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Greatest Non-US NBA Producing Countries

think it depends how high you rate Peja

pretty hard to beat the Gasol brothers for Spain tbh

France and Australia have the depth but lack top tier names

Germany maybe
 
The French Hornets trio of Diaw (Bobcats), Batum, and Tony Parker write the definitive chapter in this book.

Any further questions ? See Hoard and Sarr.
 
I won't say too much about Africa or Latin America but from my European biased point of view I'd say it's probably something like:

1) The Balkans in general. I have a hard time seperating them into their different countries historically since they were all a part of Yugoslavia until relatively recently but I'd say in terms of basketball history Croatia and Serbia are number 1 and 2 (in either order) with the other balkan nations still sending a steady stream of players to the NBA. When you consider that the Balkan peninsula has a population of 55 million I wouldn't be surprised if in terms of guys actually getting minutes and contributing in the league if their per capita NBA contributors is approaching the level of the US.

2) Spain. Spain has probably some of the best basketball developmental systems in the world outside of the US. They've been sending guys over to the NBA for years now and the Gasol brothers are two of the most decorated international NBA players ever. When you combine them with all of the spanish role players and roster pieces in the NBA then I'd say they're comfortably in second. If you count naturalized players like Nikola Mirotic and Serge Ibaka then they look even stronger. There's a reason the Spanish league is the premier domestic league in the world outside of the NBA.

3) Lithuania. If you were talking all time basketball talent I'd possibly put lithuania in second place thanks to Arvydas Sabonis but since he didn't get to the league until well past his best I'm happy to put them in 3rd. Basketball has been their national sport for years and the quality of players they've produced from such a small nation as a result is pretty insane. The country has a total population of under 3 million which is roughly the same population as the city of Chicago, despite this Lithuania has had 20 players drafted to the NBA since the USSR dissolved and they became their own independant nation. I'd list a few off but fuck trying to spell their names right.

4) France. France maybe doesn't have the most decorated history in terms of NBA players but in recent years they've been pumping out a crazy amount of talent. Tony Parker, Rudy Gobert, Boris Diaw, Nic Batum and Evan Fournier just to name a few from the last decade or two. It feels like every year lately there's at least one french guy, and possibly more, being spoke about as potential lottery guys, like this year there's this tall skinny kid that's apparently supposed to be pretty good... Victor something? I dunno maybe you guys have heard of him.

There are a few other countries that are worth mentioning from Europe like Greece (although you could consider Greece a part of the Balkans geographically, most people generally don't culturally), Germany and the other former Soviet nations but I think the ones I've listed above are the standouts.

And while I don't know enough about africa or south america to go into much detail I'd also throw out Brazil, Argentina and Nigeria as 3 honourable mentions. Brazil seemingly always have at least a handful of guys playing in the NBA at any one time and is home of Oscar Schmidt who might be the best player to never play in the NBA. Argentina have had a few notable names, Ginobili and Scola being the first two that jump to mind but are far from the only ones. Nigeria is an interesting one for me because the actual nation of Nigeria doesn't seem to produce too much NBA talent but the Nigerian diaspora around the world is one of the main providers of talent in the NBA. OG Anunoby and Giannis are two players that represent European nations (GB and Greece) but they're both 2nd generation Nigerian immigrants and if you look at the Nigerian national basketball team you'll see it's absolutely full of American players who are either 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants who've accepted they're probably not going to get a chance to represent the US (Gabe Vincent, Precious Achiuwa, Jordan Nwora, Monte Morris, Semi Ojeleye, Josh Okogie, Jahlil Okafor, Spencer Dinwiddie, Victor Oladipo etc etc). Also you could probably add Australia to this list since the game seems to be exploding over there and there seem to be more and more aussies in the league every year.
 
Africa has sent some great players to the NBA despite not having nearly the investment in hoops that Europe has had. The Basketball Africa League seems to be taking off and I expect we’ll see more lottery picks from the continent soon enough.
 
Gold medal winning Argentina feels like honorable mention is a little low.
 
deaconson said:
Gold medal winning Argentina feels like honorable mention is a little low.
Click to expand...
Probably because that gold medal was almost 20 years ago and there are no Argentinian players in the NBA.

But I checked and Argentina is ranked #4 in the FIBA World rankings, so they must pretty good (Spain, USA, Australia top 3).
 
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