NBA Players at the Olympics
Active NBA players were first allowed to play Olympic basketball in 1992, at the Summer Games in Barcelona. Of course, this benefited the USA more spectacularly than any other country; its Dream Team featured no less than nine of the 1992 All-NBA selections plus Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, just for good measure. However, the Americans weren’t the only ones who enlisted NBA stars; five other teams also had an active player from the world’s best basketball league (here, I define an active player as one who played in the NBA during the season preceding the Olympics). Here, take a look:
In all, there were 26 players who were born outside of the U.S. playing in the NBA during the 1991-92 season. Many of these guys were actually American citizens (Dominique Wilkins, Steve Kerr, Patrick Ewing, etc.), but you get the idea: there weren’t very many foreigners around the league, yet. The few international players who were in the NBA, though, were real good ones: Croatia’s Drazen Petrovic (an All Star in 1992), Germany’s Detlef Schrempf (an All Star in 1993), Lithuania’s Sarunas Marciulionis, Australia’s Luc Longley…impressive.
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In 1992, the Dream Team won the Gold, you’ll remember; but Croatia with its two active and three future NBA players won the consolation prize. Sarunas and the tie-dyed-clad Lithuanians got the Bronze.
In 1996, Croatia (Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja, Zan Tabak, Stojko Vrankovic) and Lithuania (Sarunas, Arvydas Sabonis) doubled down on NBA players and Vlade Divac joined the party for Serbia and Montenegro. The total number of international NBA players at the Olympics jumped from six to nine in 1996.
Team USA cruised to the Gold Medal again in 1996 and Lithuania got the Bronze, again, too. Despite their four NBA players, Croatia finished in the middle of the pack. This time it was their Balkan neighbors, Serbia and Montenegro who earned the Silver.
In 2000, the NBA’s influence at the Olympics took a small step back; the number of international NBA players dropped from nine down to seven. Team USA held onto the Gold, despite having a less-than-dreamy collection of its own professionals. The Silver went to France and the Bronze to Lithuania (Again!); two teams that didn’t have any NBA players. Oh also, Steve Nash was there, so that’s pretty cool.
This was the year the World caught up with the USA (in more ways than one). The Americans brought their typical 11 NBA players to Athens. Collectively, the rest of the countries also featured 11 NBA players. Eight different international squads had an NBA player: Argentina, Australia, China, Lithuania, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Serbia & Montenegro, and Spain. One of these teams, Argentina, was able to knock the U.S. off its perennial Gold Medal podium perch. The Argentines had one active NBA player (Manu Ginobili!!!), two former NBA players (Pepe Sanchez, Ruben Wolkowyski), and five future NBA players (Carlos Delfino, Walter Herrmann, Andres Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto, Luis Scola). Italy won Silver without an NBAer.
You can start to see some international powerhouses developing in 2008: Argentina came back with five active NBA players and Spain brought four of its own (not counting Marc Gasol, who wasn’t in the league yet). The Olympics once again featured some fantastic international stars: Manu, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming, Andrei Kirilenko. In total, there were 17 NBA players representing 7 international squads in 2008. Team USA redeemed itself in Beijing, but Spain (Silver) and Argentina (Bronze) started to feel like they’d be competition for the U.S. for the long haul.
The grid continued to fill up in 2012 as France became the first international team to feature six active NBA players, including Nic Batum, Tony Parker, and Boris Diaw. Spain (5) and Argentina (4) stayed strong with their own established contingents. Old Olympic stalwarts, Lithuania, Australia, China, and Russia each had at least one NBA player as well. Great Britain made a strong showing in London with their leader, Luol Deng. Brazil had four NBA players in the squad and Nigeria became a place where amazing happens, too. All told, there were 27 active NBA players on 10 different international teams. La Roja faced off with Team USA in the Gold Medal game once again, but the Spaniards lost for the second straight Olympics. Russia got Bronze.
This year, the Australians have a lot of NBA players with some serious grit, but no real star power: Andrew Bogut, Matthew Dellavedova, Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Aron Baynes, and Cameron Bairstow. The Aussies should be a fun team to watch! France is back with Batum, Parker, and Diaw; plus, they added the Stifle Tower, Rudy Gobert. Even without Marc Gasol in action, Spain will still have four NBA stars in Rio. The home-team Brazilians were to have five NBA players: Leandro Barbosa, Nene Hilario, Marcelo Huertas, Raul Neto, and Anderson Varejao; although it looks like Varejao may now be out of commission with a back injury. This is the most international NBA players the Olympics has ever seen: 29 in all, across 10 separate teams. Only the Chinese are lacking in active NBA player in 2016.
To summarize, check out the map below for the total number of appearances by NBA players on each country since 1992. Spain (14), Australia (14), and Argentina (12) led the way for the internationals. For comparison, there have been 81 appearances by NBA players on Team USA during that time (with some repeat appearances, obviously).
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