The past six NBA MVP awards have been given to players born overseas, and several new potential stars born outside the United States were set to be selected in the first round of the draft on Wednesday night at Barclays Center.
Nikola Jokic (three times), Giannis Antetokounmpo (two times) and Joel Embiid have won six MVP trophies to date, and it’s not hard to imagine Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and unanimous 2024 Rookie of the Year Victor Wenbanyama joining them in the future.
French teenagers Zachary Lisacher and Alex Sarr were expected to be selected at or near the top of this year’s draft but either would have made history if they were selected first by the Hawks after Wenbanyama was taken first by the Spurs a year ago.
France becomes the first European country to be named the No. 1 pick two years in a row, joining Canada (Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins in 2014 and 2015) as the only other foreign country to achieve such a feat.
“When you watch Alex and Zachary play, you’d think they were kids who grew up in Detroit or Los Angeles or New York, not Toulouse or Paris,” former St. John’s coach and current ESPN commentator Fran Fraschilla told The Post last week. “If you look around the NBA, there are a lot of French kids now. [Rudy] Gobert, [Nic] Batum, [Evan] Names that have been mentioned include Fournier, before that Tony Parker, and now Wenby.
“The French professional league is developing a lot and the coaching is very good.”
“In the past, players had to adapt to America – a different kind of coaching, lifestyle, food and so on. And now they’re almost Americanized in that respect, so I’d say they’re ahead of the curve.”
Sarr, for example, played in the Overtime Elite Development League in the United States and in Australia last season.
Lisacher has previously played for Asbel Basket, owned by Hall of Fame guard Parker, and JL Bourse in the top division of the French professional league.
Fraschilla, who describes himself as an “international basketball addict” on his social media profiles, believes the large influx of players from around the world dates back to the 1960s and ’70s, when coaches such as Hubie Brown, Dr. Jack Ramsay and Louis Carnesecca held coaching clinics around the world.
“Of course, it was like a week’s holiday,” joked Fraschilla, “to speak at the Italian coaches’ association and spend some free time in Rome or somewhere. But these guys took football global and suddenly the Dream Team was born. [in 1992] And all of a sudden, a young Dirk Nowitzki or someone like him was thinking he could play in the NBA.
“And now, probably most importantly, coaching all over the world has gotten so good that they are actually teaching the game back to us. … The world is smaller because we taught the world the game, and the world is teaching it back to us in amazing ways.”
The 2023-24 season will mark the third consecutive season with at least 120 international players on Opening Day NBA rosters and the 10th consecutive season with at least 100 international players on Opening Day NBA rosters.
For the 10th consecutive year, Canada had the highest number of delegates outside the United States, followed by France (14), Australia (9), Serbia (7), Germany (6), Nigeria and Turkey (5 each).
At least three foreign players have been selected to the All-NBA First Team for four consecutive seasons, including this year’s four – Jokic, Antetokounmpo, Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander.
At least 10 international players have been selected in the NBA Draft every year since 2000, with at least two finishing in the top 10 each of the past 11 years.
The latter number was expected to reach 12 on Wednesday night, regardless of the order of selection.
In addition to Lisacher and Sarr, forward Matas Buzelis (Lithuania) and guard Nikola Topic (Serbia) were also projected as potential top-10 picks in The Post’s final mock draft.
“When we started the draft in 2004, there was no influx of international players into the league at the time,” Fraschilla said. “This was [Pau] Gasol, Dirk and Tony Parker [Manu] Ginobili was in the league, but the cavalcade of talent that has emerged in the league over the past decade has not, and now nearly 25 percent of the league is made up of players born outside the United States.
“So when players look at a Doncic or a Wenby or a Jokic, they come in with a lot more confidence than they did 20 years ago, because there are so many other guys who have followed the same path. They see themselves in the mirror, already successful in the NBA.”
