By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
In the past, the Top 10 would have been a Top 12, and it would consist of the entire Team USA. These days, things are entirely different, and not because more All-Stars turned down the opportunity to play in the American team than any other time. Non-Americans are not only increasing and multiplying in the NBA, the top basketball entertainment industry, but they’re also even dominating. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the best example. And not the only one.
Eurohoops composed the Top 10 players of the World Cup that will be hosted in China (31/8-15/9).
In alphabetical order:
GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO
Point forward | December 6, 1994, | Greece
Many people are saying that they’ve never seen before in their lives a lot of what the 25-year-old point forward does. In the World Cup, they’ll get to see him do something more since a current NBA MVP has never been present in the final phase of the competition before. Paradoxically, this is not his first appearance in the tournament, since, as few will remember, he was present in 2014, a year after his selection with the 15th pick by the Bucks. It’s just that a lot has changed since then. Only in the previous season, aside from MVP, he was also team captain in the All-Star Game, a member of the All-NBA First Team and the NBA All-Defensive First Team. Together with his brother and now teammate, Thanasis, they are the two NBAers on the Greek roster.
FACUNDO CAMPAZZO
Point guard | March 23, 1991 | Argentina
The time when he had to be loaned out (Murcia 2015-17) in order to prove his worth is gone for good for Real Madrid’s 28-year-old point guard and now he has the track record to prove it and, at the same time, to show it off since he’s a two-time EuroLeague Champion (2015, 2018). Intelligent as few are, more audacious than perhaps he should be, but, above all, able to lead the “Gauchos” in his second appearance in the final phase of the competition.
MARC GASOL
Center | January 29, 1985 | Spain
The 34-year-old center has won everything in his career, including the gold medal in the 2006 World Cup, but with the addition of the championship win in the NBA (with the Raptors in 2019), the word ‘everything’ is not an exaggeration or a figure of speech. He’s one of the oldest-serving players on the roster of the “Rojas,” who have four NBAers, and he appears in the final phase of the competition for the fourth time. This fact alone betrays his age, but he’s still one of the smartest big men in the world, and one of the most skilled.