Random stuff - countries outside US with the most NBA players
16 - Canada
9 - Australia
8 - France
This was a graph from Magic vs Cavs game (on Fultz highlights video - 12pts 6ast for Fultz) that I just saw. I thought others might be interested in it too.
I was taken aback at how many Canadians are now in the league. That is a lot. Well done Canada. Australia has done a great job too. Those are big changes from 20 years ago.
France you would expect. They steadily produce NBA players and have done so for a long time now. Other teams like Argentina have more of a Golden Generation type situation ... but France has steady production lines.
Very interesting.
One thing I thought of during the World Cup is that world has really passed USA in terms of quality centers. Just look at the Celts the last 2 years Horford, Baynes, Theis, Kanter, Poirier, and Tacko. Looking around the league there are the Gasol brothers, Embiid, Towns, Vuvecic, Sabonis, Ayton, Jokic, Porzingas, Gobert, Capella, Adams, and Valanciunas.
Conversely it doesn’t seem like the world has done much at developing NBA quality point guards where we have stars all over the league at that position.