42 nations involved in new NBA season as Australia leads the way
AUSTRALIA’S place as an NBA breeding ground has been confirmed with a record nine Aussies suiting up for teams this season.
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AUSTRALIA’S place as an NBA breeding ground has been confirmed with a record nine Aussies suiting up for teams this season.
Canada is the only nation topping Australia on the NBA’s annual list of non-US players in the world’s elite basketball league.
Canada has 11 players on NBA opening-night rosters ahead of Australia and France in equal second place with nine.
Spain is next with seven players followed by Germany’s six and Croatia, Serbia and Turkey with five each.
The NBA has 108 non-US players from a record-tying 42 countries and territories on opening-night rosters for the 2018-19 season.
The NBA regular season opens on Tuesday (Wednesday 11am AEDT) with the Philadelphia 76ers, featuring Australians Ben Simmons and Jonah Bolden, taking on Queenslander Aron Baynes’ Boston Celtics.
The NBA list counts Celtics star Kyrie Irving as Australian, but does not include Sudan-born, Australian-raised Milwaukee Bucks centre Thon Maker as an Aussie.
Irving was born in Melbourne while his American professional basketball player father Drederick was playing with the Bulleen Boomers.
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The Irvings left Australia when Kyrie was a baby, he was raised in the US and elected to play with Team USA at the Olympics and other international tournaments.
Maker was five-years-old when his family fled war-torn South Sudan and they settled in Australia.
He plays for the Australian international team.
Australia’s record contingent came despite some recent withdrawals, with veteran Andrew Bogut departing the NBA for the NBL last season. On Friday the Brooklyn Nets cut Mitch Creek and the Toronto Raptors did the same to Deng Adel.
Sydney’s Isaac Humphries has aligned himself with the Atlanta Hawks but has not secured a roster spot while Mangok Mathiang, on a two-way contract with the Charlotte Hornets last season, is playing in Italy.
The other Australians joining Simmons, Bolden, Baynes and Maker on NBA rosters this season are rookie sharpshooter Ryan Broekhoff (Dallas Mavericks), Patty Mills (San Antonio Spurs), Matthew Dellavedova (Bucks), Joe Ingles and Dante Exum (Utah Jazz).
Broekhoff’s Mavericks have an NBA-high seven international players followed by the Jazz and LA Clippers with six and the 76ers, Celtics, Spurs, New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder with five each.
The Thunder’s Steven Adams is New Zealand’s only NBA player.