Top foreign NBA players of all time

Throughout the years, the National Basketball Association has become more diverse and open to foreigners than ever in history. This can be credited to top US players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James who helped spread the NBA and the sport of basketball to many countries. Consequentially, there has been an increasing influx of international players that are now starring in the NBA.

In this article you will see some of the best performing international NBA players of all time. If you want to keep track in real time of how people are betting on some of these players, you can sign up to bet online and check their stats with up-to-the-second updates. 

Top foreign NBA players

Yao Ming

Until this day, Ming is the only Chinese player to ever be drafted in the NBA. Starting in the 2002-03 season at 7 ft 6 in, he was the tallest player in the NBA at that time. He was not only tall, but very skillful and with quick response times and instincts.

Unfortunately, he was forced to retire after only 9 seasons in the NBA, after sustaining multiple foot injuries. Yao Ming was indicted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016, being also the tallest player to do it so.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Born in Greece to Nigerian parents, the “Greek Freak” was first drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2013 and is among the top NBA players nowadays.

Currently he is the third best scorer in the league with 29.6 points per game. Last year, he was awarded the MVP title at only 25 years old. He also won the Most Improved Player Award from the NBA.

Steve Nash

This South African player is considered among the top 5 shooters of all time, drafted in 1996 by the Phoenix Suns. For his first few seasons, he played as a backup to Jason Kidd, then two years later went to the Mavs to play along with Dirk Nowitzki.

In 2004 he went back to the Suns, winning two consecutive MVP awards. He then finished his career with the Los Angeles Lakers and was then included in the Hall of Fame

Hakeem Olajuwon

Born in Nigeria, Olajuwon is considered by many the best foreign player in the NBA of all time. During his 1993-94 season, he was able to earn the MVP, Defensive Player of The Year and the Finals MVP awards, along with awarding the Houston Rockets their first NBA championship.