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A History of Foreign Players in the NBA

by Harlan Schreiber (1/26/03)

All factors are pointing to the growth of foreign players in the NBA. In 2002, the more foreign trained players, 14, were drafted then ever before. At the World Championships of basketball, players from all over the globe demonstrated an ability to compete with and even beat the United States players. The talent pool is clearly expanding. It was not always this way. We will examine the history of foreign trained players in the NBA and how the situation has changed over the years.

Excluding the NBA’s early years, when the league was barely of professional level, the wave of foreign players coming to the United States started in the mid-1980s. First, great athletes, like Hakeem Olajuwon and Detlef Schrempf, were being recruited by colleges and universities and successful in the NBA. So it was well accepted that foreign players could be trained by American coaches to succeed in the United States. The question then became whether the NBA could take players who were both born and trained abroad and have them succeed in the decidedly different life of the NBA.

The foreign game was and is different from the NBA game. The three point line is closer (20’6 feet versus 23 feet in the NBA), there are no restrictions in foreign leagues on defense like there are in the NBA, and the three second lane is wider than the NBA’s (19’8 versus 16’ in the NBA). The net result of the foreign rules is to encourage perimeter play because the three point line is closer, and discourage post up play, because the three second lane is wider. In addition, there is a perception that the foreign game is less defensively oriented. Finally, the foreign leagues play only 30-50 games a year while the NBA plays 82 games plus playoffs. With these differences and the differences in culture to factor in, it could be seen as something of a shaky proposition to take a chance on foreign players in the NBA. Still, the idea of an untapped talent pool has enticed NBA teams to venture of off the continent to find players.

The First Draftees: Oscar and Georgi

The first true foreign draftee was the Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt. Schmidt was 6’8 shooting guard best known for his range and lack of conscious while playing in the Italian League. He also thrived in international competition including in 1987 when he scored 46 points for Brazil in an upset of a David Robinson-led American team in the Pan American Games.

The New Jersey Nets took him with a sixth round pick in 1984. The Nets spent a number of years trying to convince him to come over to the NBA but Schmidt refused fearing that he would not get a featured role. “I know my limitations, my defects,” he said “but I could never play 10 minutes a game. [The] NBA is great if you are a star. But if not, you get moved around. My friend (Georgi) Glouchkov played a year in Phoenix. He tells me bad stories about [the] NBA. The guards [did not] like him, they don’t pass him the ball. I would not like that. I could not stand that.”

Glouchkov was the first foreigner in the NBA. He was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in 1985. A 6’8 235 pound center, Glouchkov was considered the best player in both his native Bulgaria and the entire Baltic region. Unfortunately, Glouchkov had a very difficult adjustment. He spoke no English and Suns coach John MacLeod complained: that Bo Taklev, Glouchkov’s translator, “was hard of hearing so by the time I’d repeat what I needed him to interpret for Georgi during a timeout, we’d have to go back on the floor.”

Off the court, the Suns noticed that Glouchkov had put an inordinate amount of weight. There were whispers that Glouchkov was on steroids, like many Eastern Bloc athletes were reputed to be. Taklev maintains that the fears were unfounded and that really Glouchkov was over indulging in American fast food. Whatever the cause of the gain, it was not a help to Glouchkov on the court. He averaged 4.9 points and 3.3 rebounds a game in 16 minutes a game on only 41% shooting.

The Suns were disappointed with the performance. It was not evident to what extent Glouchkov’s difficulty in the NBA was a function of lack of talent or adjustment to a different culture and league. When Glouchkov was asked about his play, he admitted it was sub par but noted that “I have done nothing for which I should be beaten or hanged.” The Suns were not so sure. When Glouchkov arrived at training camp, in 1986, 25 pounds lighter than they expected, the Suns cut him. Glouchkov returned to Europe and continued success and no foreign player would play in the NBA until the late 1980s.

Atlanta Tries to Corner the Market on Imports but Portland Sees Results

The Glouchkov experiment did not dissuade other teams from drafting foreign players. The NBA Draft was seven rounds in the mid-1980s and any college players selected after the third round often were not talented enough to make the teams. Atlanta Hawk president Stan Kasten recognized that fact as much as anyone. He thought that there would be much more reward involved in selecting a fully developed professional from overseas than a third-tier college player.

The Hawks selected seven foreign players in the 1986 and 1987 drafts. Many observers shrugged at the Hawks picks but Kasten was philosophical. Kasten wondered "how on Earth could we presume that we're the only geographic mass capable of producing this level of talent?" Hawks coach Mike Fratello appreciated Kasten innovation. Fratello said that “[w]e were the pioneers, Stan Kasten had really great foresight. Stan was very perceptive in understanding there was a lot of talent in other countries we needed to start paying attention to.”

Foresight aside, Kasten’s foreign draft results were meager. Of all the players the Hawks drafted from abroad, only Ukrainian Alexander Volkov actually played in a regular season game for the Atlanta. Volkov played two seasons with the Hawks averaging 6.8 points per game and 2.6 rebounds per game. Perhaps deterred by the lack of return on the 1986-1987 experiment, the Hawks did not draft another foreign trained player until France’s Alain Digbeu in 1997. Kasten, for his part, claims that they stopped drafting foreign players for a decade because "[t]here was a bubble of [overseas] talent in the mid-'80s, and then there was a dozen-year hiatus." This argument, however, seems specious based on the number of imports who made an impact on the NBA soon thereafter.

While Atlanta tried to get value by volume, the Portland Trailblazers were able to find quality overseas talent with but a few picks. Portland drafted three imports in 1986 and 1987. Two of the three, Arvydas Sabonis and Drazen Petrovic, were two of the greatest non-Americans of all time. Sabonis a 7’3 Lithuanian big man did not come to the NBA until 1995. Like Volkov and Glouchkov, Sabonis became well known as an “Iron Curtain” athlete, competing for the Soviet Union in the Olympics. However, he paid huge dividends in Portland, averaging close to 13 points per game and 8 rebounds per game for his career.

Petrovic was even more successful. He became a star level player for the New Jersey Nets as a dead-eye shooter. He averaged 15.4 points per game for his career and also was third team All-NBA in 1992-93. Unfortunately, his career was prematurely ended when he tragically died in a car accident in the summer of 1993.

The Next Wave: Croats and Serbs in the NBA

Based on Petrovic’s success and the lack of success of other imports pointed NBA teams towards the Balkans for talent. The consensus was that Yugoslavia had the best basketball players in Europe. Its team had been strong in international competition. Thus, while the country was falling apart with ethnic strife it was becoming a pipeline of basketball talent to central Europe.

Seeing this fact, the NBA turned away from the rest of the world and focused on Yugoslavia. In 1989, Serbians Vlade Divac and Zarko Paspalj played in the NBA and Croatians Toni Kukoc and Dino Radja were drafted but chose to remain Europe. Divac was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers where Magic Johnson took him under his wing and tried to help Divac adjust. Divac started out slowly but blossomed into a good NBA player. Divac has had a remarkably successful career where he has been considered an above average center for over 15 years.

Paspalj had a much less fruitful NBA career. He signed with the San Antonio Spurs and was expected to be a smooth shooting forward to complement David Robinson. Spurs coach Larry Brown was not enamored of Paspalj’s defense. Paspalj also did not endear himself to Brown when he did not keep in shape, eating too much and chain smoking. He scored only 2.6 points per game and shot 34% from the field and quickly returned to Europe and the end of the season.

Kukoc was considered the best player in Europe and his arrival was probably the most anticipated of all the imports. He was considered the best player in Europe. Kukoc was known as “the Waiter” in Europe for his ability to pass and handle ball at 6’11. His legend grew in 1990, when he nearly led his Benetton Treviso team to an upset win over the New York Knicks in an exhibition tournament.

To add to the expectations was Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause who drafted Kukoc and proclaimed that he would revolutionize the NBA. He wooed Kukoc offering him more money than the Bulls established stars Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Horace Grant. Kukoc was reluctant to come to the NBA especially since Krause had made him a source of resentment to his potential teammates, including Jordan, the greatest player in the NBA.

Finally in 1993, after a four year courtship, Kukoc agreed to play in the NBA. The results were not quite what Krause expected. Kukoc was a very good player but he was not the next Magic Johnson nor was he an all star. Kukoc was a valuable sixth man on three Bull championship teams and probably would have been a great scorer on a team that was less talented than the Bulls. Still, Kukoc has established himself as a bona fide NBA player and supported the cause of searching abroad to find NBA talent.

Kukoc’s countrymen, Dino Radja, also was a solid NBA player. Radja also took four years to come to the NBA after being drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1989. The Celtic team he came to was not nearly as talented as the Bulls. Two-thirds of the legendary Celtic front court from the 1980s, Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, had retired. Consequently, Radja was able to step in as a featured player albeit on a losing team.

He did not disappoint. In four seasons with the Celtics, Radja averaged 16.7 points per game and 8.4 rebounds per game. Radja’s body, however, was not able to withstand the rigors of the longer NBA season and the tougher banging inside. Radja was constantly injured. He missed 104 games out of a possible 328 games in that time. Radja became frustrated with the injury problems and returned to Europe.

Divac, Radja, and Kukoc were not the only foreign players to play well in the NBA in the early to mid-1990s. 7’7 Romanian giant Gheorge Muresan, Serbian shooting guard Predrag Danilovic, and Venezuelan Carl Herrera all contributed to NBA teams. Foreign talent was not deluging the league like Kasten had hoped, but there was definitely enough of a stream to make the rest of the NBA take note.

The 1996 Draft: the NBA Goes Euro, Import Stars Begin to Emerge

By 1996, it had been established that it was possible for NBA teams to find foreign talent. However, even the best imports were late draft picks that were considered low risk propositions. The highest foreign draft pick had been Vlade Divac with the 26th pick. In 1996, however, five foreign players were drafted in the first round. The highest pick was Ukrainian Vitaly Potapenko, who was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 11th overall pick.

This shift in philosophy for NBA teams was accompanied with the expectations. Foreign stars had to emerge to make this strategy pay off. The imports obliged. The best foreign player in the 1996 draft was Serb Predrag Stojakovic, who has developed into an all star. In addition, Lithuanian Zydrunas Ilgauskas has shown himself to be, when healthy, one of the top five centers in the NBA.

The number of strong foreign players increased in the coming years. German Dirk Nowitzki joined Stojakovic in the 2002 NBA all star game. Spain’s Pau Gasol has even shattered the stereotype the foreign players cannot make an immediate impact by winning the NBA Rookie of the Year award in 2002.

The presence of foreign players becomes more evident every year. At the 2002 NBA Draft, 14 foreigners were drafted, doubling the number of the previous year. In addition, three of the top seven picks were imports including China’s Yao Ming, who was the first foreign player drafted number overall. How these players develop remains to be seen but it is clear the number of foreign players will continue to grow.

The Future: NBA Abroad?

It is clear that the primary source of talent for the NBA is still the American college system. However, the examination of foreign player makes it clear that the NBA continues to add more and more imports then ever before, including all star talent. The strong performance of foreign teams against the United States in the 2002 World Championships further bolsters the idea that the NBA’s foreign talent pool is still expanding.

It no longer takes years to convince foreign players to come to the NBA. They no longer necessarily need years to develop either. Finally, these players have higher talent ceilings than anyone previously imagined. It is not clear how deep this pool runs but it is seems that there is still more talent to be found abroad.

Depending on how much talent is left to be found, this creates exciting possibilities for the NBA. At the very least, NBA teams willing to invest time and money in scouting abroad can find both potential stars and depth. In the NBA’s ideal world, foreign players will continue to improve to such level that there will be a glut of quality players that the NBA can expand globally. This day, however, is probably still not in the foreseeable future. Still, the way NBA finds its players is changing and teams that remain ahead of the learning curve can reap the benefit with foreign players.

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