This year’s All-Star weekend will offer an international version of the Rising Stars contest.
Instead of a Rookies versus Sophomores games, assistant coaches around the league will select 10 first or second-year players for the World team and 10 for the USA.
Teams are yet to be announced for the game, which will tip off 13 February at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
It is the internationalisation of the NBA and its implications.
The continuing popularity of the NBA basketball crossed borders over the course of the past three decades, causing an influx of international players into the league.
As a result of that interchange process, the winner was not only NBA basketball, but the game in general.
There are currently a record 101 NBA players born in 37 countries and territories, an unimaginable figure in the early 1980’s when the likes of Nigerian Hakeem Olajuwon, Congolese Dikembe Mutombo, late Croatian Drazen Petrovic and Lithuanian Sarunas Marciulionis entered the most competitive basketball league on the planet.
The bigger the international presence in the NBA, the more popular the league has become across the globe. NBA basketball is and will probably continue to be the best and most competitive in the word, on and off court. It is a billion dollar industry that combines entertainment and solidarity.
Although Europe has the biggest number of NBA players this season, Africa never had so many of its sons playing in a single NBA season.
The seven-player list includes Luol Deng (South Sudan), Joel Embiid and Luc Mbah a Moute (Cameroon), Gorgui Dieng (Senegal), Bismack Biyombo (DR Congo), Serge Ibaka (Congo) and Festus Ezeli (Nigeria).
Africa and its almost two billion inhabitants represent a potential market for the NBA, and, later this summer, Johannesburg, South Africa, will be home to the first NBA exhibition game on the African continent.
The NBA has become an international brand with fans traveling from as far as China, the Philippines to attend games live.
Canada leads the way with a record 12 international players, including the number one overall pick in each of the last two NBA Drafts. France comes in second with 10 NBA players, while Australia and Brazil set new records for NBA participation with eight and seven players respectively. Spain rounds out the top five with five players.” per NBA.com.
These lists contrary what three decades ago seemed a mirage for non-Americans, however the NBA opened its doors and basketball was never the same again.
With its policy to internationalise the game, in the past three years, the NBA hosted three regular-season games in London, Great Britain, and two in Mexico City, Mexico.
A couple of weeks ago, in London, NBA Commissionaire Adam Silver revealed the possibility of organising a regular-season in Spain, which is considered one of the best basketball markets in the world.
After all, Spain is home to the most competitive basketball league outside the USA.
It is from there, where two of two the best big men in league, brothers Pau and Marc Gasol hail from.
But for the NBA, Euroleague and FIBA, the goal is to become the number sport in the world, according to Silver.
