{"id":230542,"date":"2025-10-21T23:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/230542\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T23:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T23:59:07","slug":"nba-rosters-continue-to-grow-with-global-players-including-23-from-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/230542\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA rosters continue to grow with global players, including 23 from Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) and Toronto Raptors forward Sandro Mamukelashvili (54) watch as guard RJ Barrett (9) gathers a rebound in the first half of a preseason game at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.Bob Frid\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Basketball keeps getting more global.<\/p>\n

The NBA season opens Tuesday, and the league\u2019s opening night rosters show a record 135 players who were born outside the United States, including a league-leading 23 from Canada. They come from 43 countries \u2014 tying a record \u2014 and 71 are from Europe, the most ever from that continent.<\/p>\n

That development comes with the NBA in talks, along with FIBA \u2014 the sport\u2019s global governing body \u2014 to develop a new league in Europe, something that could happen as early as 2027. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe state of the game of basketball in Europe I think is fantastic,\u201d NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last month. \u201cThey have their own traditions, which we of course want to maintain, but we think there\u2019s an opportunity to bring an NBA-style league to the continent and to take the game to another level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City\u2019s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, leads a Canadian contingent that also includes his teammate on the Thunder\u2019s 2024-25 championship team, top defender Luguentz Dort.<\/p>\n

Toronto Raptors forward RJ Barrett, veteran star Andrew Wiggins of the Miami Heat and Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard of the finalist Indiana Pacers are part of the Canadian contingent \u2014 the largest outside the U.S. for the 12th straight season.<\/p>\n

The NBA lists Boston Celtics forward Chris Boucher (St. Lucia) and Washington Wizards guard\/forward Kyshawn George (Switzerland) as having ties to Canada but does not include them among the country\u2019s players. <\/p>\n

All 30 teams have at least one international player on their opening night rosters. And the NBA is expected to finalize a new All-Star Game format before long, one that will have U.S. players taking on international players in a tournament.<\/p>\n

Along with Gilgeous-Alexander, players born outside the U.S. have won the last seven NBA MVP awards (Serbia\u2019s Nikola Jokic three times, Greece\u2019s Giannis Antetokounmpo twice, Cameroon-born Joel Embiid once and Gilgeous-Alexander once), the longest such streak in league history. It should be noted that Embiid is an American citizen and helped the U.S. win Olympic gold at the Paris Games in 2024.<\/p>\n

LeBron watch<\/p>\n

At this point, every time Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James plays he updates league records. He\u2019s the NBA\u2019s all-time leader in points and minutes and has a few more milestones in his sights this season.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Bronny James (9) of the Los Angeles Lakers sits on the bench next to his father Lebron James against the Golden State Warriors during a preseason NBA game at Chase Center in San Francisco.Thearon W. Henderson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u2014 His first game of the year will officially make this his 23rd season, breaking a tie with Vince Carter for the most in NBA history by a player.<\/p>\n

\u2014 If he plays in 50 games, he\u2019ll break the record of 1,611 (regular season only) held by Robert Parish.<\/p>\n

\u2014 If he makes 350 field goals, he\u2019ll break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar\u2019s mark of 15,837.<\/p>\n

Milestones on the way<\/p>\n

\u2014 James Harden of the Los Angeles Clippers has 27,687 points in his career and needs 603 more points to pass Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony for 10th on the NBA\u2019s all-time list.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sacramento\u2019s Russell Westbrook needs 75 assists to become the eighth player in NBA history with 10,000.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Indiana coach Rick Carlisle is seven wins shy of 1,000 in his career. He\u2019ll be the 11th coach to get it and probably the last for at least a few more years; Miami\u2019s Erik Spoelstra enters this season with 787 wins.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Spoelstra is nine wins shy of passing Red Auerbach for the most wins coaching one team. Auerbach won 795 with the Celtics; only Gregg Popovich (1,390 with San Antonio) and Jerry Sloan (1,127 with Utah) had more wins with one franchise.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers has been on the sideline for 1,978 games, which is eighth-most \u2014 for now \u2014 in league history. If he coaches the full season, he\u2019ll climb to No. 4 on the all-time games coached list, passing Bill Fitch (2,050), Jerry Sloan (2,024), Larry Brown (2,002) and George Karl (1,999). No. 1 on that list is Lenny Wilkens (2,487), No. 2 is Don Nelson (2,318) and No. 3 is Gregg Popovich (2,214).<\/p>\n

\u2014 Denver, Brooklyn, Indiana and San Antonio will all play their 4,000th all-time NBA game this season. Denver will get there against Brooklyn on Jan. 29, Indiana\u2019s milestone game comes Feb. 2 at home against Houston, while San Antonio and Brooklyn will both get there on Feb. 5 \u2014 the Spurs doing so in Dallas, the Nets doing so in Orlando.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Atlanta is 33 wins away from becoming the sixth franchise with 3,000 regular season wins, joining Boston, the Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia, New York and Golden State.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Indiana is 20 wins from 2,000 regular season wins.<\/p>\n

14 million coming<\/p>\n

The league enters this season about 46,000 points shy of someone scoring the 14 millionth point in NBA history.<\/p>\n

Based on last year\u2019s average of about 228 points per game being scored, it\u2019ll take somewhere around 200 games this season for someone to reach the milestone. <\/p>\n

That means it\u2019ll happen somewhere around Nov. 17, give or take a day or two either way.<\/p>\n

Name gameOpen this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets centre Nikola Joki\u0107 warms up before a preseason game against the Chicago Bulls earlier this month in Denver.Jack Dempsey\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Among the name highlights in the NBA this season, based on the opening night rosters:<\/p>\n

\u2014 There are seven Jordans (Boston\u2019s Jordan Walsh, the Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 Jordan Miller, New Orleans\u2019 Jordan Hawkins and Jordan Poole, New York\u2019s Jordan Clarkson, Phoenix\u2019s Jordan Goodwin and San Antonio\u2019s Jordan McLaughlin). Combined, they\u2019re about 10,000 points behind Michael Jordan\u2019s career total.<\/p>\n

\u2014 There are five players named Nikola (Denver\u2019s Nikola Jokic, Miami\u2019s Nikola Jovic, Oklahoma City\u2019s Nikola Topic, Atlanta\u2019s Nikola Durisic and Chicago\u2019s Nikola Vucevic).<\/p>\n

\u2014 There are five James (the Lakers\u2019 LeBron and Bronny James, the Clippers\u2019 James Harden, Indiana\u2019s James Wiseman and Charlotte\u2019s Sion James).<\/p>\n

\u2014 Orlando Robinson might be the only player in the league who\u2019ll wear his first name on the front of his jersey and his last name on the back. He has a two-way deal with the Magic.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Bucks have three Antetokounmpo brothers: Giannis, Thanasis and two-way player Alex.<\/p>\n

The Nets are young. Really young<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Nets are young. So young, in fact, that they don\u2019t have anyone on their roster who ranks among the league\u2019s top 100 active scorers headed into this season.<\/p>\n

The numbers are wild when put into perspective. Players on the Nets\u2019 opening night roster have combined for 21,708 points and 1,018 starts at this point in their careers.<\/p>\n

There are eight active players \u2014 LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan, Chris Paul and Damian Lillard \u2014 with more points than the Nets\u2019 roster starts this season with.<\/p>\n

James, Paul, DeRozan, Mike Conley, Durant, Al Horford, Russell Westbrook, Brook Lopez and Stephen Curry all have more starts.<\/p>\n

James, Andre Drummond and Nikola Vucevic have more rebounds than everyone on the Nets roster. Curry \u2014 the NBA\u2019s all-time three-point king \u2014 leads a group of six players with more threes than the Nets, while there are 10 players with more steals and 26 players with more assists.<\/p>\n

The leading scorer on the Nets\u2019 roster right now is Michael Porter Jr., with 5,597 points in his career to this point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) and Toronto Raptors forward Sandro Mamukelashvili (54)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,459,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-230542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-nba","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}