People in Canada will watch, partly because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He is a great player and this helps attract fans from Canada.

People from Serbia and Greece will watch because of their favorite players, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. In Turkey, fans will watch Houston games late at night to see Alperen Sengun. Fans in Slovenia will get up very early on Sunday to watch Luka Doncic play. People in Cameroon will watch Pascal Siakam. The Boston team has players from other countries too, like Kristaps Porzingis from Latvia and Al Horford from the Dominican Republic.

Once again, the best basketball players from around the world will be the stars of the NBA playoffs.

This year, the best players in five different areas of the game were from five different countries. This has never happened before in the NBA. It shows that basketball is popular in many countries.

We have many players from different countries in this league, the NBA boss Adam Silver said. About 30% of our players are from 43 different countries, so our teams feel more global.

By the end of the season, players from 44 different countries scored points in the NBA. For the first time, players from one country other than the USA scored more than 15,000 points together. Canadian players scored 15,588 points this season, and Gilgeous-Alexander was the first scoring champion from Canada.

Many people think Gilgeous-Alexander will be the best player this season. It will be him or Jokic. This means a player from another country will be the best player in the NBA for seven years in a row. Antetokounmpo won two times, then Jokic won three times in the next four years. Joel Embiid from Cameroon won two years ago.

Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said it is very hard to stop Shai.

He is like many other good players from different countries now. It is very hard to stop players like Jokic, Antetokounmpo, and Doncic too.

This season, Luka Doncic's shirt was the most popular one sold online by the NBA store. This shows that many people bought it.

The famous player from Slovenia is the first player from another country to have the most popular shirt. This is the first time someone other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James has had the most popular shirt in over ten years.

We are a small country with 2 million people, but our sports are amazing, said Ajsa Sivka. She was asked about Luka Doncic and other good athletes from Slovenia. She said, 'In every sport, we have at least one great athlete. I am very proud to be Slovenian.'

This is happening because the NBA wants to be bigger in other countries. Last month, the NBA and FIBA, which is the main group for basketball in the world, said they will work together. They want to start a new basketball league in Europe. They have been thinking about this for many years. They plan to start with 16 teams. Some of the biggest and most famous teams in Europe might be in this league, like Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester City.

This season, four players in the NBA scored over 2,000 points. Three of these players were from other countries, like Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo. Around the world, people watched 6% more NBA games on League Pass than last season. In France, more people watched NBA games this season than ever before, even though Wembanyama did not play for the last two months. In Canada, videos about the NBA on social media were watched much more this season. Also, in the Asia-Pacific area, where many people already like basketball, more fans watched games this season.

FIBA leader Andreas Zagklis said the numbers show that basketball is very popular now.

Around the world, especially in North America, the NBA is very popular and makes a lot of money, more than before.