The first player born outside the United States to join the NBA was Hank Biasatti. Born in Italy and raised in Canada, he not only played pro basketball but also had an MLB career as a first baseman. After the 1946 baseball season, the Toronto Huskies of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) – which would eventually become the NBA – invited Biasatti to try out. Of the six Canadians in the workouts, he was the only one who made the roster. He appeared in six games for the Huskies, including the first game in BAA history on November 1, 1946. However, he went to the team in December and told him that his baseball career was more important, and that he would be going to spring training with the Philadelphia A’s. Boston chose him in the 1947 BAA draft, but he did not accept the choice and never appeared with the Celtics. In six career games, he had a decent shooting percentage (40%) but had a Shaq-level 50% shooting percentage from the free-throw line. International players have influenced the NBA much more significantly in recent years, of course. One impact has been an increase in game pace and scoring – and the arrival of big men who can also handle the ball and shoot from distance – which has had an impact on point totals and other NBA betting props.
Let’s take a look at how players from outside the United States have influenced pro basketball.
NBA News: International Players who Changed the Game Forever
Historic Trends – How They Got Here and Changed the Game
The first international player to make an NBA All-Star Game was Tom Meschery, who earned the honor in 1963. Part of a family that emigrated from Russia, Meschery was born in China and ended up , Meschery had a 10-year NBA career that lasted from 1961 to 1971. He played for the Philadelphia / San Francisco Warriors and the Seattle SuperSonics. The Warriors would end up retiring his number (14) and even made it part of their team logo from 1967 to 1974. Meschery appeared in two NBA Finals with the Warriors, playing alongside Wilt Chamberlain in 1961-62 and Rick Barry in 1966-67. The Seattle SuperSonics picked Meschery in the expansion draft that off-season. He led the team in rebounds (10.2 per game) and personal fouls in their first season. While he didn’t bring much innovation to the game, he had a penchant for poetry, and he turned that into a career in teaching and poetry. He is in the Saint Mary’s College Hall of Fame, where his jersey number (31) has been retired, and he is also in the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
One of the most influential international players was Hakeem Olajuwon. A native of Nigeria, he came to the United States to play at the University of Houston, where the Cougars became the famed “Phi Slamma Jamma” team under coach Guy V. Lewis. The Cougars never won a national championship, but they did reach one final, in 1983, but Jim Valvano’s N.C. State Wolfpack pulled off a huge upset to win the title on a last-minute alley-oop. Olajuwon went on to the Houston Rockets where he would win two NBA titles, two NBA Finals MVP trophies, one regular-season MVP, and one Olympic gold medal. He still leads the NBA in career blocks and is 13th all-time in scoring and 14th in rebounding. Because of his athleticism and quickness, he was virtually impossible to stop on the blocks, but it was his perimeter defense that made him most lethal.
The Dallas Mavericks shocked the NBA when they drafted Dirk Nowitzki out of Germany, but he would end up transforming the power forward position and delivered the only NBA title in franchise history. He won the NBA Finals MVP that year as well (2011). He still ranks sixth all-time in scoring. His ability to handle the ball, penetrate, knock down three-pointers and drain unblockable turnaround shots from just about everywhere inside the arc took a position that had almost always been the province of earthbound guys who weren’t quite tall enough to play center and made it a possible focus of the offense. Nowitzki was able to make deep playoff runs without having another legit star alongside him, a trend that he also pulled off with the German national team, winning a World Cup bronze medal and a Eurobasket silver medal basically carrying the team by himself.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, nicknamed the “Greek Freak,” hasn’t played long enough to climb the leaderboards in major statistical categories, but given time, he will be there. He already has an NBA title and a Finals MVP trophy to go along with two regular-season MVP awards. Almost seven feet tall, Giannis can legitimately run the point if he needs to, and he can make shots from just about anywhere. His shooting is a little on the subpar side, but he is tenacious when chasing offensive rebounds and can get to the rim against virtually any defender. Once he’s in the paint, keeping him from scoring is just about impossible.
Canada does have an all-time elite player in Steve Nash. He never won an NBA title, but he did win a pair of regular-season MVP trophies and a silver medal from the FIBA Americas. He didn’t win an MVP until he was in his 30s, which is usually the downward side of the career arc for most point guards, particularly in the 1990s and 2000s, when Nash was in his prime. Today’s game has more pick-and-roll and three-ball opportunities than Nash’s did – if he were playing today, he would be well above 94th in total scoring. However, he’s still fifth all-time in assists, one of the sport’s elite distributors.
Spain’s Pau Gasol won a pair of NBA titles, a World Cup gold medal, and three Olympic medals. He ranks 21st all time in blocks and 28th in rebounds. While he was not the marquee player on the Lakers’ roster when he won his titles, several analytics suggested that he was the most important contributor on those rosters. He was a center, but he had terrific athleticism, so he could finish over just about everyone who guarded him, and he had the ups to block shots on defense.
The San Antonio Spurs’ title run would not have been possible without French native Tony Parker. The point guard won four NBA titles with the Spurs and was the Finals MVP once. He also won four Eurobasket medals and is still 19th in assists. His quickness and ability to change directions made him dangerous when it came to getting into the paint. His tear-drop floater maddened rim defenders because it flew up just out of their reach and nestled into the basket. His defense and outside shooting were average at best, but those skills at distributing, penetrating and finishing made a mark on the league.
^How Many International Players are in the NBA Today?
As of October 2024, the NBA had 125 international players from 43 countries across six continents – every continent except Antarctica. The country with the most NBA players outside the United States is Canada, with 26. After that we have France (14) and Australia (13).
Perhaps the best international player in today’s game is Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets. The center from Serbia is an elite distributor, averaging more assists per game in his career than rebounds. He helped the Nuggets win their first NBA title a couple seasons ago and won the Finals and Conference Finals MVP awards that season. He also has three regular-season MVP awards. Because of his elite distribution and scoring skills, the Nuggets have been able to build a top-notch offense around him. He’s the first center to win multiple MVP trophies in the twenty-first century, and he’s just the third international player to win more than one MVP award.
Another game-changing big man from overseas is Joel Embiid. A native of Cameroon, he has one regular-season MVP title. When he is healthy, he is capable of dropping 35 or more points and approaching 20 rebounds. The problems with Embiid’s career have come in the postseason, where opposing defenses have swarmed him and slowed him down. His distribution skills aren’t up there with Jokic’s, so there have been times when the Philadelphia offense has floundered in the playoffs. He has elite outside shooting and post play, and his defense is elite because of his athleticism and size. His ongoing issues with his back and knee, though, have dampened his long-term influence on the game – and his chances at winning a title with the 76ers – to this point.
Slovenian guard Luka Doncic basically got the Dallas Mavericks to a conference finals and an NBA finals, although Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington also played key roles in the NBA finals trip last season. He was the Western Conference Finals MVP last season, and he has a Eurobasket gold medal, a Euroleague title and a Euroleague MVP award. His ability to score from anywhere on the floor and distribute the ball at ridiculously uncanny angles makes him an elite player. The Mavericks traded him to the Lakers in a move that has, at least to this point, made the franchise a laughingstock, but it will be interesting to see if his areas of growth – particularly defense and conditioning – improve in Hollywood.
The Dominican Republic has an NBA hero in Al Horford. He has put together a long career at center, even though that wasn’t his favorite position. He is 64th all-time in blocks and 68th in boards as his perimeter defense has made him a mainstay in the league even as the game gets smaller and faster. This trend actually seems to be going full circle as Anthony Davis made it quite clear that he wanted to have a center alongside him instead of having to play so much rim defense, and the Oklahoma City Thunder rank first in the West with a lineup that often has two seven-footers on the floor.
Rudy Gobert is one of the elite defensive centers in the NBA. He has yet to win an NBA Finals, but he has four Defensive Player of the Year awards and a pair of Olympic silver medals. He’s also been named All-Defensive 1st team seven times and ranks 44th all-time in blocks. He brings a combination of instincts, mobility and length into the lane, and when his team has the ball, while he doesn’t have much in the way of an outside shot or penetration skills, he can wreak havoc on pick-and-rolls and on alley-oops. He did get to the West Finals last year with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and if he can make a similarly deep run this season, he might shed that label of playoff underperformer.
^The Best International Teams Today
Once you get outside the NBA, the best pro basketball teams right now hail from Europe. You’ve no doubt heard of Real Madrid in soccer – the storied team that leads the continent in UEFA Champions League titles – but there is also a basketball team by the same name. Like its soccer counterpart, the basketball Real Madrid is also elite, with a record number of Euroleague championships. Their top players are Guerschon Yabusele and Facundo Campazzo – two key contributors on the night when the team routed Anadolu in 2024, setting a Euroleague scoring record with 130 points in a game.
The next-best European team also hails from Spain – and shares a name with the elite soccer team in town. FC Barcelona Basquet was where future NBA players Ricky Rubio, Juan Carlos Navarro, and Pau (and Marc) Gasol got their starts. Since 2021, Barcelona has pushed Real Madrid hard, only to come up short in the playoffs against their fellow Spaniards in both 2022 and 2023. They do have the Euroleague record for best regular-season record (20-2, set back in 2009-10).
Throwback to Rudy Gobert knocking the fadeaway down over Jokic in game 7. Had Nuggets fans in shambles pic.twitter.com/1LrQ9UB7mN
— MNMuse (@statmusewolves) February 22, 2025
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