MaNGA: Make NBA Great Again (foreign player limits)

[Black Jack]

I think one reason the NBA's popularity / relevance is suffering culturally is less American stars. It's for this reason that most overseas leagues have foreign player limits. Artest even complained about it:

From Dave McMenamin of ESPN:

When Lakers forward Ron Artest walked off the practice floor of the Crystal Palace in the Bromley section of London on Saturday, he wanted to talk about what he perceives to be a limited population of American players in European and international basketball leagues.

“They need to let more Americans play in the European leagues,” Artest said. “There are only like two [Americans] to a team while Europeans can come to America [and play in the NBA] like the whole San Antonio Spurs team — a whole American team can be full of Europeans. Europe has to be a little more fair to the American players.

“You see a lot of foreign players come over to America to play in the NBA. It’s not fair that a lot of American players can’t come to China or can’t come to Europe to play with as many players as they want, so there’s no balance … They should just make it more even.”
https://www.slamonline.com/news/nba/artest-knocks-euorleagues-limit-on-us-players/

I think the foreign leagues are correct. NBA should implement some version of this along with more domestic youth league skills training.

At the least, it should be reciprocal with Euro League as Artest suggested. If they limit our players, we should limit theirs in the same exact manner. Quid Pro Quo.

Face facts, even engaging foreign stars like Luka are less popular. Imagine if Luka was an American white guy he'd be on every magazine etc. Giannis doesn't connect and Jokic is famously boring. Fans still focus on KD, LeBron, Curry even though they're on their way out of the league.

Back when it was Magic vs Bird vs Jordan vs Isiah, people were into it. The faces of the league were all American. USA USA USA!

Make the NBA ('s ratings) Great Again by limiting the # of foreign players on each team

/green font....I think.

[Dominator83]

Silver should build a wall

[Devilanche]

Let’s place tariffs on those countries as well.

[Mrakar]

But then they would have to change that "World champion" part at the end

[Black Jack]

But then they would have to change that "World champion" part at the end

The part called "NBA Finals" and "NBA Champions"??

https://www.nba.com/news/history-finals-moments-index

[LuDux1]

There are only like two [Americans] to a team

Is that article from 1994?

[Black Jack]

There are only like two [Americans] to a team

Is that article from 1994?

It's from when Artest was on the Lakers so old but the point stands, foreign player limits are still a thing in most overseas leagues.

[EArl]

Silver should build a wall

and make Jokic pay for it

[lambchop]

There are only like two [Americans] to a team

Is that article from 1994?

It's from when Artest was on the Lakers so old but the point stands, foreign player limits are still a thing in most overseas leagues.

The leagues that limit it to 1 or 2 non EU foreigners are mainly semi professional leagues. Yes, these dudes will still tell their buddies back home that they went pro and what not, but they're playing against guys who practice 2 to 5 times a week.

The top tier leagues, like the Spanish league or Euroleague, hardly have any restrictions and that's why young guys should avoid them like the plague.

Anyway, the US somehow stopped churning out guys that were a combination of freak raw athletes and highly skilled dudes, for example Amare Stoudemire (hops, polished footwork and midrange), LBJ (exceptional passer, ambidextrous, NFL body), Wade, Kobe, Tmac, VC etc.

[basketballto]

The nba is the best basketball league in the world. They want to sell they have the best players. Now they can sell the nba to the rest of the world.

Putting in a two player limit would mean little if your purpose is want replace top stars with American born players. All that would do is replace that 7 foot eastern european backup center with a smaller American version.

[SweaterBae]

You people. This one and done, godymas, etc, etc's 57th account. STOP FEEDING THEM. (yes I know I'm doing it by even replying). It's sad that Mass allows this garbage. Anything for clicks, I guess. Hey! Just like the NBA!

[OkcSinceSGA]

Silver should build a wall

and make Jokic pay for it

Excuse me! Excuse me! Quiet! You sir, are fake news.

[OkcSinceSGA]

You people. This one and done, godymas, etc, etc's 57th account. STOP FEEDING THEM. (yes I know I'm doing it by even replying). It's sad that Mass allows this garbage. Anything for clicks, I guess. Hey! Just like the NBA!

You seem… stable

[LuDux1]

At the beginning of the season NBA teams had 124 foreigners or 4.13 per team
At the beginning of the season EL teams had 74 Americans or 4.11 per team

[bkkrh]

The reason this is in place is for the same reason the MLS has a foreign player limit as well. It would otherwise simply kill the league and the development of young talents in most European countries. Teams would just load up their rosters with Division 1 to 3 college players and nobody would probably watch. Why should I watch a group of US players, that are basically mercenaries (majority of US players stay only for 1 season with the same team), that were too bad for the NBA? Then I can also just watch the NBA and G League instead.

So in that sense you'd get your wish. You'd probably kill international Basketball in a lot of countries and the NBA can be a league again that is only relevant for the US market, like Baseball.

A player limit would not limit less international stars. Until the mid 90s there was a general limit in European Football on how many foreign players a team could have, European or not European. So teams just got the 3 best possible foreign players they could afford on their roster.

Your proposal with a player limit would make sense if the NBA is overflown with foreign players and US players are struggling to make it to the league. This season there were at the start of the season 125 international players in the league. The biggest majority were Canadian with 22. 58 of those players were from Europe. So in that sense, the NBA is currently way under the Euroleague quota for American players.

To also point out, the list of foreign players also includes players like OG Anunoby, who is counted as British, since he was born in the UK to Nigerian parents. He moved to the US when he was 4. In Europe, he would by now just have cirizenship of the country he is residing in, or dual citizenship, as long as he isn't deciding against it. A great example for that would be Jeremy Sochan, who was born in Oklahoma, has a Polish mother and an American dad, but is viewed by the NBA as a British or Polish, since he moved to the UK when he was 3 and played for both youth National teams.

Pretty much the same goes for a lot of players that are listed as being from African countries, but are living in the US since they were little children like Josh Okogie.

[KGtabake]

There are only like two [Americans] to a team

Is that article from 1994?

It's from when Artest was on the Lakers so old but the point stands, foreign player limits are still a thing in most overseas leagues.

Panathinaikos is the current Euro League champion.
The roster has 14 players.
7 of them are Greeks because that's the Greek League's minimum requirement for domestic players.
The other 7 are foreigners.
Same goes for every Greek team.
I guess that the Spanish, Italian etc leagues have similar rules.

Do you consider 7 foreigners as few?
How many NBA teams have more foreigners than Americans?

[UcanUwill]

The only reason why some Domestic leagues have foreign player limits, is to help develop domestic talent. NBA and America does not need that to say the least. Also, most Euro teams are filled with foreign talent, obviously Euroleague does not have such limit, and current domestic leagues have very insignificant foreign player lmits. A lot of teams have like two Americans on a team, but Americans are not the only players who are foreign lol... Point presented like there are two nationalities, USA and non USA, what? One of the stupidest things I have read in a while.

[UcanUwill]

Is that article from 1994?

It's from when Artest was on the Lakers so old but the point stands, foreign player limits are still a thing in most overseas leagues.

Panathinaikos is the current Euro League champion.
The roster has 14 players.
7 of them are Greeks because that's the Greek League's minimum requirement for domestic players.
The other 7 are foreigners.
Same goes for every Greek team.
I guess that the Spanish, Italian etc leagues have similar rules.

Do you consider 7 foreigners as few?
How many NBA teams have more foreigners than Americans?

PAO is not even a good example, since they are among most domestic talent having teams in EL. If you look at Euroleague lineups, some teams basically do not have domestic players in Rotation at all, Maccabi for example, who try to be one of the best teams in Europe, but obviously they simply do not have Israeli players who are Euroleague level. Greek, Lithuanian, Serbian teams have at least some domestic talent that plays in EUroleague, some teams have almost none, or like two. Domestic league games are different, since that is where limits exist, but Domestic leagues are also far less competitive compared to the Euroleague so limits aren't greatly criticized.

Either way, even with Foreign limits, most Euro teams have far more foreigners compared to NBA teams. Ron Artest seem to think, that to Euros, only Americans are ''foreigners'' lol.

[bkkrh]

Is that article from 1994?

It's from when Artest was on the Lakers so old but the point stands, foreign player limits are still a thing in most overseas leagues.

Panathinaikos is the current Euro League champion.
The roster has 14 players.
7 of them are Greeks because that's the Greek League's minimum requirement for domestic players.
The other 7 are foreigners.
Same goes for every Greek team.
I guess that the Spanish, Italian etc leagues have similar rules.

Do you consider 7 foreigners as few?
How many NBA teams have more foreigners than Americans?

Yeah I just checked out of interest for the German teams.

Bayern Munich: 8 Germans, 3 US, 3 other European Countries
Alba Berlin: 7 Germans, 4 US, 1 Australia, 1 New Zealand, 5 other European Countries

So less than 50% of Euroleague Players on German teams are German. So guess a fair deal would be if the NBA makes a 50% limit .

[floppymoose]

Who cares what other leagues do? It's great that I can see most of the greatest players in the world all in a league that plays games commuting distance from me.