and its pride, even by next All-Star Game (the annual event celebrating the spectacle of American sports) scheduled for February 2026 to Los Angeles: for the first time, in fact, the match will no longer be Eastern versus Western Conference, but will adopt the format USA vs. Rest of the World.
The impact of global growth on the World Cup and Olympics
The rise of international basketball has had a direct impact on the results of the United States in FIBA (the world basketball governing body) competitions. To the World Cupwhere Team USA often does not field its best NBA players, the competition is fierce, after Spain’s victory in 2019, Germany is the reigning champion with the victory in 2023 led by Dennis Schröder and Franz Wagner. At Olympicshowever, the story is different: the USA almost always calls up its superstars. Despite the growth of the global level, the Stars and Stripes national team has maintained an almost unchallenged dominance, winning the last few five consecutive gold medals (from 2008 to 2024). The latest victory in Paris 2024 came thanks to legends such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, who, despite being between 35 and 40 years old, once again demonstrated their infinite talent.
The United States, in the midst of a generational change, is looking for new recruits who can constantly bring the national team back to the top. The country’s hopes are now pinned on emerging talents like Cooper Flaggthe eighteen-year-old chosen by the Dallas Mavericks as the first overall pick in the last draft.
