” I do n’t know anything about Angola, but Angola’s in trouble”, Charles Barkley said before the Dream Team’s dominant 116-48 victory to open the 1992 Olympics.
Fast-forward to 2024, and the U. S. men’s basketball team needed a last-minute touchdown by LeBron James to stave off South Sudan 101-100 in show enjoy.
International sports competitions have become less repetitive. In the quarterfinals of the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Germany almost defeated the United States in an exhibition match last quarter. In the bronze medal match of the same competition, Canada defeated the United States, and Paris welcomed a crew made up of 11 current or former NBA people.
In the 1992 Olympics, there were 12 people with NBA expertise across the non-U. S. team. This season, there are 69.

Despite the success of global NBA expertise in the competition, the U. S. is still a big -600 favored to win the gold medal on DraftKings. The Americans defeated South Sudan and Serbia to claim the hosts ‘ primary two 2024 Olympic games, winning by 26 and 17 respectively. Nonetheless, the overall schedules in Paris reflect the sport’s ongoing, international expansion.
According to Troy Justice, head of NBA international sports procedures,” The Dream Team’s performance in 1992 was the original catalyst for international growth.” The level of skills and play was “inspired by the players from all over the world.” This goal is embodied in the ideas of young boys and girls all over the world.
There has been a steady increase in non-American people throughout NBA past: from eight on opening day of the 1983-84 period to 73 in 2003-04 and finally to a report 125 in 2023-24, counting those on two-way deals.
It’s not just the number of foreign players that has increased, but the value as well. The past six NBA MVPs have been awarded to people born outside of the U. S., with minute and third-place 2024 MVP winners Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Dončić calling from Canada and Slovenia, both.
In the past decade, the biggest spikes have come from Canada ( eight players in 2013-14 versus 26 in 2023-24 ) and Africa ( seven players in 2013-14 up to 15 in 2023-24 ).
Amadou Gallo Fall, president of the Basketball Africa League ( BAL ), said,” In the case of Africa, what really contributed was the focus on making the game accessible to young people and getting more young people to play it.”
The NBA, along with FIBA, launched Basketball Without Borders ( BWB ) in Africa in 2003. Over the years, 19 BWB Africa tents have reached more than 1, 600 members, 13 of whom went on to play in the NBA. Luc Mbah a Moute, who later returned to Africa and assisted in the discovery of Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam, two NBA All-Stars, was one of them.
The league has continued its investment in the continent, opening its Africa headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2010, as well as offices in Senegal ( 2021 ), Nigeria ( 2022 ), Egypt and Kenya ( 2023 ) more recently. In addition to assisting lots of aspiring NCAA Division I athletes and two NBA people, NBA Academy Africa, a sports training facility in Senegal, opened in 2017. The professional league BAL, which was established as a collaboration between FIBA and NBA Africa, only wrapped its third season in June. It has 12 teams spread across the continent.
The skill pool’s rapid expansion abroad has some issues. A cottage industry of fly-by-night prep schools like Kanye West’s Donda Academy has emerged in the United States over the past 15 years, promising to expose global young people to university consultants and a chance to have a professional job. While people such as Embiid have successfully navigated National training schools as a stepping-stone to the NBA, many others have been scammed by less reasonable, or even completely fraudulent, “academies” whose methods have been the theme of human-trafficking studies. Young international players have had to endure subpar living conditions while attending unaccredited U.S. universities and been the targets of student visa fraud scams that have resulted in some deportation after being barred from bootleg preparations.
Most NBA Academy Africa graduates, whether they are in college or professionally, skip the prep school step entirely. As a professional sports league, Chris Ebersole, head of international basketball development, said,” We recognize that we have recourses,” but we are n’t able to completely overhaul entire systems.” We believe that the Academy can develop a system that enables both that education and the provision of significant structural and infrastructure.
The NBA’s position as South Sudan’s 2024 Olympic team is a testament to the organization’s work in Africa. Khaman Maluach, a 2019 NBA Academy Africa alumnus who also won the NBA Academy Africa MVP award in 2023, spent several seasons at BAL, and is an NBA Academy Africa alumnus. The Duke commit, top-ranked 2025 NBA Draft prospect, Nuni Omot, and Majok Deng, two other BAL players, are in Paris to represent their respective nations.
South Sudan, which gained its independence in 2011, was the youngest nation in the world and experienced a civil war between 2013 and 2020. Luol Deng, a former NBA All-Star, has led the South Sudan Basketball Federation since 2019 and has contributed to many aspects of the program from his own pocket, believing that basketball can help foster unity and national pride.
The NBA, whose mission statement reads” to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball,” claims that its objectives in Africa go beyond just building a pipeline for future NBA players.
” Yes, the number of African players in the NBA ] will undoubtedly increase, but we also want some of the talent coming out of the continent’s development programs to stay here and play at a very, very high level,” said Fall. We want the continent’s economy to grow as a result.
In both established and expanding markets, the league insists on establishing basketball systems. Justice says he’s less focused on the number of international players in the NBA, but rather the number of countries represented, which was 40 on opening night of the 2023-24 season—notably, not a significant increase from 34 in 2003-04.
” I would n’t say there’s going to be one country or one region where the next wave]of talent ] will come from, but the number of 40 countries is going to expand”, Justice said. NBA and WNBA players coming from unconventional markets where they might be the first ones to make it will start to gain popularity.
Fans in new markets would have a chance to experience and interact with the NBA. ” We’re going to have more countries represented in the league”, Fall said. The world’s footprint will become “beautiful,” he says.
In the meantime, we’ll get a more thrilling and competitive Olympic men’s basketball tournament than fans saw in 1992 in Barcelona.