People in Canada will watch, not just for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He is a very good player in the NBA and plays for Oklahoma City. This will help bring in fans from Canada.

Basketball fans all over the world will watch the games. People in Serbia and Greece will watch Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. People in Turkey will watch Alperen Sengun play for Houston, even if it is late at night. Fans in Slovenia will watch Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their first playoff game early in the morning. Fans in Cameroon will watch Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. The team that won last year, Boston, has players like Kristaps Porzingis from Latvia and Al Horford from the Dominican Republic.

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

This season, the five best players in different statistics were from five different countries. This has never happened before in the NBA.

Adam Silver, the head of the NBA, said that the league has a large number of players from other countries. He mentioned that around 30% of the players come from 43 different countries, which gives the teams a more international feeling.

By the end of the season, players who scored in the NBA were from 44 different countries. For the first time, players from one country other than the U.S. scored more than 15,000 points together. Canadian players scored 15,588 points this season. Gilgeous-Alexander was the best scorer from Canada.

People think Gilgeous-Alexander will probably be the best player this year.

Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game this season that it is very hard to stop Shai.

So, he is like many other international players now. It is very hard to stop players like Jokic, Antetokounmpo, and Doncic too.

This season, Luka Doncic's jersey was the most popular in the NBA. More people bought his jersey online than any other player's. He changed teams during the season, which helped sell more jerseys, but it is still important.

The famous player from Slovenia is the first player from another country to have the most popular jersey. Before this, only Stephen Curry or LeBron James had the most popular jersey for over ten years.

We are a small country with only 2 million people, but our sports are truly remarkable," said Ajsa Sivka after being drafted by the Chicago Sky. When asked about Luka Doncic and other successful Slovenian athletes, she added, "No matter the sport, we consistently have at least one outstanding athlete. I am genuinely proud to be Slovenian."

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

In one season, four players scored over 2,000 points in the NBA. Three of these players were from other countries: Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo. People around the world watched 6% more NBA games on League Pass this season compared to 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 more than ever this season. In Asia and the Pacific, which is already a popular place for basketball, many more fans watched games this season too.

FIBA leader Andreas Zagklis said the numbers show the sport is growing around the world and is very popular now.

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