Who is the best international player of all time?

[Mayhem321]

Speaking of international... how can i get these little country's flags below the post count?

[temujin]

Ginobili,

then Drazen and Deki Bodiroga.

[temujin]

lol at Manu being here. He's not even the best Spanish speaking NBA international(Pau Gasol is)

[Gagnrath]

My statement has nothing to do with their current ability - they're both pretty washed up at this point. If you look at their resumes objectively, you can see that Gasol has had a better NBA career than Manu.



Did Dwyane Wade not exist from 2005-2010? Ginobili was never better than him.

He really didn't 2005 was his sop re year he started looking like he'd be a star, Did look pretty good when he was finals mvp in 2006, 2007 injuries big time, 2008 injuries 2009 best player on a barely play-off team in the Least (and it really was at that time) 2010 good player on a bad team, but it looked kinda like he was a monta ellis guy. Then the LeBron thing.

[milkyway21]

NO way I would pick Gasol over Manu.

Manu made an impact when he embarrassed the U.S. "dream team" in the Olympics when he was named MVP.
That changed the whole thing about international basketball. The world take notice of small team Argentina.

Gasol can't even win a series against the Spurs without Kobe.

[Snaq O'Meal]

shhiiiit

If Sabbas didnt get blocked by the Soviets .......


Imagine a young and healthy Sabonis with the Blazers

Dude could run and dunk like D-Rob ... combine that with hands and court vision

Jordan = ed

Sorry, but I just can't imagine a young center maintaining two healthy knees while with the Blazers.

[Leetonidas]

Holy some of you are some massively re ed homers. Duncan is not an international player, Virgin Islands are US territory and he played his college ball in the US. There are only two answers: Hakeem if you mean players born in foreign countries and it didn't matter if he played college ball in the US, or Dirk Nowitzki if you mean he never played in the US until the NBA. And I love Manu as much as the next guy, Parker too, but neither of them are even close to prime Nowitzki.

(assuming the subject of this thread is who is the best international player of all time, meaning the NBA player born internationally with the best NBA career)

[ElNono]

It's Hakeem and it's not even close

[Man In Black]

Holy some of you are some massively re ed homers. Duncan is not an international player, Virgin Islands are US territory and he played his college ball in the US. There are only two answers: Hakeem if you mean players born in foreign countries and it didn't matter if he played college ball in the US, or Dirk Nowitzki if you mean he never played in the US until the NBA. And I love Manu as much as the next guy, Parker too, but neither of them are even close to prime Nowitzki.

(assuming the subject of this thread is who is the best international player of all time, meaning the NBA player born internationally with the best NBA career)

Remember Americans...us fans don't determine who is International any more than Phil Jackson determines if an asterisk is warranted or not, the NBA does.
If I post this official link of NBA Internationals, then doesn't that tell us all, that the NBA considers every player on that list...INTERNATIONAL? It does. Just like the asterisk, how we feel about Tim playing for USA and at Wake doesn't mean he ain't International. It's just that at the time Tim was 1st eligible to play for a Senior Men's National Team, there wasn't a US Virgin Islands team to play for. Once you officially play for a senior team, you're locked in. Out of respect for his homeland, Tim Duncan asked Coach Larry Brown and Pop in 04, if it would be okay that he not play any of the prep games when USA plays USVI. He didn't play in any of them. Tim's an American Citizen true, but according to the NBA, Tim Duncan and Raja Bell are both International players from the US Virgin Islands.

http://csl.nba.com/global/internatio...012_10_30.html

[Leetonidas]

I don't really care if you wanna bend the definitions to include your favorite player or try to bull me with some gy list. The fact of the matter is Tim Duncan was born in a US territory, played in the US for college, and played on Team USA. He is not an international player. Accept it.

[Phenomanul]

I don't really care if you wanna bend the definitions to include your favorite player or try to bull me with some gy list. The fact of the matter is Tim Duncan was born in a US territory, played in the US for college, and played on Team USA. He is not an international player. Accept it.

Hakeem also played US College Hoops and played on Team USA.

[dunkman]

Dirk and its not even close. Duncan, Hakeem, Ewing and Nash aren't really international players, since they played college ball in the US.

[spursnatic]

Baynes hands down...Best of all time..Never be another better

[roycrikside]

Holy some of you are some massively re ed homers. Duncan is not an international player, Virgin Islands are US territory and he played his college ball in the US. There are only two answers: Hakeem if you mean players born in foreign countries and it didn't matter if he played college ball in the US, or Dirk Nowitzki if you mean he never played in the US until the NBA. And I love Manu as much as the next guy, Parker too, but neither of them are even close to prime Nowitzki.

(assuming the subject of this thread is who is the best international player of all time, meaning the NBA player born internationally with the best NBA career)

I pretty much agree with this. My opinion of a "international" player is one who literally has no contact with the U.S. until he's a professional. I think if you play college ball then you're pretty much indoctrinated to American culture on some level, so based on that, I'd give Dirk Nowitzki the nod as the best one ever.

If we're going strictly by guys born in foreign countries, then yeah, Hakeem is number one.

If you want to the territory thing and really stretch the definition, okay, I'd give Duncan the slight nod over Hakeem, based on longevity.

[3 Legged Dog]

Menk Bateer

[tesseractive]

Can't believe no one has mentioned Zarko Paspalj yet.

[tesseractive]

I pretty much agree with this. My opinion of a "international" player is one who literally has no contact with the U.S. until he's a professional. I think if you play college ball then you're pretty much indoctrinated to American culture on some level, so based on that, I'd give Dirk Nowitzki the nod as the best one ever.

I guess I don't really get how being born and raised in, say, France by French parents and then going off to the US to play starting with college ball is completely different from being born and raised in France by French parents and then going off to the US to play starting with pro ball. Either one seems pretty obviously to be a person who is not from the US and is therefore an "international" player.

[roycrikside]

I guess I don't really get how being born and raised in, say, France by French parents and then going off to the US to play starting with college ball is completely different from being born and raised in France by French parents and then going off to the US to play starting with pro ball. Either one seems pretty obviously to be a person who is not from the US and is therefore an "international" player.

I think I answered that. Guys like Olajuwon and Duncan, among others had four years of college ball to transition to the American game, American teammates, the English language, the culture, the food, the women, etc.

A guy like Dirk or Manu though literally came to the pros fresh and had to learn all that stuff on the fly

[Josepatches_]

For me Sabonis, Drazen and Dirk were the best european players of all time.

But in the 80s it wasn't so easy to play in the NBA if you were born outside the US. Today you can see how european players without talent are drafted every year or players like Splitter or Omer Azik can win 10M $. The talent is smaller in the league.

A healthy Sabonis would be one of the greatest centers of all time but that's life