People in Canada will watch the game, especially because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Basketball fans around the world will watch these games. People in Serbia and Greece will watch their favorite players, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. In Turkey, people will watch Alperen Sengun play for Houston, even if it's late at night. Fans in Slovenia will watch Luka Doncic's games, even if they are very early in the morning. Fans in Cameroon want to see Pascal Siakam play. The Boston team won last year, and they have players like Kristaps Porzingis from Latvia and Al Horford from the Dominican Republic.

Once again, the NBA playoffs will show off players from around the world.

This year in the NBA, five players from five different countries were the best at different things. This has never happened before. One player is from Canada, one from Lithuania, one from France, one from Australia, and one from the U.S. So, the playoff games will also have many international players. The player from Canada is already in the playoffs. The players from Lithuania, Australia, and the U.S. might join him if their teams win special games first.

NBA boss Adam Silver said earlier this season that many players in the league come from other countries. He said about 30% of the players are from 43 different countries. This makes the teams feel more global.

This season, players from 44 different countries scored points in the NBA. For the first time, players from Canada scored over 15,000 points together. Gilgeous-Alexander was the best scorer from Canada this season.

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

The coach of Toronto, Darko Rajakovic, said it is very hard to stop Shai after his team played against the Thunder this season.

So, he's like many other players from different countries now. It's very hard to stop players like Jokic, Antetokounmpo, and Doncic too.

This season, Luka Doncic's basketball shirt was the most popular in the NBA. More people bought his shirt online than any other player's. This happened partly because he moved from Dallas to the Lakers team and got a new shirt, but it is still important news.

This player from Slovenia is the first international player to have the most popular shirt.

We are a small country with only 2 million people, but our sports are very good," said Ajsa Sivka, who is also from Slovenia. She was chosen by the Chicago Sky basketball team on Monday. When someone asked her about Luka Doncic and other good athletes from Slovenia, she also said, "In any sport, we always have at least one great player. I am very happy to be from Slovenia."

This is happening now when the NBA really wants to become bigger around the world. Last month, FIBA and the NBA said they would work together on a new basketball league in Europe. This league has been planned for a long time. They hope to have 16 teams, maybe with famous clubs like Real Madrid and others.

This NBA season was very good. Four players scored more than 2,000 points. Three of these players were from other countries, like Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo. People around the world watched NBA games online 6% more than last season. In France, more people watched NBA games than ever before, even though Wembanyama did not play in the last two months. In Canada, videos about the NBA on social media were seen more than ever. Also, in Asia and the Pacific, where basketball is already popular, more fans watched the games than ever before.

The leader of FIBA, Andreas Zagklis, said the numbers show the sport is very strong now because it is growing around the world.

Zagklis said, "Around the world, and here in North America, the NBA is very popular and makes a lot of money."