Old, New Foreign Cagers Making a Difference As Pro League Enters Crucial Stage
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 01 Mar 2025
The good news is the two most successful teams in the NBA 2024-25 season thus far are all-American or mostly composed of American starters.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, with a league-leading 48-10 slate, have a mostly all-American starting lineup starring Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, and Darius Garland, with Canadian-born Luguentz Dort as the only foreign major player.
Meanwhile, the Western Conference top team, the Oklahoma City Thunder (47-11), made up of starters Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Jaylin Williams, and Isaiah Joe, are essentially all-American, although top reserve center Isaiah Hartenstein is German.
But fancied squads like the Los Angeles Lakers and even the Golden State Warriors have added foreign flavors to their starting units, particularly the Lakers, which have been experimenting with a blending of Americans (LeBron James, Austin Reaves, et al.) with a Slovenian (Luka Dončić) and a Japanese (Rui Hachimura) with a great measure of success. The Warriors have a seven-foot Dutch player, Quentin Post, playing major minutes and contributing.
Post is just one of the latest foreign players fast becoming a household name in the world's premier professional basketball league. It has indeed long been a 180-degree turn in international caging where, before, American players were the most sought-after reinforcements in myriad leagues from Europe to the Middle East to Asia; now, it is players from these regions who have been flocking to America and making a difference for the various state squads.
From a handful that included Rik Smits, Dikembe Mutombo, Detlef Schrempf, and Toni Kukoč in the 1980s, followed by a gaggle that had Argentine Olympic standouts Manu Ginóbili and Luis Scola, it became an open floodgate with the likes of Yao Ming and Dirk Nowitzki leading the deluge of foreign players.
Foreign-born and raised players, with or without US college league eligibility, like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid (who has since acquired US citizenship), Rudy Gobert, and Nikola Jokić, have lately become stars and most important cogs in their respective teams.
Now it is the likes of Frenchman Victor Wembanyama and Egyptian Alperen Şengün who are making heads turn, although between the two, it is Şengün, playing for the Houston Rockets, who has the bigger chance for more exposure through the postseason playoffs than Wembanyama, who is with the struggling San Antonio Spurs. Then we have the Wagner brothers, Moritz and Franz, who are mesmerizing for the Orlando Magic.
We can expect Giannis (Milwaukee Bucks), Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers), Gobert (Minnesota Timberwolves), and Jokić (Denver Nuggets) to lead the charge for their respective teams for spots in the playoffs and in the postseason. Likewise with Kristaps Porziņģis for defending champion Boston Celtics, together with Dominican Al Horford and Portuguese Neemias Queta.
Meanwhile, silently but effectively, the pairs of Ivica Zubac and Bogdan Bogdanović for the LA Clippers and twin towers Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valančiūnas for the Sacramento Kings are making their difference.
This early, get used to hearing and reading about these eerie, mostly tongue-twisting names, as they will figure prominently as the pro league enters its crucial stages in the few months to come.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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