When the Sacramento Kings and Memphis Grizzlies take the floor tonight for their first game of the 2009-10 season, it will be especially significant for the countries of Israel and Tanzania. Joining Pepe Sánchez (Argentina), Wang Zhizhi (China), Šarūnas Marčiulionis (Lithuania), and others, rookies Omri Casspi (Israel) and Hasheem Thabeet (Tanzania) will be their countries’ first ever [...]

We collected some Getty Images of the international players that were present at last night’s NBA Draft.  Hope you enjoy them.  Patrick Mills seems pretty happy despite doubling his position in several mock drafts, dropping to the 55th pick. Sorry, we couldn’t find any photos of Victor Claver, Sergio Lull, and Emir Preldzic.  All three players [...]

Memphis Grizzlies center Darko Miličić, the infamous #2 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, has been traded to the New York Knicks in exchange for Quetin Richardson. The Memphis Grizzlies had the #2 overall pick in last night’s draft and selected center Hasheem Thabeet of Tanzania.  Even after unloading Milicic, the Grizzlies still have three international [...]

From the Congo to Israel to three players from Spain, there were fourteen international-born players selected in the 2009 NBA Draft. The fourteen players ended a sex-year slide in which fewer and fewer international players were chosen, from a record high of 21 international players chosen in 2003 to 2008, when there were just thirteen [...]

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Phoenix Suns trade SHAQ for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic (discuss).  Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James TOGETHER…  in Cleveland.   Kind of anti-climactic, no?  Apparently, Shaq discovered that he was traded via Twitter (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) Retweeting Kareem (@kaj33) – My top 10 Intl’ players in the league & why http://bit.ly/GsBl2 Update: Kareem answers why Yao Ming wasn’t [...]

A report by the AP has many less foreign players ready to be selected in the NBA draft this year. “This year, in Europe, there really weren’t as many players ready,” Pacers president Larry Bird said. “There’s some guys ready to come over, but they’re not ready to play in the NBA.” A record 21 [...]