AGreek is crowned NBA MVP… a Serbian wins the NBA’s Player of the Season award… a Cameroonian is proclaimed the NBA’s Player of the Season… a Canadian is hailed as the NBA’s Player of the Season… Read like that, it could be the start of a joke, and if anyone had thought to predict such a thing more than a decade ago, they would have been laughed at.
But times have changed and what would have been a pipe dream in other times has become a reality. The choice of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder) confirms that the United States has lost its NBA hegemony to the foreign legion. For the seventh consecutive season, the MVP of the season, considered the best player in the world, is not American. The joke has become a heavy joke for the pride of the inventors and absolute dominators of this sport.
What seemed impossible has become a reality
Historically, the NBA has been a championship dominated by American players. They have led most of the most important statistics and have monopolized the game and the spotlight in a tournament made to their measure that has expanded worldwide propelled by its great legends, myths wrapped in the stars and stripes flag installed on a pedestal that seemed unattainable for the rest of the mortals… but that’s over.
What seemed impossible years ago has happened: the United States has lost its supremacy in the NBA to a legion of increasingly powerful and prominent international players in the competition. This growing trend has been accentuated over the last 20 years with the massive influx of foreign superstars who have been grabbing the spotlight and the main distinctions of the competition, pushing American figures into the background.
No American wins MVP… since 2018!
The clearest example of this sorpasso is that the last seven MVPs (Most Valuable Player of the Season) have been international players. GreekGiannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks) was the MVP in 2019 and 2020, followed by SerbianNikola Jokic (Nuggets) in 2021 and 2022. Cameroon’s Joel Embiid (Sixers) was honored with that nomination in 2023, Nikola Jokic repeated again in 2024, and Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder) has taken over this season. The NBA has not had an American MVP since 2018, when James Harden (Rockets) won the award.
Seven international players have been MVP in 70 years
1994: Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria)
2005 and 2006: Steve Nash (Canada)
2007: Dirk Nowitzki (Germany)
2029 and 2020: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece)
2021, 2022 and 2024: Nikola Jokic (Serbia)
2023: Joel Embiid (Cameroon)
2025: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada)
To highlight the significance of this revolution, it is worth noting that in the 70 years of the award’s existence, which was created in the 1955-56 season, only 11 players have been born outside the United States, and the last seven seasons in a row. Only seven international players have held this honor and it took 38 years to see the first, Nigerian center Hakeem Olajuwon in 1994. He was followed by Canadian Steve Nash (2005 and 2006), German Dirk Nowitzki (2007), the aforementioned Antetokounmpo, Embiid and Jokic, and this season Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The internationals lead in points and rebounds
The MVP is not the only award that denotes the growing preponderance of non-American players in the NBA. Just take a look at the most significant statistics to realize this. The top three scorers this season were foreigners: Shai (32.7), Antetokounmpo (30.4) and Jokic (29.6). The fourth could have been Slovenian Luka Doncic (28.2), but due to injuries he did not reach the 58 regular season games set by the NBA to be included in any statistical classification.
And in rebounds, the international dominance is impressive. The top four this season were internationals: Lithuanian Domantas Sabonis (13.9), Dominican Karl Anthony-Towns (12.8), Serbian Nikola Jokic (12.7) and Croatian Ivica Zubac (12.6). No American in that top four. And in assists, the omnipresent Jokic was second (10.2).
Foreign players at the top of the draft
The presence of international players is also evident and remarkable in the NBA Draft, where each year teams select the best young prospects, among whom it is increasingly common to see foreign players in the top positions. Up to 13 players not born in the United States were selected with the number one pick in the draft.
Non-U.S. born No. 1 draft picks
1978 Michal Thompson (Bahamas)
1984 Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria)
1998 Michael Olowokandi (Nigeria)
2002 Yao Ming (China)
2005 Andrew Bogut (Australia)
2006 Andrea Bargnani (Italy)
2011 Kyrie Irving (Australia)
2013 Anthony Bennett (Canada)
2014 Andrew Wiggins (Canada)
2016 Ben Simmons (Australia)
2018 DeAndre Ayton (Bahamas)
2023 Victor Wembanyama (France)
Last season, the first two players selected in the NBA draft were French: Zacharie Risacher, chosen number one by the Atlanta Hawks, and Alex Sarr, number two by the Washington Wizards. In 2023, they were preceded on the throne by another Frenchman, the giant Victor Wembanyama, number one by the San Antonio Spurs. This year, barring a major surprise, that trend will be broken when the Mavericks select Cooper Flagg as number one.
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