In this 2003 film produced by National Geographic, Lisa Ling talks to Yao about his playing days in China and in the NBA with the Houston rockets. She also goes to visit Shanghai to see the impact that Yao has had on basketball in China.

Yao was more than just a basketball player; he is a global icon that helped bring American basketball to China, and international basketball to America and the NBA.

Watch more free documentaries

Before Yao Ming came over to America to play basketball in the NBA, international basketball, much less Asian basketball, was not as respected as it is today.

After being chosen number one overall in the 2002 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets, Yao Ming added to the growing acceptance that international players could compete with the NBA’s best. Yao created a revolution, not just in the NBA, but also in international basketball, especially basketball in China. He caused a revolution that will forever be felt in the NBA and around the world.

Yao Ming will be missed on the basketball court, and off.

Yao Ming‘s former coach in Shanghai has expressed regrets over the NBA star’s “retirement” but is confident he has a role to play in developing Chinese players.

Check out the comments on Yao Ming’s Retirement

“We all hope he can play for a bit longer. It should have been his prime time at present.” said Li Qiuping. “His injuries force him to face reality. If he has decided to retire now, I totally understand and there are so many things Yao can do after retirement such as training teen players.”

Li’s sentiments echoes the feeling of most Chinese web users since the Houston Chronicle reported that the 30-year-old Yao has told the Houston Rockets a month ago he would not be coming back after 8 seasons in the league, the last two if which have been dogged by injuries.

IN a survey on web portal Sina.com, some 22,000 web users said Yao’s retirement “would be the end of an era,” Xinhua news agency reported.

Of 125,000 respondents, 37.6 percent said it was “sad” and Yao “should have achieved more,” while 25.1 percent were “calm” because they had “seen this coming.”

Yao’s agent John Huizinga said the player would make an announcement in his home city Shanghai on July 20, fueling speculation this would bring formal news of his retirement.

Agency French-Press

According to a report by Yahoo! Sports, Houston Rockets center and Chinese superstar Yao Ming may be retiring from the NBA.

Check out the comments on Yao Ming’s Retirement

The 7-foot-6 center from Shanghai has had his relatively short career decimated by lower-body injuries – playing just five games last season.

According to the Yahoo! report, Yao has informed the league that his playing career is over.

The Houston Rockets have declined comment on the report because of the lockout, and the league has not received official retirement documents.

If true, Yao Ming will end his career after just eight seasons, of which five of those seasons have seen the gentle giant miss significant portions of the regular season or playoffs.

In 486 regular season games, Yao has averaged 19 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks. He shot 52.4% from the field and 83.3% from the free throw line. Yao played his entire NBA career with the Houston Rockets.

It’s no secret that the NBA’s strategy during David Stern’s reign as the commisioner of the league has been to move into other markets. From moving into populous countries China and India to NBA-Euroleague partnerships, the National Basketball Association has played an integral in changing the “National” into “International.”

Mahanth Joishy, the South Asia editor for Foreign Policy Digest, recently sat down with Mike Fratello, the former NBA coach and current NBA commentator and telestrator to talk about how the sport has expanded into almost every corner of the world in the last 20 years.

On December 27th, Coach Fratello participated in an exclusive interview with Foreign Policy Digest to answer some questions about the international aspects of basketball, drawing on his extensive knowledge and experience with the sport at all levels. Foreign Policy Digest is pleased to bring you the transcript of this unique look at the intersection of basketball and foreign affairs.

FPD: I recently read that there are approximately 80 international basketball players from over 30 countries in the NBA. I’d guess there are many hundreds more on the radar screen of NBA scouts. Many are all-star caliber players: Dirk Nowitzki of Germany, Yao Ming of China, and of course Steve Nash from Canada, via South Africa. Do you believe this trend of bringing in foreign talent will continue to grow?

Fratello: Yes, I think this trend will continue to grow, because the pool of talent is beginning to diminish here in the United States, which in turn has watered down our product somewhat.

Nowadays, many players are turning pro after one year in college, before they are close to maturing to the point that they will eventually get to. So scouts will continue to look at international players who have perhaps been playing as pros since they were 15 or 16 years old, and have therefore matured at an earlier age.

A player who has four, five, six years of pro experience under his belt and enters the NBA as a 23- or 24-year-old rookie can help contribute more quickly than one who leaves college after one year and has only 35 collegiate games under his belt and isn’t physically ready to handle the demands of the NBA. So yes, NBA teams will continue to look outside the United States for talent.

FPD: There is the oft-repeated stereotype that European players have better fundamentals, such as long-range shooting and passing, though they’re not always as “well-fed” or flashy at dunking, due to differences in training mentality. Is this true?

Fratello:Yes, I would agree that European players generally have better fundamentals than American players. One reason for that is that their game has always been more of a perimeter shooting game than the drive-it-and-dunk-it type game that we have here due to the speed, quickness, athleticism, and ball-handling abilities that we have in so many players in the United States.

In other countries, their ball-handling skills have developed more recently and have gotten to a different level over the last 5-10 years.

Another factor is that they play only two games a week in Europe, as opposed to three or four games a week in the NBA, which affords them more practice time. It’s not unusual for European teams to have three practices in a day. One practice will be used to work on the skill areas: dribbling, passing, and shooting.

Another will be for strength and conditioning. And the last will focus on playing the game itself. And when they have skills training, they do it with all the positions. That’s why so many of their big guys are good shooters. You haven’t had as many great low-post scoring players in international competition, which has something to do with the trapezoidal lane, which they are working to change. They are trying to make it the same as the NBA’s rectangular lane, so it’s consistent in international play.

FPD: Which country or region of the world may represent the next hotbed of undiscovered basketball talent, in your opinion?

Fratello:It could be China, based on its population size and the growing interest in the sport. They have over 1.3 billion people, including a wealth of young men close to or over seven feet tall in the country. And they also have a great passion for the game now. Yao Ming certainly did a lot to promote the sport of basketball and upgrade the NBA’s image in that country.

Now that the Chinese have had more exposure to basketball and understand what it’s all about, the sport has caught on. The Latin countries, such as Brazil and Argentina, also have a great passion for basketball now. And countries that have historically been very good are those that were part of the former Yugoslavia and former USSR. They have always had excellent teams.

FPD: It seems like national teams from other nations, such as Spain, Argentina, or Lithuania, are catching up with the US. What will the United States national team have to do better to continue to win at the highest levels of international competition, such as the Olympics or the FIBA world championships, and avoid disappointing upsets?

Fratello:The United States national team will have to continue to get commitments from the best American players to go and compete, just as they did in the 2008 Olympics and in the 2010 FIBA World Championships. For the Olympics, they got top NBA players, such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, and Dwyane Wade to play for Team USA. And the young guys who had been their understudies when training and preparing for the Olympics, such as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose and Kevin Love all made a commitment to compete in the FIBA World Championships in Istanbul, and we wound up winning the title. So that’s what it will take: the continued commitment from our best players to still be a part of our national team.

FPD: Why do you think that basketball is the American-exported team sport that has a more global reach than, say American football, baseball, or ice hockey?

Fratello:I think basketball has such broad appeal, because it is a game that people can adapt to play by themselves or with various numbers of people. A person can just go out on the court with a basketball and shoot around and create his or her own competition.

You can play games like Horse and Knockout, or you can play one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three, four-on-four or five-on-five. There are guys who are 75 years old, who can still go outside and shoot baskets. They may not be able to run up and down the court, but they can play around with the ball and have fun at any age…

Interesting in the rest of the interview?  Please go to Foreign Policy Digest.

With succssful forays into China, the next step in NBA globalization now has set their sights on India as they continue their campaigns for international expansion. (Discuss Indian and Asian basketball in our forum)

India, the next largest country in terms of population, is being targeted not only because of their sheer size, but according to the New York Times, their growing middle class:

Like China, India has a rapidly expanding middle class with newfound leisure time and disposable income, factors that Heidi Ueberroth, the president of N.B.A. International, says make the country ripe for new forms of entertainment.

“There is a growing appetite for sports and entertainment and more options in India,” she said.

The league has backed and built basketball courts throughout communities and neighborhoods across India, from Nagpada in Mumbai:

A core part of the N.B.A.’s expansion strategy in India is increasing grass-roots participation, based on the belief that people who play basketball are also more likely to follow the N.B.A. The league also knows that the more Indians who play basketball, the more likely it is that one day an Indian player will be good enough to make the leap to the N.B.A. — an event that could vastly expand the league’s popularity in the world’s second-most-populous nation.

The Basketball Federation of India, the sport’s governing body, estimates that 4.5 million Indians play the game. That is a fraction of the country’s 1.2 billion people, but Ueberroth said the N.B.A. suspected the real number was much higher because the federation’s statistics missed players who did not belong to a league.

To try to accelerate basketball’s growth, the N.B.A. dispatched Troy Justice to India in February to serve as its first director of basketball operations in the country. Justice helps run the N.B.A. Mahindra Challenge, a series of youth leagues and tournaments in five Indian cities.

“The kids here have the natural ability and the talent, but they are not given the opportunity to develop it,” he said.

In addition to Justice, the league sent the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Pau Gasol on short ambassadorial missions to Mumbai and Delhi in the summer. It also sent two coaches to India to train the men’s and women’s national teams ahead of November’s Asian Games in China. It has created an India-specific portion of NBA.com, featuring postings by two Indian bloggers.

Viewership for the N.B.A. in India has also been rising quickly, but from such a low base that it remains minuscule, said Atul Pande, the chief executive of Ten Sports, which has contracted to broadcast Eastern Conference games. Pande said he thought the audience for a live N.B.A. game would never exceed 200,000 households. The viewership for many I.P.L. cricket matches is in the tens of millions.

The assumption is that the NBA is awaiting their “Yao Ming moment” – a homegrown star to help the sport reach critial mass. That star could be 14-year old Satnam Singh Bhamara, a 7-foot-2 player from a rural village in Punjab Province.

“He has a bright future,” Justice said. “We don’t know where he’ll end up, but he’s got a lot of natural — for a 14-year-old, 7-footer — a lot of natural basketball instincts.”

Others point to the potential of two Canadian brothers of Indian descent, 15-year-old Sim and 17-year-old Tanveer Bhullar, who are more than 7 feet. Madhok said that if either made it to the N.B.A., it would inspire Indian fans and players.

Read the “N.B.A. in India, in Search of Fans and Players” at the New York Times

If you didn’t already know, Yao Ming is a very large man. The image below only emphasizes that fact.  In the photo below, Jason Biles, the Houston Rocket’s trainer is working on Yao Ming‘s left foot before a game on November 7, 2010.

The Rockets announced that Yao Ming will miss the rest of the season on Friday, Dec. 17, 2010, a day after the injury was found in an MRI exam.

It’s sad that the 7-6 center may have to hang up his size 18 shoes because his height and size had him playing in the NBA.

Team physician Walter Lowe said surgery is the usual treatment for such an injury, which has sidelined Yao since Nov. 10.

Yao Ming’s Houston Rockets career looks as if it could be over following the discovery of stress fracture in his left ankle on Thursday.

In a press release, the club announced:

“An MRI performed today (Thursday) on Rockets center Yao Ming revealed a stress fracture of the Medial Malleolus in his left ankle. The fracture, which is related to his previous injury of the Tarsal Navicular bone, presented itself during the course of his current rehabilitation program. There is no timetable for his return at this time.

“The team will have no additional comment at this time. Information regarding his treatment program will be made available at a later date.”

The injury has cast further doubt on the injury-plagued Chinese giant’s future in the game.

The 7ft 6in Yao missed all of last season after having foot and ankle surgery and didn’t play for China at the FIBA World Championship this year in Turkey. He has played a total of just five games this season before re-injuring himself.

“I have been working hard to get back on the court, so today’s news was very disappointing for me,” Yao said. “I will need some time to speak with my doctors to figure out my options moving forward, but I want to thank all those who have expressed their support for me during this time.”

Yao, who is earning $17.7million this season – the last of his contract with Houston – has grown accustomed to answering questions about his injuries.

“I haven’t died,” he said to the American media. “Right now I’m drinking a beer and eating fried chicken. What were you expecting, a funeral?”

Read the full article at FIBA.com.

• CHINA: Yao Ming and his with wife Ye Li, are expecting their first child. Not only will the child be in the limelight as Yao Ming’s offspring, but the nation will track the child as the next basketball prodigy. The 7-6 Yao and 6-2 Ye Li, who also plays for the Chinese National Team, will likely give birth to a very, very, very tall child. I would hate to be that child; his/her path is already paved, and nothing short of international success the benchmark. Follow the Chinese fever of “YY”.

• GERMANY: Even with the names of luminaries such as Gasol, Kukoč, Sabonis and Petrovic, is Dirk Nowitzki already the greatest European NBA player ever?  (Discuss and argue this question in our forum).

• GREAT BRITAIN: Pops Mensah-Bonsu was released, again, by the Toronto Raptors. The 6-9 forward, who was already released by Toronto over the summer and by Houston earlier this season, averaged 2.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 6.7 minutes in 16 games with Toronto. In the money-saving move, the Raptors are looking to sign him to a 10-day contract.

• KOREA: The first Korean player to reach the NCAA will leave the University of Maryland. Forward Choi Jin-Soo was being unable to reconcile his studies and play basketball; he willl return to Korea and play in the KBL (From Basket-Spot).

• LEBANON: Lebanese superstar Fadi El Khatib will move from Champville Maristes Sports of Lebanon and will play for Al-Jalaa, a Syrian club, next season. The 6-6 rugged forward signed a four-year deal.

• TURKEY: The Turkish All-Star Game will be played this Sunday, the two teams featured will be the Turkish Stars and the Foreign Stars (Talk Turkish basketball in our forum).

• USA/NBA: Laker coach Phil Jackson is blaming Chinese for NBA All-Star voting, even though he’s wrong: “I think Houston might have all their players in the top five at every position,” Jackson said. “That Chinese fan group, they vote for the Houston team because of Yao Ming and their relationship to Houston. It’s all skewed.”

• USA/NBA: With Ronny Turiaf (France) and Andris Biedriņš (Latvia) returning from injury and back to the Golden State lineup this last week, the team has released NBA journeyman Mikki Moore.

Check out all of our global roundups with short takes and notes on international basketball news from leagues and players from around the world. Got an update or breaking news? Send us an email.

The desire for Yao Ming to play in the 2010 World Championships is there, now all it takes is the authorization.

This is according to a representative for Yao Ming, Zhang Mingji, who recently revealed the wish of the Houston Rockets centre to play for the Chinese national team.

(Discuss Chinese Basketball in our forum)

However, the 29-year-old has been sidelined for the past five months and will likely miss the entire NBA 2009-10 season.

Therefore Yao will need medical permission from the Houston Rockets before he can play the tournament – something the NBA club will not be fond of considering Yao’s injuries the last few years.

China is in group C of the World Basketball Championships, along with Greece, Ivory Coast, Puerto Rico, Russia, and host Turkey. China’s chances of getting to the next round would increase greatly with the addition of Yao, the star and face of the team.

Thanks to Basket-Spot for the heads-up.

So what’s Yao Ming doing besides resting and rehabilitating for the next NBA season?

He’s now on Twitter, that’s right, Yao Ming, 7-6 NBA all-star center from China is now Twittering from the Rockets’ bench, when he’s driving his massive SUV, and the comfort of his own toilet.

And as of this writing, Yao has only tweeted just twice, but he has already nearly 5,000 followers.

His first 140-character message praised his international stand-in: “I like David Andersen, our new center. We played each other in international games.I think he will fit Coach Adelman’s style very well.”

I guess that’s what happens when you’re an international superstar. Check the non-happenings of Yao Ming’s verified Twitter account, and don’t forget to follow Interbasket. Check out other NBA and professional basketball players’ Twitter accounts.

During the 2008-09 NBA season, a rejuvenated Shaquille O’Neal moved up five spots on the NBA’s all-time scorers’ list.

After scoring 1333 points, his highest total in four seasons, O’Neal is now #5 on the all-time list having surpassed Dominique Wilkins, Moses Malone, Elvin Hayes, Oscar Robertson, and international player Hakeem Olajuwon.

What of International Players’ Impact?
Shaq’s ascension past Hakeem got us thinking here at Interbasket, where do international players fit in on this list and who are the NBA’s current scoring leaders (total career points) amongst the foreign-born?

We decided to create that list.

Once you get to the list, you’ll notice that the international players are there because of their longevity in their league, and not because they were legendary NBA players and/or big-time scorers.

(Discuss the list in our forum)

That’s because international players are a relatively recent phenomenon.  Just twenty years ago, during the 1988-89 season, you could count the amount of international players on one hand.

Ten years later, in the 1998-99 season, you could add a hand and a few fingers, but international players were still an unknown commodity.

Today, for most teams, international players are an integral piece of the league’s makeup; there were 77 NBA players from different countries last season.

International players are not only playing large roles for their teams, but are the unquestioned leaders; Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash have both been named NBA MVP. Unschooled foreign-born players have been drafted with the #1 overall pick (Yao Ming in 2003 and Andrea Bargnani in 2007), something unheard of just ten year’s previous.

And with each passing NBA season, the globalization of basketball continues. And that is no more apparent than in the current composition of the NBA.

With international players now common on NBA rosters and not just relegated to role players – the true era of international players can be measured in the next 20 years.

Come 2030, the list below will have more big name scorers, recognizable all-stars, than the journeymen, role players, and semi-stars that currently fill up the top-30.

The list is a study of the impact of international NBA players, but more so, it reflects the recent struggle of international players, players from the early-1980s until roughly 2004-05, trying to find a way, a niche, an opportunity.

Here are the top-30 international scorers at the beginning of the 2009-10 NBA season.

1. Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigeria (26,946 points)
1238 games, career 21.8 ppg – Far and away, Hakeem Olajuwon is the leader in points scored amongst international players in NBA history. The 6-10 center from Nigeria is not only #1 on this list, but he’s #8 on the all-time list, and The Dream, whoretired in 2001-02, will remain number one for at least a few more seasons…

2. Dirk Nowitzki, Germany (19,084 points)
839 games, 22.7 ppg  – No surprise that the 7-0 German is #2 on the international list.  At age 30, Dirk has a few more peak years to pad his totals and is on the edge of perhaps overtaking  Olajuwon by the end of his career. Either way, from a of quick glance at the rest of the list, it doesn’t look as if Dirk will be relinquishing either spot anytime soon.

3. Detlef Schrempf, Germany (15,761 points)
1136 games, 13.9 ppg (00-01) – Two Germans in a row. Who knew? Detlef was under the radar, but the 6-9 forward who was an excellent sixth man, spent 16 seasons with four NBA teams, enough to put him third on the list with nearly 16,000 points before retiring in 2000-01.

4. Steve Nash, Canada (13,438 points)
934 games, 14.4ppg – It’s too bad that the now 35-year old Nash spent his first four seasons finding a right fit. Nash had the bad luck of starting out his career playing behind Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd. Still, the two-time MVP took the #4 spot last season; Nash may catch Detlef, but the 6-3 Canadian is 5,000 points, and five years behind a younger Nowitzki.

5. Vlade Divac, Former Yugoslavia (13,398 points)
1134 games, 11.8ppg – Divac was never a scorer, so his position at #5 on this list is a bit surprising.  It’s more the fact that he came over as a younger player when Europeans weren’t common as they are today. It speaks to Vlade’s longevity in the league. Divac never torched the nets, but did average 11.8 points per game in 16 NBA seasons before retiring after the 2004-05 season.

6. Rik Smits, The Netherlands (12,871 points)
749 games, 14.8 points (1999-00) – The Dunkin’ Dutchman played his entire 12-year NBA career with the Indiana Pacers. With midrange jumpshots, one-handed dunks, and nice stroke from the free-throw line (77.3 career FT%) the 7-4 center averaged nearly 15 points per game as the interior presence to Reggie Miller’s outside shooting. Smits would retire after the 1999-2000 season.

7. Peja Stojaković, Serbia (12,583 points)
709 games, 17.7ppg  Right behind Divac is his fellow countryman, Peja Stojakovic.  The 6-9 sharpshooter has made a career making threes and moving without the ball.  Peja is no longer hitting for 18 points a game, but the 32-year old has at least a couple more productive seasons left, and with a healthy 2009-10 campaign, he’ll surpass Smits and Divac.

8. Dikembe Mutombo, Congo (11729 points)
1196 games, 9.8ppg – At 42 years old, Mutombo crumbled into retirement last season. In his last season with the Houston Rockets, Mount Mutombo scored just 16 total points all season. However, when you couple his 9.8 points per game with 18 seasons in the NBA, the finger-wagging Mutombo cracks the top ten of this list with solid consistency.

9. Pau Gasol, Spain (11,002 points)
584 games, 18.8ppg – The 28-year old Gasol has been amazingly consistent throughout his career. In eight seasons, Gasol has never averaged less than 17.6 points per game, and no more than 20.8 points; a point span of just 3.2 points.  By the end of his career, Gasol should be pushing 20,000 career points and will likely end up behind only Olajuwon Nowitzki, and probably…

10. Tony Parker, France (10219 points),
612 games, 16.7ppg – With the decline of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, keep an eye on Tony Parker’s numbers. At only 26-years old, the 6-2 French PG has just hit his prime, averaging a career-high 22 points per game this past season. Two years younger than Gasol, Parker will certainly be top-five at the end of his career and will likely overtake Pau Gasol somewhere in the top four.

11. Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, Lithuania (10,142 points),
707 games, 14.3ppg – After a couple years dealing with injuries at the start of his career, the 7-3 center from Lithuania has been toiling in Cleveland through the ups (this year) and downs (pre-LeBron). Through that, Big Z has put 14.3 points a game in all 707 games he has played. Ilgauaskas will be 34 this season, backing up the newly acquired Shaquille O’Neal, so Z’s minutes will be going down, but even with his normal 29 minutes a game, the big guy won’t be catching up with Gasol or Parker anytime soon.

12. Rony Seikaly, Lebanon (9,991 points)
678 games, 14.7ppg (98-99) – Rony Seikaly is one of those forgotten international players that played in the 1990s without much notice. The Lebanese center played 11 seasons with some really bad teams in the Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, New Jersey Nets and Golden State Warriors, averaging 14.7 points, and retiring 1998-99.

13. Toni Kukoč, Croatia (9,810 points)
846 games, 11.6ppg – Kukoc came over with much fanfare, but played a tertiary role with the successful Chicago Bulls of the early 1990s. The Waiter not only served up nice passes but also 11.6 points a game with the Bulls, New Jersey Nets, and Milwaukee Bucks. The Croatian point forward retired recently in the 2005-06 season after 13 seasons in the NBA.

14. Yao Ming, China (9,196 points)
481 games, 19.1ppg – The 28-year old big man from China should be hitting his prime. With over  9000 points after this season, look for Yao to continue his 20 ppg pace for the another half-decade, after sitting out this next season, of course.  And barring injuries.

15. Rick Fox, Canada (8,966 points)
930 games, 9.6ppg (03-04) – Yep. Rick Fox. The 6-7 forward best known for his playoff tactics played 13 seasons, averaging 9.6 points per game with the Celtics and the Lakers. Born in Toronto, Ulrich Fox’s final season was in 2003-04 after winning three NBA championship rings with the Shaq-Kobe Los Angeles Lakers.

16. Hedo Türkoğlu, Turkey (8,355 points)
678 games, 12.3ppg – After several seasons as a reserve with the Sacremento Kings, Hedo Türkoğlu found himself in Orlando, averaging career highs and having a breakout season leading the Magic to the NBA Finals. The 30-year old Turk is entering his tenth NBA season with his third NBA team, the Toronto Raptors.

17. Mehmet Okur, Turkey (7,379 points)
531 games, 13.9ppg – The 30-year old Memo Okur started out in Detroit and won an NBA Championship. Over his seven-year NBA career, Okur has kept relatively injury-free, playing no less than 71 games a season while putting up 13.9  points per game over 531 games. The last four years of his career, Okur has hit roughly one three-pointer a game, and usually during crunchtime. Okur should crack the 10,000  point mark in the next 2-3 seasons.

18. Manu Ginóbili, Argentina (7,044 points)
478 games, 14.7ppg: Wow, this had to be one of the biggest shockers when I was coming up with this list. Seems as Manu Ginobili has been around for so many years, collecting championships and Olympic medals, hitting big shots that seeing him this far down the list is somewhat unbelievable, but there he is. Even more unreal is that the 32-year old Ginobili may not make it to 10,000 NBA career points, but I guess three NBA championships in seven seasons will make up for that.

19. Andrei Kirilenko, Russia (6,973 points)
559 games, 12.5ppg – The 28-year old Kirilenko isn’t known for his scoring, but the last three NBA seasons have been particularly offensively-unproductive for the 6-9 defensive player after several run-ins with Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. Still, Kirilenko was an NBA All-Star and is now in his prime. Ak-47′s progress on this list depends on whether he is getting along with Jerry Sloan.

20. Swen Nater, The Netherlands (5,943 points)
489 games, 12.2 ppg – The 6-11 big man from Den Helder, the Netherlands, lasted eight NBA seasons (and many more ABA seasons) shooting hook shots and averaged 12.2 points for his NBA career.

21. Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuania (5,629 points)
470 games, 12 ppg – It’s been chronicled much that Sabonis came over as a shell of his former great self.  Back in 1995-96, at age 31, 10 years after he was drafted, Sabas was working with two surgically repaired knees. Still, Sabonis managed 7 seasons in the NBA and 5629 points before retiring after the 2002-03. Sadly, Sabonis will fall out of the top-25 by the end of the season.

#22-30:

22. Leandro Barbosa, Brazil (5,456), 422 gms, 12.9
23. Rasho Nesterović, Slovenia (5,356), 769 gms, 7.0
24. Luol Deng, Great Britain (5,123) 333 gms, 15.4
25. Vladimir Radmanovic, Serbia (4,996), 548 gms, 9.1
26. Jamaal Magloire, Canada (4,764), 592 gms, 8.0
27. Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Lithuania (4,631), 363 gms, 12.8
28. Dražen Petrović, Croatia (4,461) 290 gms, 15.4
29. Andrés Nocioni, Argentina (4,436), 374 gms, 11.9
30. Nenê, Brazil (4,266) 370 gms, 11.5

THE BEST OF THE REST: Boris Diaw, France (4,242 459 gms, 9.2ppg), Michael Olowokandi, Nigeria (4,135, 500 gms, 8.3ppg), Luc Longley, Australia (4,090, 567 gms, 7.2ppg), Vitaly Potapenko, Ukraine (3,995, 610 gms, 6.5ppg), Dino Radja, Croatia (3,733, 224 gms, 16.7ppg), Gordon Giricek, Croatia (3670, 384 gms, 9.6ppg) Bill Wennington, Canada (3,301, 720 gms, 4.6ppg), Marko Jaric, Serbia (3193, 447 gms, 7.1ppg), Andrew Bogut, Australia (3,118, 262 gms, 11.9 ppg), Carlos Arroyo, Puerto Rico (3021, 433 gms, 7.0ppg), Gheorghe Muresan, Romania (3020, 307 gms, 9.8ppg)

When comparing the NBA’s all-time list and the all-time list for international NBA players, you can see that international players really haven’t had their chance until recently.

On the NBA’s all-time scoring list, you have players that have been out of the game for nearly 30 years, and only four active players in the top-30.

With the international NBA list, more than half of the players are still active (17/30), while the others have retired no more than 12 years ago.

International players that were lucky enough to come up in the last 5 to 7  years, players like Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Yao Ming, and Pau Gasol, have been given a fairer shake than their predecessors, with large roles in their team’s success that has reflected in their individual statistics.

The next generation, players that have come into the league the last few years, Andrea Bargnani, Danilo Gallinari, Marcin Gortat, and Rudy Fernandez, will have even more chances of success and assimilation; without the xenophobia, politics, negative stereotypes, and ignorance that their forerunners dealt with.

As time moves forward and basketball becomes more globalized, international players can then be judged on their individual talents and have more opportunity for success.

* Edit: AddedVladimir Radmanovic and Swen Nater in first list. Those of you that consider Tim Duncan an international player can list him at #2 all-time with 19,246 points in his NBA career, placing him right above #3 Dirk Nowitzki (19084 points).

Though healing well and showing good progress, Yao Ming said there is no chance of him making a comeback during the 2009-2010 season.

“You don’t want to rush it, because they want it to totally heal this time,” Yao said, “I have been in this situation enough.”

“The (X-ray) picture looks good. The bones heal well.”

Because of his size and the chronic injuries to his leg and foot, this latest setback had many wondering if Yao would ever play basketball again.

To those wondering if Yao’s career would continue, Yao is certain that he would play again, but that he would have to adjust his style and schedule as to ensure that he wouldn’t seriously reinjure himself.

“Obviously, I want to play basketball. This is my life right there,” Yao said. “But for long term, believe me for long term, I need to slow down.”

The question is what does “slow down” mean in this case?  Does it mean less international competition with Team China?

To keep Yao fresh and so that he doesn’t reaggravate an injury, is the Houston staff going to rest Yao Ming, as the Phoenix Suns did with Shaquille O’Neal this past season?

Or does “slow down” mean Yao will become less aggressive in the post, playing more high-post rather than low-post?

Time will tell, but it’s encouraging to know that Yao will play again.

Houston fans can rest easy knowing that Yao will have the next year to continue healing and getting back into shape.

The Toronto Raptors are hemorraging international players this offseason, while the Houston Rockets are stockpiling them to fill in for injured Chinese center Yao Ming.

Today, the Houston Rockets reached a verbal agreement with the 6-10 Pops Mensah-Bonsu, the energetic British center that played for the Raptors last season.

The deal is a one-year deal and the terms weren’t disclosed as of this writing.

Pops, a fan favorite, averaged 5.1 points and 5.4 rebounds in 19 games for Toronto last season.

The agreement was announced four days after the Raptors sent internationals Carlos Delfino and Roko Ukic to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems.

The Houston Rockets are hoping Mensah-Bonsu, along with the signing of Australian big man David Andersen from the Euroleague, can fill the huge hole left by the 7-6 Yao Ming.  The seven-time all-star is expected to miss the entire 2009-10 season with a leg injury.

With his NBA dealings nearly completed, Pops is expected to return to the Great Britain national team in time for their trip to Turkey for more preparation for Eurobasket. Without Pops, Great Britain went 1-2 at a recent four-nation tournament held in Seville, Spain.

The 2009 Eurobasket tournament set to begin on September 7.

The New York Times has a story about Wataru “Wat” Misaka’s first trip back to Madison Square Garden since the he played three games for the New York Knicks in 1947.

Misaka is the first non-white and first Asian NBA player (the NBA was known as the Basketball Association of America at the time).

From the New York Times:

(Misaka) is remembered as the first non-Caucasian player in modern professional basketball, three years before African-Americans were included.

Misaka recalls a few so-called teammates giving him faulty advice to make him look bad on the court, but he seems to accept that a 5-7 guard was at a disadvantage, even in 1947. The Knicks had given him a rare guaranteed contract, worth $4,000, but they cut him, anyway.

(Misaka) was offered a place with the all-black Globetrotters, but he declined. He went home, earned his degree, married and worked as an engineer.

His name and his life are celebrated in a documentary, “Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story.”

He is part of basketball history but also part of American history, having lived through the internment period during World War II and later serving in the United States army in Hiroshima, three months after the atomic bomb was dropped there.

For as much as the United States treasures personal stories that helped to break the color barriers in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, somehow Misaka’s story gets lost in the history books.  

More than fifty years before Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming played in the NBA, Misaka footprints can be barely be seen these days.  It’s a crime that Wat is unknown to even the most fervent of NBA fans.

Not only did he overcome race, but he also overcame height (he was a 5-7 guard), and was the New York Knicks’ first ever draft pick.

The short, Japanese-American, who wore size seven Converses, played in what would become the NBA  in 1949 (a year before the league admitted its first black player), that’s nothing short of amazing.

Previous to going pro, Misaka played for the University of Utah and helped the team defeat Dartmouth in the NIT.

Discuss Wataru Misaka in our forum

Title: Asia Championships of Basketball
Location: Tianjin, China
Official Website: http://china2009.fiba.com/
Description: The 2009 FIBA Asia Championships of basketball (discuss) will be held in Tianjin, China from August 6-16, 2009 with 16 teams divided into four groups.

The sixteen teams competing for the gold and a spot in the 2010 World Championships are hosts China, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.

Discuss the 2009 Asia Championships of Basketball in our forum.

Despite the absence of Yao Ming, the tournament still features many national stars in Yi Jianlian (China), Hamed Haddadi (Iran), Kim Min-Soo (Korea), Rony Fahed (Lebanon), Zaid Abbas (Jordan), Sun Yue (China), Lin Chih-chieh (Chinese-Taipei), Samad Nikkah (Iran), Fadi El-Khatib (Lebanon), Wang Zhizhi (China), Yuta Tabuse (Japan), and Tien Lei (Chinese-Taipei).

The top three teams from the four groups advance to the second round of the championship.

* Group A: Japan, Korea, Philippines, Sri Lanka.
* Group B: Chinese Taipei, Iran, Kuwait, Uzbekistan.
* Group C: China, India, Kazakhstan, Qatar.
* Group D: Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, UAE.

The top three overall teams will automatically qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.  Even without finishing in the top three, there is still a chance to qualify for the WBC as 3-4 more teams can be selected as wild cards by FIBA to complete the 24-team field.