Although James Naismith invented basketball in Canada in 1891, the U.S. has since dominated basketball. The vast majority of basketball’s most famous players come from the U.S.
I started playing basketball as an adolescent, and most basketball courts I’ve played on were occupied by people of the same nationality as me, so it was extremely surprising and exciting to see Georgia State’s gym filled with people from many nationalities. It was even more surprising that the best players weren’t from the U.S. The U.S. has long dominated basketball, but players from other countries and ethnicities have caught up and even surpassed us.
During the 2019 FIBA World Cup, the U.S. men’s basketball team was defeated by France and Serbia. Although most fans and analysts dismissed the losses, sports legend Kobe Bryant credited the shocking defeats to the rest of the world catching up with the U.S. in player development.
“It’s not a matter of the rest of the world catching up to the U.S. It’s that the rest of the world has been caught up for quite some time,” Bryant said. “It’s to the point now where the U.S., we’re going to win some and we’re going to lose some. That’s just how it goes.”
The 2019 NBA Award Show saw four of the five major awards go to players from overseas. The 2019 NBA Championship was even won by the Toronto Raptors. In addition, only three of the last seven number one overall picks in the NBA Draft were Americans. The majority of the NBA’s rising stars under 25 are non-Americans.
The rest of the world is producing the most elite talent. The NBA is the top league in the world, and it is still dominated by Americans. The most elite U.S.-born players in the NBA are older than 30, so they must protect their bodies for the playoffs. The U.S. would have won the FIBA World Cup if these players competed.
When the 1992 Dream Team won gold in the Olympics, the game of basketball became more popular overseas, so a lot of kids picked up the game.
One of the best players I have played against at Georgia State has to be Saad Akhtar, who has played basketball since he was 3 years old, and every Tuesday, I see him beat the best competition. Akhtar is Pakistani, but he says basketball runs in his family.
“Everyone in my family played basketball. All of my cousins played, my brother plays and my mom barely,” Akhtar then said. “I grew up watching Dwyane Wade, so I loved basketball ever since.”
While the other countries developed skills, players in the U.S. relied heavily on athletic abilities. That is in large part due to the Amateur Athletic Union and amateur play being motivated by money instead of development.
I think it is exciting to see the game grow and incorporate players from around the world. The U.S. still produces a lot of talent, but the developmental programs must improve or the U.S. will lose more.
