Detlef Schrempf - all-star, 6th man of the year, started on the 94 and 95 Sonics teams.

surely you cant count Hakeem, Timmy D, Ewing or Nique as international as they have all played for the USA?!?

Sorry doc, how did I forget Schrempf?
Knock 'nique out of the second team for Schrempf then.

anon, foreign born = international to me. Forgot about Sabonis as well, but he was broken down by the time he went to the USA.

I think the criteria is where they grew up. An international player could get naturalised and play for the US, that doesnt make him a product of the US.

At first thoughts my team would be Yao, Nowitzki, Ginobili, Petrovic, Nash but there are so many great players it is very hard to narrow them down without giving it a lot of thought.

It's like saying Kyrie Irving is the best Australian Point Guard right now. He's American.

Guys, I just went with the criteria that SLAM did, feel free to make your own list if you don't agree.

Jesus, if MJ went to live in Afghanistan for the next 5 years and made a comeback, would he be Afghan's greatest player?

My team would be -

C - Sabonis
PF- Dirk
SF- Ginobili
SG- Petrovic
PG- Nash

2nd team -

C - Yao
PF- Pau Gasol
SF- Schrempf
SG- Marciulionis
PG- Parker

Oscar Schimdt (sp?) best non-NBA player ever. Played for Brazil and led them to a big victory over team USA back in the day,
IMO he is one of the greatest non-USA player of all time..people may call me crazy but check his stats..it's amazing

I would have Gaze up there with Schmidt.

If Gaze was given the opportunity to shoot EVERY shot each time down the floor I am sure he could have mathced Oscars numbers.

C - Yao
PF- Dirk
SF- Schrempf
SG- Petrovic
PG- Nash

2nd team -

C - Mutumbo
PF- Pau Gasol
SF- Stojakovic
SG- Ginobili
PG- Parker

I did'nt include Sabonis because he was never at his peak when he came to the NBA. From what I read some of his delay was due to the Cold War and the politcs that surronded it. I was going to include Smits in the 2nd team but gave the edge to Mutumbo, Smits was underated in my opinon. Also left out Kirlenko partly because his carrer has faded quite quickly. The word on Kucock is that even though he won 6th man of the year and was awesome for a 2nd round pick other basketball experts thought Kucock should of done better in the NBA and not being able to play point forwaed more often was to his detriment. Vlade divac and Rony Seikaly also deserve honourble mention.

On Hakeem. Most of his career was played before he repped the USA (96 Olympics?). He is an international player - period!

I don't care if towards the end of his career he played for the dream team... Irrelevant for mine. Even today he still talks like Mr. Ecko - case closed.

DB5, you can't fit Dirk in the first team when he is possibly in the top 15 players to ever play the game? please!

Please don't bother posting crap like this again, it's plain insulting for those like us whom have respect for the game and for greatness. To put it simply, Dirk is a freak of nature!

And for that criteria crap, didn't Duncan win all those rings playing centre!

I thought Robinson was Centre for the first two of Timmy D's titles? I think you could play Dirk as a small forward, and he was much better then Kukoc as a player. Nique was much better of a player then Kukoc as well, I would even go so far as to put Schrempf ahead of Kukoc. Just wondering why there is no love for Yinka Dare?

Dominique doesn't qualify and Ewing didn't play basketball while he was in Jamaica so they shouldn't be on the list.

Top 5 NBA players developed entirely overseas:

Dirk,
Ginobili,
Parker,
Pau,
Bargnani.

Replace Bargnani with Yao.

How long until Bogut starts getting a mention in consideration for teams like this do you think? Obviously not there yet, but he is heading in the right direction.

Guess that means that JoJo English was the NBL version of Dirk Nowitzki.

711 - Ofcourse Nash isn't American. Just cos Canada is close to America doesn't mean he's at all American. Would you consider yourself a New Zealander because its in the same continent?

Nash is obviously considered an International player and would be in my starting 5.

Besides Nash was born in Sud-Afrika...

Is Timmy D Canadian?

& Ewing?

Okay, a couple of quick explanations.
I have listed the players that were born outside of the USA that I thought were the best. This is what I have classed as an international.

I have also given more value to a player with multiple championships than I have to a player that has not won. This is because IMO this is what all of the BEST players compete for.

Celtic Green, I put Kukoc in the 1st team due to the 3 titles, and also I thought he was a very underated player. However I will admit Bulls bias and concede a swap for Schrempf (almost a push I think).

A, Dirk has 1 ring, Timmy has multiple. That is why I put Duncan in the 1st team.
I am sorry you did not like the team I listed, or the crap that I posted. Feel free to never read a post of mine again, after you said Dirk is top 15 all time, I know that I will not be reading yours.

DB5, the title states 'Best international players',it does not say most 'Titles or players by criteria', that is what irks me the most.

I was not having a personal go at you, but it does sound absurd when you cannot even name Dirk in that team. And since when was basketball really played by position these days? Dirk can play anywhere from the 2-5 position.

Outside of slamonline's criteria or not 99.9% of all basketball fans would name Dirk first.

Tim Duncan has multiple titles and Allstar appearances and is one of the best to ever play the game. Dirk is a beast and now has a title to go along with his Allstar appearances. Tim Duncan is old now but look back a few years and he could dominate a game like Dirk has been of late.

Dirk, one of the Top 15 players of all time??

Wow, entry into that Top 15 club is pretty poor nowadays. Dirk will be a Hall of Famer and one of the best players of his generation, but he hasn't done enough to rate up in the Top 15.

There's already another post on about that subject, go explain what rates Dirk above others.

DB5, good starting lineup. I still think Duncan rates as the most boring player of all time, but you can't argue with the stats.

Ginobli and Kukoc as some nice Clutch factor.

We are all forgetting Alaa Abdelnaaby (Blazers) from Egypt and Mengke Bateer (Spurs) from Inner Mongolia.

Kobe Bryant spent a good part of his teenage years living in Rome, Italy - Is he an International??

Luke Longley won 3 championships...where does he fit in??

top 15 hey?
In no order....please feel free to debate but do not say Dirk is better then x y z because he has a ring
Jordan
Magic
Wilt
Shaq
kobe
Bird
Russell
garnett
Mchale
Hakeem
Ewing
Barkley
Baylor
Oscar
Erving
Moses malone
Kareem
Karl malone
John stock
Timmy d
David robinson

Top 5 who went to the NBA but either never got a proper chance or arrived too late in their careers:

Ardvydas Sabonis,
Andrew Gaze,
Sergei Bazarevich,
Šar?nas Jasikevi?ius,
Antoine Rigaudeau.

in researching foreign born NBA players i just learnt that Jo Jo English was actually German...wow

also of interest Steve Kerr was born in Lebanon and Wally Szczerbiack Spain

Just another player that I thought was quite talanted was Miami Heat long range shooter Sasha Danilovic. He was able to light it up on occasions It would of been interesting if stayed in the league to see how he could of progressed. He played a couple of seasons with Miami then got traded to the Dallas Mavericks played half a season and then took off to europe and signed for a team before Dallas could resign him.

For some European players the NBA is not for them and the more minutes you get on the court in Europe plus the bigger pay check in some cases, add to that the less games and also being in familiar surrondings is alot more attractive for some players. Which is why fran vazquez has not came and David Andersen delayed his entrance into the NBA. If I was them I would do anything to get into the NBA but not everyone feels that way.

Yes, Danilo was pretty good for a few years there. I did forget about Divac, he deserves to be up there. There was also a guy at Sacramento, and Marcialounas at GSW.

Sport section in the Sunday Mail has a 2 page spread on this same discussion.