For the second consecutive season, the Dallas Mavericks have the second-most international players on an NBA roster.
The Raptors lead the league with 10 international players, followed by the Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder with seven each. The Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Pelicans each have five.
The Mavericks are represented by Australia (Josh Green), Canada (Dwight Powell), France (Frank Ntilikina, with ties to Belgium and Rwanda), Germany (Maxi Kleber), Latvia (Kristaps Porzingis), Serbia (Boban Marjanović) and Slovenia (Luka Dončić).
Nigerian-Canadian Eugene Omoruyi is the eighth international player to represent the Mavericks, but the NBA denotes two-way players in a separate category.
The global trend has long been cemented in the Mavericks’ DNA, especially during the previous four seasons. During the 2018-19 and 2019-20 campaigns, Dallas led the way with an NBA-high seven international players on the opening night squad.
Last season (2020-21), the Mavs and Denver Nuggets tied for second with six international players on the team, while the Washington Wizards led the way with an NBA-high seven players.
A record 35 players on active rosters participated in Basketball Without Borders (BWB) prior to their careers, including second-year veteran Josh Green with the Mavericks. BWB is the NBA and FIBA’s global basketball development and community outreach program that has seen 90 former campers drafted into the NBA or signed as free agents since 2001.
Green was named to the BWB Global Camp All-Star team and told Fox Sports Australia at the time: “The biggest thing I took out of this camp was just the motivation to keep going and continuing to improve my game. So hopefully, one day, I can make the NBA.”
Green did, indeed, make an NBA team when the Mavericks selected him with the 18th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. He went on to win a bronze medal with Australia during this summer’s Tokyo Games.
Meanwhile, Ntilikina and France earned a silver medal and Dončić led Slovenia to the country’s first men’s basketball appearance at the Olympics.
The NBA announced that 109 international players from 39 countries are on rosters for its landmark 75th Anniversary Season, including a record number of players from Canada (18), Germany (seven) and the Bahamas (three), and a record-tying number of players from Nigeria (five).
The number of international players in the NBA has grown from five in the league’s first season in 1946-47 to a record 113 at the start of the 2016-17 season.
For the eighth consecutive year, Canada is the most-represented country outside of the U.S., followed by Australia, France and Germany (seven players each). Nigeria, Serbia, Spain and Turkey each have five players.
A record-tying six international players were named to the 2020-21 All-NBA Team, including Dončić.
As part of the NBA.com 2021-22 GM Survey, Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo were voted the No. 1 and No. 2 players with whom general managers would most want to start a franchise (43% and 40%, respectively), and the No. 2 and No. 3 players most likely to win the 2021-22 Kia NBA MVP Award (33% and 13% of votes, respectively).
Dončić and Porzingis are also among the 13 international players on NBA rosters who have been NBA All-Stars.
Australia: Josh Green
Canada: Dwight Powell
*France (with ties to Belgium and Rwanda): Frank Ntilikina
Germany: Maxi Kleber
Latvia: Kristaps Porzingis
Serbia: Boban Marjanović
Slovenia: Luka Dončić
Two-Way International Player
(Canada, with ties to Nigeria) Eugene Omoruyi
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