Foreign NBA Draftees

In recent years NBA teams have been looking more at players from other countries and drafting them. 1996 showed a dramatic rise in the prominence of foreign draftees, but NBA teams have been adding players from Europe to their rosters for many years now. Often the player will develop on a European professional team then come to the NBA. Notable players who have done this include Dino Radja and Toni Kukoc. Others will leave their homelands, play college ball in the US then be picked up by an NBA team without ever having to go home. Mainly the big African stars have gone this route: Hakeem Olajuwon, Diekembe Mutombo, Manute Bol and Yinka Dare. All of these players will usually play a big role on their national teams and compete in international play. Vlade Divac, Sarunas Marciulionis and Arvydas Sabonis are known for their great contributions to their national teams. Usually, teams take a chance on drafting a foreign player with a second round pick, but in recent years the international stars have been being snagged in the first round.

In 1996, lottery pick Vitaly Potapenko, The Ukraine Train, headed the list of players who were drafted from other countries. He was followed by the star from Greece, Pedrag Stojakovic, who was picked at 14 just out of the lottery. Three other first rounders were not born on US soil: Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Lithuania), Efthimis Rentzias and Martin Muursepp (Estonia). Shane Heal of Australia, although undrafted, signed a 3 year deal worth 1.1 million dollars with the T-Wolves starting in 1996. Heal averaged almost 25 points a game over an eight year Australian League career. Mark Bradtke left tht land Down Under to come to the states in 1996, signing with the 76ers. Julius Nwosu of Nigeria also signed a deal to play in the US in 1996, and in Canada for Toronto in 1997. He never played a regular season game for either team. Portland signed Silver-Medal winning Yugoslav point guard Aleksandar Djordjevic. He averaged 11.3 ppg in the Olympics for the Yugoslavian National Team. He was released in mid-December of his rookie year, though. Finally, Phoenix signe Horacio Llamas as the first Mexican born player ever to play in the NBA.

Currently the NBA has many players of varying levels who got their starts in another country before coming to the US. Some of the headliners include: Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria), Patrick Ewing (Jamaica), Detlef Schrempf (Germany), Diekembe Mutombo (Zaire), Vlade Divac (Yugoslavia), Toni Kukoc (Yugoslavia-Croatia), Dino Radja (Yugoslavia-Croatia), Pedrag Danilovic (Yugoslavia), Arvydas Sabonis (USSR-Lithuania), Sarunas Marciulionis (USSR-Lithuania), Gheorghe Muresan (Romania), George Zidek (Czechoslovakia), Zan Tabak (Yugoslavia-Croatia), Rony Seikaly (Lebanon), Manute Bol (Sudan), Carl Herrera (Venezuela), Yinka Dare (Nigeria) and Luc Longley (Australia).

Here is a list of draft picks who were not born on US soil and when and who drafted them:


NBA Draft Page

This page maintained by Larry Brooks