It’s hard to imagine a league of any given sport that has done more to become truly international than the NBA with the likes of Global NBA School initiatives, support for the African professional league within the NBA, and its truly impressive expansion in the Asian continent.
This internationalization has made its reverse way, with full interaction across all continents, international stars are now taking over the general stardom picture of the NBA right here in the United States.
The Serbian player, Nikola Jokic, was named MVP two seasons in a row, and before him we had Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2018-19 and 2019-20. This is also a direct result of the number of relationships and scouting efforts in other continents that have more than quintupled in the last decade alone.
All stats clearly indicate that Luka Doncic may well be the next best player of the entire league as soon as next season. Adding other international players to the long list Leandro Barbosa, for the Warriors, and Dirk Werner Nowitzki, for the Dallas Mavericks, currently have key positions as assistant coaches and special advisors to their respective teams, showing that their importance has expanded way beyond the courts (as phenomenal players). Proving that international diversity for the NBA is indeed a key asset.
David Stern, former NBA commissioner, saw the NBA as a global arena, in which players, experiences, scouting and markets were all interconnected as one, a single NBA market worldwide. Adam Silver has been pushing this concept to all limits possible breaking barriers never thought possible before.
This international expansion truly functions like a two-way lane, Europe’s T.V ratings for the NBA increases 110% whenever there is a game with Giannis Antetokounmpo, or whenever there is someone from Europe in the picture. Not to mention the increase of fans in Asia which has been incredible, to say the least, currently China is a market growing more than all North America continent and parts of Europe combined.
It’s the NBA turning the game Global.
