More than anything else, the first round of Thursday’s NBA Draft was defined by its international flavor.
Ben Simmons got the ball rolling when the Australian was drafted 1st overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. After Simmons, 14 other international players were drafted in the first round of the 2016 NBA draft, setting a new record.
The 2016 draft smashed the previous record of 12, which had been set back in 2013. The high chance of this record falling became evident pretty early.
7 of first 11 #NBADraft picks have been international players. What does that say? #NBADraft2016
— Carl Berman (@carlberman) June 24, 2016
Two international players were drafted in the first four picks, and four of the top seven were international as well. Here’s a list of the 15:
1. Ben Simmons – Australia – Philadelphia 76ers
4. Dragan Bender – Croatia – Phoenix Suns
6. Buddy Hield – Bahamas – New Orleans Pelicans
7. Jamal Murray – Canada – Denver Nuggets
9. Jakob Poeitl – Austria – Toronto Raptors
10. Thon Maker – Sudan – Milwaukee Bucks
11. Domantas Sabonis – Lithuania – Oklahoma City Thunder
13. Georgios Papagiannis – Greece – Phoenix Suns
15. Juan Hernangomez – Spain – Denver Nuggets
16. Guerschon Yabusele – France – Boston Celtics
23. Ante Zizic – Croatia – Boston Celtics
24. Timothe Luwawu – France – Philadelphia 76ers
26. Furkan Kormaz – Turkey – Philadelphia 76ers
27. Pascal Siakam – Cameroon – Toronto Raptors
28. Skal Labissiere – Haiti – Phoenix Suns
That’s a lot of foreign-born players.
However, what makes this list interesting is while all 15 prospects were born in a foreign country, not all of them were drafted from their home country. Instead, just eight of those 15 didn’t play for an NCAA team this past year.
Here are the players who played for NCAA schools among that group of 15 last year:
1. Ben Simmons – LSU
6. Buddy Hield – Oklahoma
7. Jamal Murray – Kentucky
9. Jakob Poeitl – Utah
11. Damontas Sabonis – Gonzaga
27. Pascal Siakam – New Mexico State
28. Skal Laabissiere – Kentucky
While all seven of those players weren’t born in the United States, they aren’t completely “international players” in a way because they weren’t drafted out of a foreign school or away from a foreign team.
The second round saw 13 foreign-born players drafted, meaning 28 of 60 total players selected were born outside of the United States.
Of course not all 28 will sign, let along play in the NBA. Going back over the last five drafts since 2011, here are the numbers of foreign players drafted and the number who have played even just a minute in an NBA game.
2011 – 16 drafted, 6 have yet to play in an NBA game
2012 – 16 drafted, 4 have yet to play in an NBA game
2013 – 21 drafted, 6 have yet to play in an NBA game
2014 – 19 drafted, 7 have yet to play in an NBA game
2015 – 18 drafted, 13 have yet to play in an NBA game
This shows us that despite 15 foreign-born players being drafted in the 2016 NBA first round and 28 overall in the draft, many won’t even make their way to the States.
