People in Canada will be watching, partly because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He is a top player in the NBA, and this will certainly attract Canadian fans.

Fans around the world, from Serbia and Greece to Turkey and Slovenia, will watch their favorite players like Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Alperen Sengun, and Luka Doncic play basketball, even if it's late at night. People in Cameroon will watch Pascal Siakam, and the Boston team includes players from Latvia and the Dominican Republic.

Once again, the NBA playoffs will likely show the great skills of international stars.

This season is special because the best five players in different statistics come from five different countries. This has never happened before in the NBA. For example, Gilgeous-Alexander is from Canada, Domantas Sabonis from Lithuania is the best at getting rebounds, Victor Wembanyama from France blocks the most shots, Dyson Daniels from Australia gets the most steals, and Trae Young from the U.S. gives the most assists. The playoffs will also have many international players. Gilgeous-Alexander is already in the playoffs. Sabonis, Daniels, and Young could also join him if their teams win in the play-in tournament.

"We have a lot of international players in this league," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. "About 30% of our players are from 43 different countries, at least at the start of the season, so our teams feel much more global."

By the end of the season, there were players from 44 different countries who scored points in the NBA. For the first time, players from a country other than the U.S. scored over 15,000 points in total. Canadian players scored 15,588 points, and Gilgeous-Alexander from Canada was the top scorer.

People think Gilgeous-Alexander will probably be the MVP this season, or maybe Jokic. This means the NBA MVP will be a player from another country for the seventh year in a row. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three times in the next four years, and Joel Embiid from Cameroon won two years ago.

Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game this season, "Shai is the kind of player you cannot stop."

Simply put, he is similar to many other international players today. Nobody can really stop players like Jokic, Antetokounmpo, or Doncic either.

This season, Luka Doncic also achieved something new internationally: his jersey was the most popular in the NBA, with more of his jerseys sold on NBAStore.com than any other player's.

The Slovenian player is the first international player to have the most popular jersey. He is also the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to have this spot in over ten years. Carmelo Anthony was the last player to do this when he was with New York in 2012-13.

"We are a small country with only 2 million people, but our sports are truly amazing," said Ajsa Sivka, another Slovenian athlete, after she was chosen by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night. She was asked about famous Slovenian athletes like Doncic. "In every sport, we have at least one excellent athlete. I am simply very proud to be from Slovenia."

This is happening when the NBA is very focused on increasing its popularity around the world, perhaps more than ever before. Last month, FIBA, the international organization for basketball, and the NBA said they would work together to create a new European basketball league. This league has been planned for a long time. The first idea is to have 16 teams, and it could include many of Europe's most famous teams, like Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester City.

This season, four players scored over 2,000 points in the NBA, and three of them were from other countries: Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo. Around the world, people watched 6% more NBA League Pass this season compared to last season. In France, more people watched NBA games this season than ever before, even though Wembanyama didn't play for the last two months. In Canada, views of NBA social media content reached new highs this season, and league information shows that more fans than ever watched games in the Asia-Pacific region, which is already a very popular area for basketball.

FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers show that the game is growing internationally, which suggests it is very strong now.

Looking around the world, especially in North America, the NBA is more popular and makes more money than ever, according to Zagklis.