A record-breaking 135 international players! The Hawks lead as the top international contingent, with Yang Hansen's Trail Blazers ranking second.

On October 21st Beijing time, the NBA confirmed that the 2025-26 season’s opening rosters include a record 135 international players representing 43 countries on six continents, matching the previous high. Among these 135 record-setting international players, 71 are from Europe—a new continental record—including a record 19 French players and 4 from the UK, as well as 13 Australians, tying the record for that nation.

This marks the fifth consecutive season with at least 120 international players on opening night rosters, and the twelfth straight season with at least 100 international players. Every one of the 30 NBA teams has at least one international player on its roster.

The previous records for number of international players (125) and number of represented countries and regions (43) were set at the start of the 2023-24 season and the 2017-18 season, respectively.

By country, Canada leads with 23 players, followed by France with 19 and Australia with 13.

By NBA team, the Atlanta Hawks tie the record with 10 international players: Gaye, Daniels, Dante, Alexander-Walker, Krejci, Ndiaye, Porzingis, Lisachese, Houston, and Jurisic.

The Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors each have 7 international players, tied for second place. The Blazers include Yang Hansen, Avdija, Dupree-Rese, Sisoko, Lüpper, Sharp, and Kamara. The Warriors have Poole, Horford, Kuminga, Lo, Hield, Santos, and Tuohy.

Here are other international player milestones and storylines for the new season:

The last seven NBA regular season MVP awards have been won by international players: Alexander (2024-25), Jokic (2023-24, 2021-22, 2020-21), Embiid (2022-23), and Giannis (2019-20, 2018-19). Last season marked the fourth consecutive year with three international players finishing in the top three MVP voting spots: Alexander (1st), Jokic (2nd), and Giannis (3rd).

A record 16 international players on the opening night rosters have been NBA All-Stars. They include Giannis, Doncic, Embiid, Alexander, Gobert, Horford, Irving, Jokic, Markkanen, Porzingis, Sabonis, Sönke, Siakam, Vucevic, Wembanyama, and Wiggins.

Since the 2018-19 season, at least three international players have been selected to the NBA All-NBA Teams each year.

In the 2025-26 NBA general managers’ survey, Jokic (1st), Doncic (2nd), Alexander (3rd), and Wembanyama (4th) were chosen as the most likely candidates to win the 2025-26 NBA MVP award, receiving 67%, 10%, 8%, and 7% of the votes respectively.

Three international players were named as the most desired signings if GMs were to build a team today: Wembanyama (83% of votes), Alexander (13%), and Jokic (3%).