The NBA MVP award, the Association’s most prestigious [1] individual award, hasn’t been won by an American-born player since 2018. In the 2022 season, four of the top six players are from Greece (Giannis Antetokounmpo), Cameroon (Joel Embiid), Serbia (Nikola Jokić), and Slovenia (Luka Dončić). On opening night for the 2022-23 season, there were 120 international players from 40 countries on NBA rosters. USA Basketball isn’t even the best in the world, according to FIBA, basketball’s international governing body: Spain is.
Though the international community has cemented [2] itself atop the basketball world only in the past decade, its roots run far deeper. The first international NBA game occurred in Israel in 1978, where the defending champion Washington Bullets lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv. Then, in the 1980s, the NBA was elevated by a migration of foreign-born superstars like Hakeem Olajuwon, Detlef Schrempf, and Kiki VanDeWeghe. Then, in 1992, the world was introduced to the full might of American basketball with the Dream Team, the US’s indomitable Olympic roster that won each game by an average of 44 points.
Basketball’s international explosion can be attributed to [3] former NBA Commissioner David Stern, who signed the league’s first international TV deals in the 1980s. Stern, a veteran of the NBA’s corporate side, saw the potential of the NBA outside national borders. He capitalized on the marketability of his stars, like Michael Jordan, who gave young players everywhere a role model to admire. Under his tutelage [4], the NBA also invested heavily in basketball infrastructure, namely Basketball without Borders, which gives international prospects a pathway toward recruitment.
Then, foreign-born players who made it to the NBA, like China’s Yao Ming and Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki, legitimized basketball in other countries. The Association’s growing popularity led to over 200 TV deals and games held in Mexico City, Mexico, Paris, France, and Tokyo, Japan, just to name a few. Also, in 2019, the NBA launched its first league outside North America, establishing the Basketball Africa League with the International Basketball Federation.
The NBA’s marketing division must also receive praise, as it uploads numerous NBA videos to YouTube every day and uses social media to expand its reach. They offer various streaming options, like NBA LeaguePass, to increase its accessibility worldwide. Then, in the offseason, international players often return to their countries of origin to play for their national teams and host basketball camps, ensuring that the NBA’s presence is year-round.
Football (the American version) is America’s game; everyone knows that. Not only is it the most popular sport among Americans, but it doesn’t have deep roots elsewhere, though there are American football leagues around the world. The same used to be true of basketball; however, that’s now far from the case.