Canada and France lead as NBA boasts record number of international players / News - Basketnews.com

The NBA's 2023-24 season starts with a historic 125 international players from 40 countries. There are 64 European players on opening-night rosters, while the Mavericks and the Thunder feature a league-high eight international players each.

Credit: AP, USA Sports Today-Scanpix Credit AP, USA Sports Today-Scanpix

NBA today announced that a record 125 international players from 40 countries and territories across six continents are on opening-night rosters for the 2023-24 season, including a record number of players from Canada (26) and France (14).

Nikola Jokic

Team:Denver NuggetsPosition:C, PFAge:28Height:208 cmWeight:111 kgBirth place:SerbiaProfileNewsStatistics

This marks the third consecutive season that opening-night rosters feature at least 120 international players, and the 10th straight season that opening-night rosters have at least 100 international players.

All 30 NBA teams feature at least one international player.

The previous record for international players (121) and the current record for countries and territories represented (42) were set at the start of the 2021-22 and 2017-18 seasons, respectively.

For the 10th consecutive season, Canada is the most-represented country outside of the U.S., followed by France, Australia (nine players), Serbia (seven players) and Germany (six players).

Nigeria and Turkey each have five players.

There are 64 European players on opening-night rosters, including four members of the 2022-23 All-NBA Team: 2021 NBA champion and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks; Greece; ties to Nigeria), four-time NBA All-Star and All-NBA First Team member Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks; Slovenia), 2023 NBA champion and two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets; Serbia) and three-time NBA All-Star Domantas Sabonis (Sacramento Kings; Lithuania).

There are also 15 players from Africa, including 2022-23 NBA MVP Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers; Cameroon).

The Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder feature a league-high eight international players each, followed by the Toronto Raptors and the San Antonio Spurs with seven international players each. The Boston Celtics and the Phoenix Suns each have six.

Full list of international players can be found here.

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