People in Canada will be watching, and while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a big reason, he's not the only one. As the NBA's top scorer and likely MVP, who plays for Oklahoma City, he definitely helps attract fans from Canada.

Enthusiasts from Serbia and Greece will be following the league intently, particularly the performances of Denver's Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, their respective compatriots. The presence of Alperen Sengun will compel Turkish fans to tune into Houston games at inconvenient hours. Similarly, Slovenian supporters will be staying up late to watch Luka Doncic and the Lakers commence their playoff campaign. Cameroonian viewers will be focused on Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. The reigning champions, Boston, boast a diverse roster including Kristaps Porzingis from Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.

The NBA playoffs are once again poised to feature a prominent display of international talent.

This season in the NBA was special because the five players who led in statistics were from five different countries. Gilgeous-Alexander is from Canada, the player who got the most rebounds, Domantas Sabonis from Sacramento, is from Lithuania, the player who blocked the most shots, Victor Wembanyama from San Antonio, is from France, the player who made the most steals, Dyson Daniels from Atlanta, is from Australia, and the player who made the most assists, Trae Young from the Hawks, is from the U.S. This means the games after the regular season will also feel very international. Gilgeous-Alexander is already in, and Sabonis and Daniels (and Young too) might join him if their teams win in the play-in tournament.

"Our league boasts a considerable contingent of international players," stated NBA Commissioner Adam Silver earlier this season. "Approximately 30% of our athletes hail from, as of opening day, 43 distinct nations, fostering a significantly more global atmosphere within our teams."

By the close of the season, a remarkable forty-four distinct countries were represented, based on the birthplaces of players who scored in the NBA. Historically, for the inaugural time, players originating from a single non-U.S. nation collectively surpassed 15,000 points, with Canadian players contributing 15,588 points this season, spearheaded by Gilgeous-Alexander, their nation's initial scoring champion.

Gilgeous-Alexander is expected to win MVP this season. It will probably be him or Jokic. This means an international player will win the NBA MVP award for the seventh year in a row. Antetokounmpo won it twice, then Jokic won three times in the next four years, and Joel Embiid won two seasons ago.

"Shai belongs to that select group of players you simply cannot halt," commented Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic following a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.

To put it another way, he resembles many other international players today, in that no one can truly contain talents like Jokic, Antetokounmpo, and Doncic either.

This season also marked a notable international achievement: Doncic's jersey ranked first on the NBA's most popular list, indicating higher sales figures on NBAStore.com compared to any other player. While this was likely influenced by Doncic's mid-season trade from Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, resulting in a jersey change, its significance remains substantial.

The Slovenian player is the first international player to have the most popular jersey. This is the first time in over ten years that someone other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James has been number one. The last player to do it was Carmelo Anthony in the 2012-13 season when he was with New York. He will soon be in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Even though we are a small country with only 2 million people, our sport is amazing," said Ajsa Sivka, a fellow Slovene, after she was chosen by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. "In any sport, we have at least one great person. I am very proud to be Slovenian.

This is happening at a time when the NBA is more serious than ever about growing internationally. Last month, FIBA, the international basketball organization, and the NBA announced they would work together on a new European basketball league that has been planned for a long time. The first goal is a league with 16 teams, and it could include many of the biggest teams in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester City.

This NBA season witnessed a remarkable achievement with four players surpassing the 2,000-point mark, a feat particularly notable given that three were international standouts: Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo. Globally, engagement with the league intensified, reflected in a 6% increase in time spent watching NBA League Pass compared to the previous season. Notably, viewership in France reached unprecedented levels this season, even despite Wembanyama's absence for the final two months. The league's expanding global footprint was further evidenced by record-breaking NBA-related social media views in Canada and a significant surge in fan engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, a locale already renowned for its fervent basketball following.

FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers, which are clearly growing because the sport is expanding internationally, show that the game is very strong now.

Observing global trends, particularly within North America, Zagklis noted that the NBA has attained unprecedented popularity and commercial prosperity.