Is The NBA Really THAT International Now? 

There is one more factor you actually analyzed yourself, and witch actually explains why NBA is not already IBA. And that is NBA "culture" where NBA literary snubs internationals... For instance, they take full established European MVPs or stars, at age of 26-28 (and lets be honest, in prime age when their pick is expected), and then treat them like rookies, expecting of them to play next 2-3 yeras garbage minutes as third wheels. Most of them after a while jsut say F that and return to Europe for much less money, but to actually play. As if NBA still has that American materialistic value system, when you see European star is earning 1 million dollar per year they automatically undervalue him under some coledge rooky that already expect 2 million per year contract (and on one side you have complette experienced player in his prime, and on the other, well, rooky that will maybe develope in 2-3 years, and maybe not). There was more success with actuall European rookies, like Dončić and Jokić, that did went there as already established european stars, but at very young age, and because of that they didn't felt that "rooky" treatment so hursh, being practically in rooky age still. So you might say that NBA culture is actually preventing the best international players to come to play in NBA, and while you might argue, for isntance, that best European players, those first 4 you mentioned, plays for NBA, in totality of intenationals (rest 121) it is debatable are they the best intenational basketball have to offer (only becasue that wall where player who played 40 minutes and was year after year carry of his team, suddenly is expected to play 3 minutes every third game for years).That on one hand "saves" NBA to stay NBA, becasue of that NBA culture issue, they actually discourage a huge army of internationals that could parry majotiry of US born players easilly, and keeps that league in majority American. On the other hand, they are mainting "artificial bublle of greatness" in which they prevent their own evolution (if there was more high skilled intenationals there, they would push domestic players also to evolve, and terms like "role player" or "bench player" would be extinct very fast and everybody will have to become "full players"), and quality is slowly but evidently descending while rest of the world is evolving. P. S. I agree with you also there is already some Euroleague teams that could compette in NBA without problem, they would probably not be Play off materials in the start, but not the bootom ones also. And potential of evolving of European teams are practically limitless, while NBA teams suffers of certain traditionalistic frozeness that prevents even little changes or addaptations.

Should be interesting to compare the nationality of the best Nba players and the one of Top Euroleague players.

@@laurentbuchet5674 There is actually no surprize there, in Euroleague you also have almost identicall pattern from 2003, when new format start: Serbians x3 MVPs, Greeks x3 MVPs, Spainards x4 MVPs, and interestingly USA x2 (Anthony Parker), and all the others had only x1, Slovenia had it once and it was, surprise surprise, Luka Dončić, but he is now every year discussion candidate for NBA MVP also... So you have standard Blakan talent pool with big lakes Greece and Serbia (and other smaller lakes like Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, known basketball powerhouses, with last year Bulgarian took MVP, what was unimmaginable only 2 years ago, but Bulgaria is also on Balkan, so there is some genes there for basketball), Spain as country with best and the strongest national league (and the richest), and it is interesting there is no much France and Itally there, althoguh they officially have two second best national leagues in Europe, I guess all their talents go very early to NBA, not leaving much trace in Europe... So, there is Spainards (remember Paul Gassol?), Greeks and Serbs (never forgeth Luka Dončić is also Serbian, just born in Slovenia :) mostly claiming MVP titles, pretty simillar as in NBA lately, so you have to give credit to their national leagues that are capable to produce such talents from very young age in what would most of this "strong leagues" call "impossible conditions"...

Maybe Petrovic..rest are not even close to being a franchise player. And Sabonis? Really?

Sabonis if he wasnt broken down by all his injuries. You forget schrempf and Smits who both made the all Star Game and had big roles on their teams.

@@fringe_minority are you really questioning Sabonis? REALLY?

@eduardocarbonell7159 he was in his 30s. How can he become a franchise player at that age?

In todays NBA they would be great,USA bb and complete society is rapidly declining over last 10 years

I have been wondering about south american talent for some time, why do you think you guys dropped of? greetings from europe

Since I was making this video on the basis of the official NBA data and their '125 internationals' number, it kinda left me no choice but to include players who are in theory foreign. But I get your point, I mean you could argue that Canadian basketball players also grow up mostly within the American basketball or that the differences between Canada & US aren't that major, so a real head-scratcher here 😅

@@BasketNews_com Yes, I would hazard to guess that most, if not almost all of those Canadian players played some high school ball in the US. SGA definitely did. If you're a child basketball prodigy in Canada, Africa (Embiid), Australia, etc..the choice is either go to Europe and play in one of their club systems or go to the US and play in one of the top high schools to compete against higher level competition

Embid aslo

As an Aussie, you’re right. We’ve never thought of him as 🇦🇺

as long as the NBA has the money, the NBA is not worried at all. The NBA is competing with the Premier League for wages and viewers, not Euroleague

😂😂😂 There is still no team that can beat the USA and they will prove it next year in the Olympics when they send their A-team. And no even the best Euroleague teams would be bottom 5 teams in the NBA.

@@rogelioatempa1115 mf you lost to Germany and Canada and didn’t even win a medal last summer

@@rogelioatempa1115 France lost only by 5 in the olympic final, with Wemby we will see how it will turn out here on different rules. You gotta accept that the gap is no longer that huge what it used to be. Your league MVP is not athletic european, lol.

That's correct, but as it says in the corner of the graph these were opening night rosters and since we're comparing the historical numbers on opening nights, he was counted in 😊

Technically, Ricky Rubio is still on Cavs roster 🤷‍♂

I am not sure he will be 2nd pick , but he will be in the top 10 for sure

@@ivanstojanovic621 I read it in newspapers few days ago,and I heared one old school coach said it ,also few days ago !?! So ,maybe I'm wrong ? We'll C ? He was the best player ,MVP of the European Championship U18, this summer and Serbia won gold.So ,we'll see what the future holds !?!

@@ZA-MunZeStyle if he's a good pg then spurs may consider him so possible top 5 for sure

​@@ZA-MunZeStylein what newspaper did u read that please? If u tell me some gossip type of newspapers i will be pissed off

@@jorgovan-ni9kz Žurnal,Sportski Žurnal

Girls basketball asociation?

GLOBAL😂@@vibezzzzcheck

They even put a Union Jack above OG's head in the picture of the raptors squad then listed GB as having 0 NBA players

Jordan Clarkson is not an international player for NBA's perspective

arrogance

US still keeps attracting top athletes,scientists, engineers and produce best cutting edge sports methodologies and innovations. This is indeed their goal - take the best and brightest and make them love US lifestyle for those who can contribute regardless. Europe we are still very far away. You can learn German, Dutch or French but still you will be an expat. We are still very divided.

​@@rosenvasilev4219 I mean maybe athletes who play sports that originated in America. No one is really travelling to America for football/soccer, rugby, cricket, volleyball etc.

​@@rosenvasilev4219 Yeah countries who have histories spanning centuries longer than most people knew North America even existed tend to have a stronger sense of identity.

@@randomuruk7230 Outside soccer , the rest are sort of niche sports which are not trend setters and have limited marketability. I am bit confused strong sense of identity = creating speration between societies and living in a bubble. Still doesnt address the main question is why US still gets the best and brightest regardless and is the trend setter in modern sports methodologies and overall inovation and trends in society while Europe, fails more and more

@@rosenvasilev4219 Cricket is literally the second biggest sport in the world, by those standards American football, hockey, baseball and basketball are all niche sports.

you watched the video, well done sir

Exactly. There has been no change in any way, shape or form to the sport, ever since the invention of basketball. The US is as dominant as ever.

We been here hundreds of year. Tf are u talking about?

@@iamdebaby8152 listen i dont have anything against black people i have problem with all americans claiming the land they took killing 2 milion people.And i guess you are right you are there for a long time,but if my grand grand grand dad came to nigeria for example while i am still white,am i african?I mean this dusscusion dont have an point so you are right and i am not lets say and call it a day???

@@SZ-ef1cn nobody said we were natives. But its weird how u singled out Black people. White people also aren't from here. In fact most of them came after WW1. Millions of blacks were already here.

@@iamdebaby8152 i didnt single blacks out what do you mean.The guy that said the sentance “foreigners now rule nba” is black,right?I was just refering to him nothing else,not trying to be disrespectful at all.If you are not native then you can always be seen as a foreign in my opinion.Or we can say that if someones grandpa came to usa he is american right?I just dont know the line on which we can say his family spent that much time on some land for him to recongize as american,tell me your answer to it,since its based on subjective opinion.But as someone that migrated there(whenever) you cant say to someone else that he is a foreign,my opinion