With the All-Star Game going global, is the NBA Cup next?

Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game is under a new format in which an international team is featured against two teams consisting of American players.

The very fact that the league has evolved to the point where an international team can be justified, and even favored at BetMGM, is the result of decades worth of global investment and marketing to turn basketball into a sport with immensely broad appeal.

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International talent is here to stay

The shift in global power isn’t lost on NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum.

“There has never been more talent in the NBA than there is today, which is in large part due to the fact that basketball is more global than ever,” Tatum told Yahoo Sports.

With the All-Star Game now featuring a whole team of non-American players, questions do linger in regard to how American observers will receive international stars such as Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and Victor Wembanyama.

But Tatum doesn’t waver.

“At the end of the day, our fans are drawn to elite talent and compelling stories, no matter where a player is from,” Tatum said. “A great example is Victor Wembanyama, who is the fastest player in NBA history to reach more than 1 billion views on social media.”

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Historically speaking, Tatum’s point is sound. The league has been littered with international stars before, even if the sheer volume of current stars is unparalleled.

Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol and Manu Ginobili spearheaded the early-to-mid-2000s and laid the foundation within the league to embrace talent that wasn’t developed within the confines of the United States.

The fact that all four players won championships allowed for an easier transition, especially for front offices, to look overseas and open their minds to new ideologies and development patterns.

This approach has been rewarded with Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo winning titles.

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Tatum notes that “roughly 30%” of players in the NBA are international, which the league believes makes for adequate representation with the three All-Star-team format.

International expansion

The next…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/with-the-all-star-game-going-global-is-the-nba-cup-next-013528887.html

Author : Morten Stig Jensen

Publish date : 2026-02-15 01:35:00

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