The National Basketball Association (NBA) has announced that a record 135 international players from a record-tying 43 countries across six continents are on opening-night rosters for the 2025-26 season.

Among the record 135 international players are more than 55 players who were either born in Africa or have at least one parent from Africa, including 2021 NBA champion and two-time Kia NBA Most

Valuable Player (MVP) Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks; Greece; ties to Nigeria), 2022-23 Kia NBA MVP and seven-time NBA All-Star Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers; Cameroon), 2019 NBA champion and three-time NBA All-Star Pascal Siakam (Indiana Pacers; Cameroon) and 2023-24 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year and 2025 NBA All-Star Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs; France; ties to the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Opening-night rosters feature at least 120 international players for the fifth consecutive season and at least 100 international players for the 12th straight season. All 30 NBA teams feature at least one international player.

The previous record for international players (125) and the record for countries and territories represented (43) were set at the start of the 2023-24 and 2017-18 seasons, respectively.

Canada (23 players), headlined by 2025 NBA champion and 2024-25 Kia NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder), is the most-represented country outside the U.S. for the 12thconsecutive season, followed by France, Australia, Germany (7) and Serbia (6).

The Atlanta Hawks feature a record-tying 10 international players, followed by the Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors with seven apiece.

Below are additional international player milestones and storylines for the upcoming season:

Four international players have won the last seven Kia NBA MVP Awards: Gilgeous-Alexander (2024-25), 2023-24 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year and 2025 NBA All-Star Nikola Jokić (2023-24, 2021-22 and

2020-21), Embiid (2022-23) and Antetokounmpo (2019-20 and 2018-19). Last season also marked the fourth consecutive season that three international players finished top three in MVP voting: Gilgeous Alexander (No. 1), Jokić (No. 2) and Antetokounmpo (No. 3).