New York: The National Basketball Association (NBA) has announced that 107 international players from 41 countries are on opening-night rosters for the 2020-21 season, including a record 17 Canadian players and a record-tying 14 African players.
This marks the seventh consecutive season that opening-night rosters feature at least 100 international players. All 30 teams have at least one international player, NBA stated in a media release.
In addition to the 107 international players on 2020-21 opening-night rosters, there are 10 international players from a record-tying eight countries on "two-way" contracts, allowing them to play in up to 50 NBA games this season.
For the seventh consecutive year, Canada (17 players) is the most-represented country outside of the US, followed by France (nine players), Australia (eight players), Serbia and Germany (six players each).
The Washington Wizards have an NBA-high seven international players. The Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets each have six, while the New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder and Toronto Raptors each have five.
A record 34 players on opening-night rosters participated in Basketball Without Borders (BWB) prior to starting their NBA careers, surpassing the previous record of 30 set in 2019-20.
In addition to the 107 international players on 2020-21 opening-night rosters, there are 10 international players from a record-tying eight countries on "two-way" contracts, allowing them to play in up to 50 NBA games this season.
There are also a number of American players with ties to other countries, including more than 30 players with at least one parent from Africa.
The records for international players (113) and countries and territories represented (42) were set at the start of the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, respectively.
