Thirty years after the Dream Team introduced the NBA to the world at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, the league has transformed into something the late David Stern would be proud of. Basketball has truly become an international game.
As the All-NBA teams were announced earlier this weekmany may have overlooked how the teams were assembled as a shift takes place that has become the norm in recent years.
Of the 15 players elected to the team, five were born outside the United States: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), Luka Dončić (Slovenia), Nikola Jokić (Serbia), Joel Embiid (Cameroon), and Pascal Siakam (Cameroon). In 2021 the NBA was at least there 109 international players from at least 39 countries.
The last time the All-NBA team featured only US-born players was the 2015-2016 season, which saw players like LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, DeAndre Jordan, Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green represented were , DeMarcus Cousins, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Paul George, LaMarcus Aldridge, Andre Drummond, Klay Thompson and Kyle Lowry.
G/O Media may receive a commission
The 2018-2019 season also included five international players on the All-NBA team, as six members made it in consecutive seasons between 2020 and 2021. With Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons both being born in Australia, there have been slots for international players on the team, which some fans have mistakenly assumed were born here.
When Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro was named sixth man of the year earlier this month, it meant he was the one first American-born white player to win an award in a decade since Houston’s Ryan Anderson won the Most Improved Player title in 2012. Mark Eaton) since 95.
International stars have taken on so much that the last four MVP trophies have been given to players who weren’t born in America, as Jokić and Antetokounmpo have each won them twice. And with the addition of Embiid and Dončić, four of the top five voters All international players were there for the award this season.
In terms of individual accolades, there hasn’t been an American-born player to become MVP since James Harden in 2018. Three international players have won Rookie of the Year since 2015 in Andrew Wiggins (Canada), Simmons and Dončić. Between Marc Gasol (Spain), Rudy Gobert (France) and Antetokounmpo, Defensive Player of the Year has been won by an international player five times since 2013. That’s the same number of non-Americans who have won Most Improved Player since 2006. These include Boris Diaw (France), Hedo Türkoğlu (Turkey), Goran Dragić (Slovenia), Antetokounmpo and Siakam.
At the 1992 Summer Games said Charles Barkley infamously, “All I Know About Angola Is Angola’s In Trouble,” during an Olympiad where teams were lining up to take photos with Barkley and his teammates. That is no longer the case as international stars win the same awards as Barkley used to.
