It may be time for the National Basketball Association to consider changing its name to the International Basketball Association.
For six consecutive seasons, foreign-born basketball stars have dominated the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award. Serbia’s Nikola Jokic has taken the award three times, Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo twice and Joel Embiid, who is a naturalized US citizen but grew up in Cameroon, has claimed it once. And going further back to 2013, more than half of the No 1 overall draft picks were born outside the US.
Currently, Luka Dončić, a 25-year-old Slovenian; Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a 26-year-old Canadian’; and the brilliant 20-year-old Frenchman Victor Wembanyama look like they will be the faces of the league once LeBron James finally retires.
Indeed, the NBA has a record-setting 125 foreign-born players, accounting for more than 35% of the league’s limited roster spots. The league claims representatives from countries like Japan, Brazil, Lebanon, the Bahamas, China and beyond, making it the most diverse league outside of European football.
And we can add Mexico to the nations eager to produce the kind of global talent that has already inundated the league.
Aside from being closely tied to the US through migration, proximity and economics, Mexico is where the most NBA games (33) have been played besides the United States and Canada. Since 1992, when the NBA began its annual Mexico Game (which started as an exhibition between the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets to lure fans across the border), the league has steadily enlarged its radius into La República Mexicana.
This year, Mexico City hosted the Washington Wizards against the Miami Heat during Día de Muertos weekend. In front of a sold-out crowd of 20,328, a colorful swirl of larger-than-life catrinas, papel picado ofrendas, and mariachis stole the show in a blowout Heat victory.
After three decades, the NBA is hitting critical mass among Mexican fans (ranking as a top 10 market according to NBA League Pass subscriptions). The country appears ready to yield a new generation of players too.
One of those ballers is Karim López from Hermosillo, Sonora. Though the 6ft 6in 17-year-old isn’t eligible for the NBA until 2025, he is projected to be a top lottery pick – which would make him the first Mexican-born athlete to achieve such heights.
For the moment, López hoops in Australia’s National Basketball League Next Star program – a regimen that has developed several prospects, including NBA All-Star LaMelo Ball and recent NBA lottery picks Alex Sarr, RJ Hampton and Ousmane Dieng. López has already impressed for the New Zealand Breakers, who somewhat confusingly play in Australia’s National Basketball League, where he leads the team in rebounds during his rookie campaign. López also suits up for Mexico’s senior national team, where he has competed in Olympic qualifiers and is slated to be the country’s marquee player going forward.
And yet, when most spectators think about Mexican sports, they rarely, if ever, conjure the image of a basketball star. That’s because Mexico has never produced a bonafide NBA standout – despite being the 10th most populous nation in the world and being next door to the world’s biggest basketball market.
Only six Mexican nationals – Horacio Llamas, Eduardo Najera, Gustavo Ayon, Jorge Gutierrez, Juan Toscano-Andesron and Jaime Jaquez Jr – have competed in the NBA, four of whom are Mexican-born (Toscano-Anderson and Jaquez were born and raised in the US, later claiming dual citizenship and suiting up for Mexico).
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has raved about his vision for expanding the sport’s appeal in Mexico.
“We believe we’re the fastest growing sport in Mexico … We know the talent exists and we know the interest exists, but it is a bit frustrating that we don’t have greater representation from Mexico in the NBA,” said Silver on a visit to Mexico earlier this month.
“I think back on the expansion to Canada, almost exactly 30 years ago [in 1995]. At the time we expanded to [Toronto and Vancouver], we had two players from Canada. [In 2024] we had 28 [active] players from Canada.”
Though the NBA hasn’t invested in Mexico in the same way it has in Canada, the league is beginning to shift its gaze southward. In 2017, the league installed NBA Academy Latin America – the NBA’s premier development center – in the state of San Luis Potosí, the first and only of its kind in the western hemisphere. The league followed that in 2019 by announcing the Capitanes de Ciudad de México, a Mexican-owned basketball franchise, were entering the NBA’s G League circuit.
Llamas, who became the NBA’s first-ever Mexican-born player when he suited up for the Phoenix Suns in 1997, has become an ambassador for basketball in his country. But even Llamas admits that Mexico’s basketball pipeline is disorganized and dysfunctional, without a clear pathway to the NBA.
“We need to emulate countries like Canada,” says Llamas. “When they played Under-17 [a few years ago], they beat the US. If you work and take the time to expand talent with good coaches, you will get results. We haven’t organized our timelines for the kids [in Mexico]. That’s what gets you ahead.”
He cites a lack of fundamentals being taught early on, leading to players who develop basic skills later in their development rather than polishing their technique before they reach the national team.
NBA México content creator Eduardo Villalpando agrees with Llamas, and also cites the lack of professional infrastructure and limited playing time for Mexicans in top national leagues.
“Infrastructure is lacking,” Villalpando says. “In Mexico, they allow up to eight internationals on the team. You want to pay someone who has been playing in America, who has Summer League and G League experience. The development is going to struggle because the Mexican players won’t spend as much time on the court. The LNBP [Mexico’s top basketball league] is promoting Mexican players on social media but they don’t change the rules to have more Mexican players. They’re not really touching the floor.”
Outside of Gael Bonilla – a 21-year-old forward who began his playing career with FC Barcelona as a teen and is a standout on Mexico’s national senior unit and los Diablos Rojos de México — the majority of star players in the LNBP are from abroad.
“In terms of development, there are so many different entities operating at the same time in Mexico that folks think the diversity of leagues would help, but it can be counterproductive,” says Mitchell Thompson, an assistant coach on the Mexican women’s national team and a former NBA Academy Latin America coach. “There are multiple men’s and women’s leagues [in Mexico] that really don’t interact with each other. When you look at the best development systems in Europe, you have a deep tradition of consistency. Luka [Dončić] was with the same development ecosystem in Europe [until he reached the NBA]. They are world renowned for their consistency. That doesn’t happen in Mexico.”
There are also obvious issues of financial inequalities and the reality that the average Mexican man is 5ft 6in. However, Llamas – a 6ft 11in, 280lbs behemoth – counters the notion of genetics limiting Mexican players by recounting the numerous teenagers he has come across in Mexico who reach 6ft 7in. But, he says, they simply don’t have the access to adequate training or exposure to programs that might otherwise offer scholarships and opportunities through athletics.
“I’m from a little town. I know that struggle,” Llamas says. “When you’re living it, you’re not calling it a struggle. It’s just life. These kids are working with their parents and collecting fruits or working in agriculture, so they’re naturally strong, but they don’t have the opportunity to train once or twice a week because they’re so far from the [urban] centers. They get eliminated to be selected. That’s sad. I think we can get better in that sense to improve at the state level, and then that leads to the national team. The organization can be way better.”
But with the rise of visibility for Mexican-heritage players like Toscano-Anderson and Jaquez, who host various camps for youth on both sides of the border, and programs like Bilingual Basketball, which works with immigrant and indigenous communities in Spanish and native dialects around North America, it’s more possible than ever for a Mexican-born star to reach the NBA.