People in Canada will watch, partly because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He is a great player who plays for Oklahoma City.

Many people from different countries will watch basketball games to see their favorite players. For example, people in Serbia and Greece will watch because of Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Fans in Turkey will watch Alperen Sengun play for Houston, even late at night. Fans in Slovenia will watch Luka Doncic play his first playoff game early in the morning. Fans in Cameroon will watch Pascal Siakam. And people in Latvia and the Dominican Republic will watch Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford play for Boston.

Again, the NBA playoffs will show how good players from other countries are.

This year, the best players in the NBA for points, rebounds, blocked shots, steals, and assists were from five different countries. This has never happened before in the NBA.

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

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 over 15,000 points together. Players from Canada scored 15,588 points. Gilgeous-Alexander, who is from Canada, scored the most points in the league.

People think Gilgeous-Alexander might win the best player award this year. If he wins, or if Jokic wins, it will be the seventh year in a row that a player from another country has won in the NBA.

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

He is like many other international players now. It is hard to stop players like Jokic, Antetokounmpo, and Doncic.

This season, many people bought Doncic's jersey on the NBA website. This happened partly because he moved from the Dallas team to the Los Angeles Lakers during the season. But it is still an important thing.

The famous player from Slovenia is the first player from another country to have the most popular shirt. He is also the first player who is not Stephen Curry or LeBron James to be number one in more than ten years. Before him, Carmelo Anthony was number one in 2012-13 when he played for New York. Carmelo Anthony will be in the Basketball Hall of Fame soon.

Slovenia is a small country with only two million people, but our sports are truly remarkable. We consistently have outstanding athletes in various sports, and I am genuinely proud to be Slovenian.

This is happening because the NBA wants to be more popular in other countries. Last month, the NBA and the group that manages basketball around the world said they will start a new basketball league in Europe together. They have been planning this league for many years. They want to start with 16 teams. Maybe famous teams from Europe, like Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, will be in this league.

This season in the NBA, four players scored more than 2,000 points. Three of these players were from other countries: Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo. People around the world watched NBA games online 6% more than last year. In France, more people watched NBA games than ever before, even though Wembanyama did not play in the last two months. In Canada, people watched NBA videos on social media more than ever this season. Also, more fans in Asia watched the games, and many people there already like basketball very much.

FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers show that basketball is very popular now because it is growing in many countries.

Around the world, and here in North America, more people like the NBA and it makes more money than before, Zagklis said.