Los Angeles (AFP)
With nine players enrolled in franchises, France is the second largest contingent of foreign basketball players this season in the NBA, which has 107 in total, the North American league said on Tuesday.
For the 7th consecutive season, Canada remains the leading provider of non-American players, breaking the record for the same country (17), in a list of 41 nationalities.
Behind are therefore nine "Frenchies": Rudy Gobert in Utah, Nicolas Batum at the Clippers, Evan Fournier in Orlando, Frank Ntilikina in New York, Killian Hayes and Sekou Doumbouya in Detroit, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot in Brooklyn, Vincent Poirier in Philadelphia and Théo Maledon in Oklahoma City.
Two others are likely to increase this colony, because they are linked to franchises by a "two way contract", a kind of CDD which allows them to play up to 50 matches.
During this period, or at its end, the player is offered a classic contract, otherwise, for lack of convincing, he will go to G-League with the team affiliated to the franchise.
Are concerned Killian Tillie with Memphis and Adam Mokoka with Chicago.
The other most represented countries are Australia (8), Serbia and Germany (6).
Africa remains on its high standards with 14 players.
Finally, the franchises with the most internationals in their squad are the Washington Wizards (7), followed by the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets (6), as well as the New Orleans Pelicans, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Toronto Raptors (5).
The record numbers of international players (113) and countries and territories represented (42) were set at the start of the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, respectively.
© 2020 AFP