The NBA’s Most Fertile Foreign Frontiers

August 26th, 2014 by Josh Martin Leave a reply »
Basketball doesn't stop when the NBA season ends. Instead, the game goes global, with international tournaments and overseas tours by the sport's biggest stars to fill the summer months.

Kobe Bryant went to China, and he took Sports Illustrated's Chris Ballard with him. USA Basketball will be one of 24 national teams partaking in the upcoming FIBA World Cup of Basketball, and it should still come away with gold despite the absences of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Kevin Love and Blake Griffin, among others.

There are even signs of basketball's worldwide expansion back in the states. Sim Bhullar, a 7'5" behemoth of a rookie, recently became the first player of Indian descent to sign an NBA contract—notably, with the Sacramento Kings, whose owner, Vivek Ranadive, hails from India.

"I’ve long believed that India is the next great frontier for the NBA, and adding a talented player like Sim only underscores the exponential growth basketball has experienced in that nation," Ranadive said in the team's press release. "While Sim is the first player of Indian descent to sign with an NBA franchise, he represents one of many ...

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