Monroe: NBA's international top five for the ages

[duncan228]

NBA's international top five for the ages
Mike Monroe

When Dirk Nowitzki scored his 20,000th point on Wednesday, he became just the second foreign-born player to reach that significant milestone and the first straight-to-the-NBA international player to get there.

Hakeem Olajuwon was the first, but he played four years of college ball at Houston.

After 11-plus seasons, Nowitzki ranks as the best international player in league history to enter the NBA without benefit of first having played college basketball in the U.S.

It’s the no-U.S. college criteria that eliminates what would otherwise be a great debate about the relative merits of Olajuwon and Tim Duncan as the best-ever player born outside the U.S. Other foreign-born players eliminated from consideration here include Steve Nash, Dikembe Mutombo and Detlef Schrempf.

Here is our all-time, all-international NBA starting five, a lineup of significant players who came straight to the NBA from foreign locales:

Point guard: Tony Parker

Team: Spurs

NBA careeer: 2001-present

Country: France

Rundown: He’s a three-time All-Star who was third-team All-NBA last season, and he’s the only member of our starting five who was an NBA Finals MVP. With 10,793 points and 3,652 assists in eight-plus seasons with the Spurs, his numbers clearly stamp him as the best international point guard ever, but his greatest accomplishment may be his elimination of a widely held belief that foreign-born point guards could not adapt their games to the NBA style.

Shooting guard: Manu Ginobili

Team: Spurs

NBA career: 2002-present

Country: Argentina

Rundown: Ginobili was NBA-ready when he arrived after having played professionally in Argentina and Italy, but he became a key piece of three Spurs championship teams with intensity seldom seen anywhere. In seven-plus seasons, he has 7,460 points, 1,846 assists, 2,050 rebounds and a few hundred contusions from fearlessly throwing his body around the court. There is a reason the Spurs usually want the ball in his hands when they need a game-winning play.

Center: Vlade Divac

Teams: Lakers, Hornets, Kings

NBA career: 1989-2005

Country: Serbia

Rundown: Divac gets the nod over Lithuanian icon Arvydas Sabonis and China’s Yao Ming because he played 16 NBA seasons. Sabonis (31 when he finally became a Trail Blazer) played only seven NBA seasons, and injury-plagued Yao has logged only 481 games, to Divac’s 1,134. Divac was an important trail blazer in his own way, one of the first stars from the old Yugoslavia to make an impact in the NBA. His career totals — 13,398 points and 9,326 rebounds — speak for themselves, and his point total is No. 2 among internationals who never played U.S. college ball.

Small forward: Peja Stojakovic

Teams: Kings, Pacers, Hornets

NBA career: 1998-present

Country: Serbia

Rundown: One of the reasons European players got a reputation as more fundamentally sound shooters than American players was Stojakovic’s picture-pure jumper. A 40-percent shooter from 3-point range over 12-plus seasons, 4,959 of his 13,003 career points (38 percent) were scored from beyond the arc. He is a two-time winner of the All-Star Weekend 3-point shootout. No less an authority than Larry Bird called him the league’s best shooter. That’s good enough for us, and he should pass Divac as No. 2 international scorer before season’s end.

Power forward: Dirk Nowitzki

Team: Mavericks

NBA career: 1998-present

Country: Germany

Rundown: Nowitzki came to the NBA straight out of Germany, a 20-year-old who looked like a draft-night bust after a rookie season that produced only 385 points. But a 7-footer with the best perimeter touch ever displayed by a big man developed one of the most unstoppable shots in the history of the league, a step-back fadeaway that seems to get better in crunch time. An eight-time All-Star, he was the 2006 MVP, the only member of our starting five to have attained such an honor.

[duncan228]

What could have been ... Drazen Petrovic
Mike Monroe

We'll never know if Drazen Petrovic would have been the first straight-to-the-NBA (no college) international player to crack 20,000 points, but those of us who actually saw him play during his all-too-brief stay in the NBA believe he would have given it a good run.

Petrovic, who died in an automobile accident on the German autobahn on June 7, 1993, at age 28, was a fearless and creative shooter who was just beginning to adjust to NBA play when he was killed instantly in a high-speed collision after scoring 30 points for the Croatian national team in a tournament in Poland.

Petrovic's first seasons in the NBA were unimpressive. A third-round draft pick of the Trail Blazers, at the time an established team with a star shooting guard, Clyde Drexler, he was afforded scant opportunity. A trade to the Nets in his second season gave him a chance to play more, and by the start of the 1991-92 season, he was a starter and featured scorer. Playing all 82 games, he averaged 20.6 points. The next season, he led the Nets in scoring, averaging 22.3 points.

A free agent after his best season, “Petro” hinted at a return to European basketball, but most believed his threat to play in Greece was a negotiating ploy and that he would be back in the NBA, ready to produce big numbers again.

[tlongII]

Arvydas Sabonis

[Technique]

What the deuce? Ak-47 > Peja no contest.

[Darthkiller]

wtf, PAU >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Divac

[PGDynasty24]

Sabonis when he was young was a beast

[Doctor J]

'What Could Have Been.... Team'


(PG) Sarunas Marciulionis
(SG) Drazen Petrovic
(SF) Toni Kukoc
(PF) Dino Radja
(C) Arvydas Sabonis

With an injury-free career, and starting an NBA life earlier like Dirk did, I believe these five could have been the best "pure" international players.

[temujin]

Impossible to leave Drazen Petrovic or Sabonis out of this list.

It is next to impossible to leave Sasha Danilovic also.

[Bukefal]

I was about to post and mention Petrovic, then I saw your second post.

He was a great one, such a shame he went so young.

[Thomas]

Parker is Belgian-born, not French (despite what he murmurs to his pussy at night)

Jup, born a couple of kilometers from my home

[Allanon]

I'd replace Vlade with Saboner and Pedja with Drazen Petrovic and run Manu at the 3 spot.

Tony
Petrovic
Manu
Dirk
Saboner

[Chico]

whaaat..how did manu beat out sasha vujacic?

[ploto]

Parker's dad is American and that to me makes him not FULLY an international player- as far as the author claiming to be very particular with the criteria for this list.

[I-Ball]

for those who claim that sabonis and petrovic should be on the list:
it is about international players impact on the nba. (at least that is my understanding of this list.)

sabonis entered the league past his prime and was only a role player with bad knees.
petrovic died before he could establish himself as a superstar.

[Slomo]

for those who claim that sabonis and petrovic should be on the list:
it is about international players impact on the nba. (at least that is my understanding of this list.)

sabonis entered the league past his prime and was only a role player with bad knees.
petrovic died before he could establish himself as a superstar.

However great those two players were, I agree with your take.

[Doctor J]

petrovic died before he could establish himself as a superstar.

Petrovic died right after he established himself as a superstar.

[hsxvvd]

Parker, Manu, Nowitzki are easy picks.

Vlade is above all else, Sabonis was past his prime. Vlade had a huge impact on pathing the way for foriegn players in the NBA, far more impact than Pau.

Stojakovic is questionable - Hedo, AK47 are both about the same... that's a tough call.

Petrovic was a star, not yet a superstar, he was one of my favorite players, but he wouldn't have beaten out Manu.

[ShoogarBear]

Hakeem Olajuwon was the first, but he played four years of college ball at Houston.

I see Monroe's fact-checking is just as good as ever.