{"id":940264,"date":"2026-10-20T16:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T16:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940264\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T16:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T16:48:11","slug":"canada-no-longer-the-leader-in-international-players-named-to-opening-day-nba-rosters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940264\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada no longer the leader in international players named to opening-day NBA rosters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<br class=\"clr\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"posted\">By Canadian Press on October 20, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/fdafd01ecadd5692a92374c7b4b71a26b6b2a1e31ede9b6eb7be827ed12603e5-266x333.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) defends Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) during the second half of Game 7 in the Western Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo\/Nate Billings)<\/p>\n<p>TORONTO \u2014 Canada is no longer the NBA\u2019s biggest source of international talent.<\/p>\n<p>The list of international players released Tuesday by the NBA shows France with a league-leading 17 players, one more than Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Canada had boasted the largest international presence on opening-day rosters for the previous 12 seasons. The 16 Canadian players to start 2026-27 represent a drop of nine from last season.<\/p>\n<p>Canada lost one player on Monday when Dallas Mavericks forward Dwight Powell was waived after 12 seasons with the club. The 2025-26 Canadian contingent also included longtime Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, who died in May of a drug overdose, and veteran centre Kelly Olynyk, who joined Italian club BC Roma earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Three teams have two Canadians on their roster: Atlanta (Luguentz Dort, Nickeil Alexander-Walker), Denver (Jamal Murray, Ryan Nembhard) and Memphis (Zach Edey, Olivier-Maxence Prosper).<\/p>\n<p>Two-time NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads the Oklahoma City Thunder. RJ Barrett is the only Canadian currently on the Toronto Raptors.<\/p>\n<p>France\u2019s contingent is led by superstar forward Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n<p>The NBA says 125 players, down 10 from last year, from 43 countries are on rosters to start the season.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>13<br \/> -12\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<br class=\"clr\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Canadian Press on October 20, 2026. San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) defends Oklahoma City Thunder&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-940264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940264","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=940264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}