PHOENIX (USA) - Non-USA born players in the NBA are now the best players in the league, at least judging from the voting for the MVP award the past several years.
Serbia's Nikola Jokic has won three MVPs (2021, 2022, 2024), Greece's Giannis Antetokounmpo two (2019, 2020) and Cameroon's Joel Embiid one (2023) since 2019.
They are, as illustrated by the Instagram post above, part of a third wave of non-USA players to dominate in the NBA.
More than 85% of the votes for the last four NBA MVP awards went to players born outside the USA
When Jokic won his first MVP in 2021, four of the top six vote-getters were non-USA players. That year, Jokic collected 91 first-place votes and finished ahead of, in order, Embiid, Stephen Curry, Antetokounmpo, Chris Paul and Slovenian Luka Doncic. Jokic won it decisively. In terms of first-place votes, Curry was second with five.
In last season's voting, Jokic beat Canada's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic to the MVP award. There wasn't a USA player in that top three. A record of 90.4 percent of MVP votes were cast for "International players". The overall voting had Jokic as MVP, followed by, in order, Gilgeous-Alexander, Doncic, Antetokounmpo, Jalen Brunson, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Domantas Sabonis and Kevin Durant.
In Olympic competition, the USA remain the best with their run to gold in Paris last year making it five Olympic gold medals in a row. The USA have made it to the top of the podium at every Olympics since 2008, although it has been a struggle to clear the last hurdle or two at each, with the 2016 Rio Olympics the lone exception.
At the Olympics in Paris, the USA had to come from 17 points down to beat Serbia in the Semi-Finals to win, 95-91, and then had a real fight against France for a second Gold Medal Game in a row before winning, 98-87.
When America's four-time Olympic gold medalist and 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup MVP Kevin Durant was asked recently if the world would ever catch up with the USA in the sport, he answered: "Hell no, of course not ... No, I don't believe it's close."
“Basketball is such a global sport and is growing continuously,” answered former USA Basketball player (2002 WC and 2004 Olympics) Shawn Marion in a recent interview with SCMP. “So think about what you’re just saying."
Very cocky, very arrogant
"Kevin Durant is one of the most skilled players, I got so much love and respect for him, but of course, that saying was very cocky, very arrogant. The championship game for them [against France at the Olympics] was tough, and they’re ageing out. A lot of guys on the team this year are older and they won’t be playing in Los Angeles in 2028. Durant will be retired, LeBron [James] will be done, too. We had Joel Embiid, but technically he is not American. Who’s the best American big man? Anthony Davis probably and there’s only one.”
“A lot of these national teams are playing every summer, they’re growing, playing and practicing to beat America,” he said. “That’s what everybody wants to do, beat America. It’s going to be tough, it’s not going to be easy, nothing is guaranteed [in LA].”
The USA remains by far the best country when it comes to producing elite basketball players. However, what we are witnessing is that at the very top of the crème de la crème, players from other countries—especially European ones—make up a highly diverse group among the top 10 players in the world. This is definitely a new trend in the basketball world.
The arrival of dominating non-USA players to the NBA has had three waves. The first began with Nigerian Hakeem Olajuwon, who entered the league as the No. 1 draft pick by the Houston Rockets in 1984. He had just led the Houston Cougars, a team dubbed Phi Slama Jama, to a second straight NCAA Final appearance. (North Carolina State beat Houston in the '83 Final while Patrick Ewing and Georgetown defeated Olajuwon and Co in the '84 Final).
Olajuwon became the first non-USA born player to be named NBA MVP in 1994, the year he led the Rockets to their first NBA title. In that MVP race, Olajuwon received 34% of the votes He also spearheaded the team's championship run the following year.
Other prominent non-USA players at the time were Germany's Detlef Schrempf and Jamaica's Ewing, Croatia's Drazen Petrovic, Serbia's Vlade Divac, Lithuania's Sarunas Marciulionis, and Zaire's Dikembe Mutombo. Ewing, who was born in Jamaica in 1962 and moved to the USA in 1975, played for the Dream Team at the 1992 Olympics. Olajuwon moved to the USA in his late teens to play for the Houston Cougars, won gold with the Americans four years later in Atlanta.
The second wave of non-USA players started just before the millennium, led by future NBA MVPs Steve Nash of Canada, Germany's Dirk Nowitzki and US Virgin Islands' Tim Duncan. Nicknamed The Big Fundamental, Duncan was named MVP in 2002 and 2003. Nash was MVP in 2005 and 2006, Nowitzki in 2007.
Nash and Nowitzki earned 64% of the MVP vote in 2007 and were in the top 3 in voting from 2005 to 2007.
Nash, who made his mark with the Phoenix Suns, was incredible. He led the league in assists in five of his seasons. Nowitzki also scooped MVP honors while playing with Germany. He was the MVP of the 2002 World Cup and also the EuroBasket 2005 MVP. He was an NBA All-Star 14 times.
Other leading non-USA players at the time included Spain's Pau Gasol, France's Tony Parker, Argentina's Manu Ginobili and China's Yao Ming.
The third wave of dominating non-USA players was started by Antetokounmpo and includes Jokic, Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander. In addition to their MVP awards, Antetokounmpo (2021) and Jokic (2023) have captured NBA titles. Antetokounmpo entered the league in 2013 while Jokic arrived in 2015 and Gilgeous-Alexander in 2018.
The truth is that successful NBA teams over the years have owed much of their success to players from overseas, which is why they scout the international game so heavily. One of them was Croatian Toni Kukoc, which Durant acknowledged in his interview, albeit with the caveat that he was influenced by Americans.
The international impact is growing. The latest two stars to come from overseas that could soon contend for the NBA MVP award in the coming years are probably France's Victor Wembanyama, a member of the All-Star Five at the Olympics, and Germany's Franz Wagner, who was the MVP of his country's FIBA Basketball World Cup Final win in 2023.
At the FIBA Basketball World Cups, USA teams have not been as dominant. Since the millennium, Yugoslavia (2002), Spain (2006, 2019) and Germany (2023) have lifted the Naismith Trophy. The USA won the world title in 2010 and 2014.
Next stop? FIBA World Cup 2027 in Qatar.
FIBA