For the second season in a row, the Dallas Mavericks have the second most international player count on an NBA roster.
The Raptors lead the league with 10 international players, followed by the Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder with seven apiece. 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 designates two-way players in a separate category.
The global trend has long been embedded in the Mavericks’ DNA, especially over the past four seasons. During the 2018-19 and 2019-2020 campaigns, Dallas led the way with seven international players, an NBA record, in the opening night squad.
Last season (2020-21), the Mavs and Denver Nuggets finished tied for second with six international players on the squad, while the Washington Wizards led the way with seven players, an NBA record.
A record 35 players on active rosters participated in Basketball Without Borders (BWB) ahead of their careers, including sophomore 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 recruited 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 away from this camp was just the motivation to keep going and keep improving. my game. So I hope that one day, I can make the NBA.
Green formed 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 at the Tokyo Games this summer.
Meanwhile, Ntilikina and France won a silver medal and Dončić led Slovenia to the country’s first appearance in men’s basketball at the Olympics.
The NBA has announced that 109 international players from 39 countries are registered for its historic 75th anniversary season, including a record number of players from Canada (18), Germany (seven) and the Bahamas (three), and a record number of tied players. Nigerian players (five).
The number of international players in the NBA fell 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 the United States, followed by Australia, France and Germany (seven players each). Nigeria, Serbia, Spain and Turkey each have five players.
A record six international players have been named to the 2020-21 All-NBA squad, including Dončić.
In the NBA.com 2021-2022 GM poll, Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo were voted the No.1 and No.2 players with whom GMs would most like to start a franchise (43% and 40%, respectively), and the # 2 and # 3 players most likely to win the 2021-22 Kia NBA MVP Award (33% and 13% of the vote, respectively).
Dončić and Porzingis are also among 13 international players on the NBA rosters who have been NBA All-Stars.
2021-22 Dallas Mavericks international players
Australia: Josh Green
Canada: Dwight Powell
* France (with links to Belgium and Rwanda): Frank Ntilikina
Germany: Maxi Kléber
Latvia: Kristaps Porzingis
Serbia: Boban Marjanović
Slovenia: Luka Dončić
Two-way international player
(Canada, with links to Nigeria) Eugene Omoruyi
