The 2023-2024 NBA season has just started at the time of writing. For the first time in NBA history, no less than 125 international players have carved out a place on a team’s roster; a record. The 26 Canadian players who won a position on this opening day also represent a peak for the country of the maple leaf.
The NBA today announced that a record 125 international players from 40 countries and territories across six continents are on opening-night rosters for the 2023-24 season, including a record number of players from Canada (26) and France (14).
More ➡️ pic.twitter.com/kJ4PcCOBKy
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) October 24, 2023
Building on its success at the Basketball World Cup this summer, Canada continues to make its place more and more in this sport. A record 26 Canadians will begin this new season in the NBA and this marks the 10th consecutive year that Canada has been the best-represented country outside of the United States. Several of these players will play an important role on their team, the best examples being Jamal Murray (Nuggets) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder).
Murray was unable to represent his country at the World Cup due to injury, but he will be an indispensable player for the Denver Nuggets this season. Same story for SGA, which shone in Asia this summer and which will continue to impress basketball fans with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Credit: RDS
At the start of the calendar, the NBA can count on four Quebecers. Bennedict Mathurin (Pacers), Luguentz Dort (Thunder) and Chris Boucher (Raptors) will be back in the circuit, while Montreal rookie Olivier Maxence-Prosper will make his debut. O-Max was drafted 24th in the last auction by the Dallas Mavericks and he managed to land a position with the Texan team for the upcoming season. For his part, Khem Birch was cut by the San Antonio Spurs one week before the start of the season. The Montrealer had been in the NBA since 2018.
Canada isn’t the only country to have a record number of players in the NBA, as France also had a record with 14 athletes in the NBA on this opening day. Our French cousins are also in second place among the best represented international countries.
International representation
In total, 40 countries and six continents are represented on Day 1 of the NBA, for a total of 125 international players. This is the third year in a row that the circuit has started its calendar with more than 120 international players and the 10th year in a row that this number is above a hundred. No organization is ignoring this globalization of basketball, since all teams have at least one international player in their lineup.
It is the Mavericks and the Thunder who lead the chapter in terms of the best total of international players on their squad at the start of the season, with eight foreigners each.
The last record for international players was 121 in 2021-2022 and the record still in place which was established in 2017-2018 for the different countries is 42. In recent years, the contribution of players from the The foreigner makes himself felt more and more. Here are some examples that demonstrate this:
Three international players have won the last five Most Valuable Player trophies: Joel Embiid (2022-2023), Nikola Jokic (2021-2022 and 2020-2021) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (2019-2020 and 2018-2019). At least five international players have earned a place on the team All-NBA every season since 2018-2019. There are 15 international players on an Opening Day roster who have already participated in the NBA All-Star Game. Victor Wembanyama is the 14th international player to be drafted first overall in the NBA draft and the French player with the highest selection rank in the country’s history.
To follow all the latest international basketball news:
2023-10-25 00:41:41
#record #number #international #players #play #NBA #season
