Over the past several years, there has been some palpable concern among former American NBA players that international players are taking over the league. With the rise of Nikola Jokic (Serbia), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), Luka Doncic (Slovenia), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), and Joel Embiid (Cameroon), four-time NBA Champion Andre Iguodala said “we got to be careful” or American players could soon be outnumbered by international players.
On Carmelo Anthony and Kid Mero's ‘7PM in Brooklyn' podcast, Iguodala was asked about what he thought of Jalen Rose's tweet in which he said American-born players must “work tireless and show discipline” or risk their NBA jobs “becoming extinct.” Iguodala agreed, saying that there are major issues in youth basketball in the United States.
“We don't have the discipline that they're showing,” Iguodala said of the difference between American and international players. “We don't have a structure…
“We have an entitlement issue with our youth because we’re coddling them and we’re paying them at a young age. You got agents paying kids at 14, 15 years old, bankrolling families because agents now look at our youth as a venture capital firm. ‘I’m going to spread out my bets across the board each year and keep a pipeline and I’m going to hit the jackpot, and the numbers say the odds are going to come back. I’m going to 10X my investment,' and it’s disrupting youth development.”
Iguodala said in contrast, Europe has become a “factory” of sorts for NBA talent.
“They’ve got the blueprint on the procreation part — tall African, you’re getting a tall female, and they’re creating these monsters,” Iguodala said. “Teach them how to walk straight, teach them how to [re]bound and do twists and play soccer — they got the footwork — then get some hand-eye coordination. And they just build them, it’s a factory.”
NBA's international takeover
From the first NBA Draft in 1947 to 2012, the year Anthony Davis went first overall, the top pick in the draft was American all but six times. From 2013 to today, however, the first overall pick in the NBA Draft has been American six times (including Karl-Anthony Towns, who plays for the Dominican Republic national team) and non-American six times. Anthony Bennett, a Canadian, was the first in a trend for the league, and fellow Canadian Andrew Wiggins followed as the top pick the next year.
Ben Simmons, who was born in Australia to an Australian mother and American father was taken first overall in 2016 before Bahamas native Deandre Ayton was selected by the Phoenix Suns over Slovenia's Luka Doncic in the 2018 draft. After a four-year stretch in which an American was picked first, a pair of Frenchmen have gone off the board before anyone else; Victor Wembanyama was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs last year, while Zaccharie Risacher went first to the Atlanta Hawks this year.
In addition to the first-overall picks, international players have become the predominant players in the league. Nikola Jokic, who is Serbian, has won three of the last four MVPs, and was named Finals MVP in 2023 after winning the Denver Nuggets' first championship. Cameroon-born Joel Embiid, who has since decided to represent the U.S. national team, won the MVP last year and has remained one of the top players in the league over the past five years.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, a Greece native of Nigerian descent, has also proven to be among the best players in the league, having won back-to-back MVPs in 2019 and 2020 before winning an NBA Championship and Finals MVP in 2021. Doncic and Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, although not MVPs or champions yet, finished in the top three in MVP voting this year and led two of the Western Conference's best teams.
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