The Rise of European Players in the NBA: Insights from Dirk Nowitzki

By Adiel Kalonji | NBA Editor

In recent years, European players have become more and more numerous in the league. Dirk Nowitzki evolved in an era where athletes from the Old Continent were still trying to find a place for themselves. So, he spoke about this difference.

Currently, European basketball is booming. As proof, all the MVPs from 2019 to 2022 come from this continent. This year again, there is a very good chance that the trophy will return to the hands of a European, since Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic are to date the two big favorites in the race. In 2007, Dirk Nowitzki became the first of them to obtain this title.

The German has in fact participated in this democratization of talents from this geographical area. But in the 2000s and early 2010s, fewer of them dominated the league. It is clear that this time is now over. Consequently, the Mavericks legend recently spoke about this phenomenon in an episode of the show Kickin’ it on CBS.

The particularity of Europeans in the NBA today according to Dirk Nowitzki

Today, these kids are different thanks to social media. Now they come to the US with a different attitude that I didn’t have at the time. They come confident and they know what to expect. They have seen all kinds of videos on social networks and YouTube. I played with Luka Doncic my last year and it was his first, and he asked me almost no questions.

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He had been playing with the pros since he was like 12 years old at Real Madrid. He already knew how to behave and play. He had such precocious playing intelligence.

Before being drafted in 3rd position in 2018, some analysts had doubts about Luka Doncic. The fact that he never played in an American university was one of the favorite arguments of his detractors.

Elected ROTY in 2019 and now author of an MVP season, the Slovenian has made a lot of people turn around. But he is not the only European to have made the critics lie. For example, Victor Wembanyama also underwent this same treatment. And like the leader, it is very likely that the Frenchman will obtain the ROTY this year, after a string of insane performances.

If we trust Dirk Nowitzki, social adaptation would be at the origin of this recent domination of European basketball players. Thanks to the different platforms, which the Hall of Famer and his counterparts of the same era did not benefit from, the players of this era would therefore have at their disposal information which would allow them to adapt very quickly to the game of the American league.

In recent years, we have seen a hegemony of European players in the NBA. And if we see superstars such as Nikola Jokic or Luka Doncic dominating like this, it would be because athletes have the chance to quickly adapt to the American game thanks to the internet according to Dirk Nowitzki.

2024-04-12 22:53:57
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