The NBA is increasingly becoming a more global league. Last season, they had a record-tying 125 international players in the league, coming from 43 different countries. Since 2019, the league MVP has been an international player, and two of the past three No. 1 overall draft selections have also been international.
The rest of the world is catching up to the United States in basketball, and perhaps no better example of that is the Portland Trail Blazers' roster.
Portland tied the Oklahoma City Thunder with the most international players in the league in 2024-25, as both teams had seven on their roster.