There’s a lot of debate within the NBA and its surrounding media about who will be the next face of the league. With LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant all eyeing retirement, the NBA seems to be in a state of limbo with who will next take up that helm.
When looking at the potential players to do so (Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, and Victor Wembanyama), something in particular stands out: none of these players is American.
While this may seem more like an observation rather than an issue, some believe that the next face of the league couldn’t, or shouldn’t, be foreign.
Here’s a look at whether or not the next face of the NBA could be an internationally born player, or if that role needs to be held by an American.
When it comes to the NBA, there has historically been a heavy concentration of American players. This makes sense because, as the game originated in America, only those with the proper equipment and understanding of the sport could truly access it.
However, as time went on and the popularity of both basketball and the NBA continued to rise, the game would only draw more attention to itself. This would steadily lead to players from overseas becoming more accustomed to the sport and developing the skills necessary to compete with the best players in the world. Looking at the landscape of today’s game, the impact that this process has had has become undeniable.
With Gilgeous-Alexander winning the MVP award this season (born in Canada), it’s now been almost a decade since an American-born player took home the trophy. James Harden was the last to do so in 2018 with the Houston Rockets.
Aside from residing at the very top of top of basketball talent, international players are also putting up some of the best individual stats. Gilgeous-Alexander led the league in scoring this season, followed by Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) and Jokic (Serbia). Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania) led the league in rebounds, and there were only three Americans within the top ten (Karl-Anthony Towns, Walker Kessler, and Jalen Duren).
Trae Young led the league in assists per game with 11.6, but in second place (and the only other player to average double-digits) was Jokic with 10.2. Wembanyama also finished with an average of 3.8 blocks per game, which was easily the most of any player this season.
With the influx of internationally born players over the past couple of decades, how has this impacted the game itself and how it’s played?
Besides elongating the length of the average player’s last name, the abundance of international talent has also worked to shift the game itself. Take, for instance, that the league leader in both screen assists per game and box outs per game is Sabonis with 5.9 screen assists and 2.9 box outs. When looking down the lists, seven out of the ten screen assist leaders and half of the box out leaders are internationally born.
Heavily leaning on fundamentals (and using their size to do so), these players are redefining how an elite NBA player plays. Whether it’s on offense or defense, internationally born players are occupying a big portion of the NBA’s leading statistical leaders, and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.
The globalization of the NBA is not a new concept, although it may have reached its boiling point when the league saw how Spain reacted to the Dream Team’s arrival in 1992. Having been the first USA Olympic basketball team to include active NBA players, fans overseas were truly getting to see these players for the first time and reacted as such.
Since then, the NBA (particularly under Adam Silver) has made a major effort to expand the reach of the league. This has involved several different tactics, including making watching games more accessible in other countries, and supporting overseas basketball camps and academies.
Whether it’s causation or correlation, the NBA is now more diverse than ever in an inextricable way. While some think these players can’t resonate or garner the same fanfare from Americans, the top-selling jersey this season was Doncic, followed by Wembanyama (sixth), Gilgeous-Alexander (ninth), Jokic (tenth), and Antetokounmpo (11th).
One of the bigger arguments against this idea is that NBA viewership and ratings have also seen a decline as this phenomenon has unfolded. However, so has the way in which people consume sports in general. While viewership and ratings have declined, social media views and merch sales have continued to rise (except during the COVID-19 quarantine, which saw drops in sales due to a shorter season).
This means that, while people aren’t sitting and watching as many games start-to-finish as they used to, they are still consuming and following the game in more contemporary ways. Especially outside of America, where the NBA sees its influence extend further every season as its overall fan base continues to rise.
With the league, style of game, and fans’ interests all shifting towards internationally born players, there’s no doubt that the next face of the league could (and maybe should) be born outside of America.
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