People in Canada will watch because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He is a great player for Oklahoma City, and this brings in fans from Canada.

Basketball fans around the world will be watching their favorite players. For example, people in Serbia and Greece will watch Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. In Turkey, fans will stay up late to watch Alperen Sengun play for Houston. Slovenian fans will watch Luka Doncic and the Lakers early in the morning. Fans in Cameroon are excited to see Pascal Siakam and the Pacers. The Boston team, who are the champions, also has players from Latvia and the Dominican Republic, like Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford.

Again, the NBA playoffs will show how good international players are.

This season, for the first time, the best players in five different stats were from five different countries. These players were Gilgeous-Alexander from Canada, Domantas Sabonis from Lithuania, Victor Wembanyama from France, Dyson Daniels from Australia, and Trae Young from the USA. The playoff games will also have many players from other countries. Gilgeous-Alexander will play in the playoffs. Sabonis, Daniels, and Young might play too if their teams win in the play-in games.

The head of the NBA, Adam Silver, said this season that many players in the league are from other countries. About 30% of the players are from 43 different countries, so the teams feel more global.

This season, NBA players who scored points were from 44 different countries. For the first time, players from Canada scored over 15,000 points together. This was more than players from any other country except the US. Canadian players scored 15,588 points this season. Gilgeous-Alexander from Canada scored the most points this season.

People think Gilgeous-Alexander could be the best player this year. If he is, the best player in the NBA will be from another country for seven years in a row.

Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said it is very hard to stop Shai. He said this after a game between his team and the Thunder this season.

He is like many other international players now. It is difficult to stop players like Jokic, Antetokounmpo, and Doncic.

This season, something else important happened: Doncic's jersey was the most popular in the NBA. More people bought his jersey than any other player's jersey online. This was partly because he got a new team (the Lakers) and a new jersey, but it is still a big deal.

The player from Slovenia has the most popular jersey. He is the first international player to do this. For over ten years, only Stephen Curry or LeBron James had the most popular jersey. This player is the first person besides them to have it. Carmelo Anthony was the last person to do it before them, in 2012-13. He played for New York then. He will join the Basketball Hall of Fame soon.

Slovenia is a small country with a population of 2 million people. However, our sports are amazing, according to fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka. She made this comment after being drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night, when asked about Luka Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. She added, 'No matter the sport, we have at least one great athlete. I am truly proud to be Slovenian.'

This is happening now because the NBA wants to be more popular in other countries. Last month, FIBA and the NBA said they will work together to start a new basketball league in Europe. They have been planning this for a long time. They want to start with 16 teams. Some of the most famous teams in Europe, like Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, might join this league.

This year, four players in the NBA scored over 2,000 points. Three of them were from other countries: Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo. People around the world watched NBA games online 6% more than last year. In France, more people watched NBA games this year than ever before, even though Wembanyama did not play in the last two months. In Canada, many more people watched NBA videos on social media this year than before. In Asia, where people already like basketball, more fans watched NBA games this year too.

FIBA leader Andreas Zagklis said that more people around the world are playing the sport, and this means the sport is very popular now.

Around the world, and here in North America, the NBA is more popular and makes more money than before.