NBA Draft: Best international players ever taken
The NBA has grown into an international game and every year the NBA Draft introduces us to a new crop of talented international players. Who are the best international players ever taken in the NBA Draft?
The 2016 NBA Draft will feature one of the deepest crops of international players ever. Headlined by Croatian power forward Dragan Bender, this draft class could best 2011’s record of five international first-rounders. Bender and French wing Timothe Luwawu figure to be potential lottery picks, and there are several interesting draft-and-stash options awaiting in the late 20s – from Turkish three-point specialist Furkan Korkmaz, to Croatian big men Ivica Zubac and Ante Zizic.
The international game has developed exponentially since the turn of the century, with more and more high-quality players being developed across the globe every year. The game of basketball is firmly an international game now, with rabid fans from China to Brazil to New Zealand. But it didn’t just happen overnight. The road for guys like Bender and Kristaps Porzingis has been paved slowly and steadily over the past 30 years. Guys like Detlef Schrempf, Drazen Petrovic, and Vlade Divac made the first dent in the early 1990s, and then Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Peja Stojakovic and others established the international basketball community with their play throughout the 2000s. Whether they came from the top flights of European basketball or random gyms in Brazil or Germany, the international stars of the past 30 years helped set the stage for international players to get a very serious shot at the NBA today. In honor of this year’s deep class, let’s pay homage to the history of international draft prospects, by ranking the top ten international draft picks* of all time.
*This list only includes international players who did not play in the U.S. prior to the NBA. That’s why you won’t find Detlef Schrempf or Marc Gasol here, despite both having worthy cases for inclusion.
Next: 10. Giannis Antetokounmpo