Ukraine’s Issuf Sanon: ‘I literally saw missiles flying by my window’

Issuf Sanon, a Ukrainian basketball talent eyeing the NBA, has faced challenges from war to relocation. He caught NBA scouts’ attention after a standout performance at the 2017 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship, leading the Washington Wizards to …

Issuf Sanon, a Ukrainian basketball talent eyeing the NBA, has faced challenges from war to relocation. He caught NBA scouts’ attention after a standout performance at the 2017 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship, leading the Washington Wizards to draft him 44th overall in 2018. Sanon played in Washington’s Summer League before moving through Eastern European clubs.

Recently, the war in Ukraine forced him to confront bombings near his home, pushing him to relocate and join a team in the Latvian-Estonian Basketball League. Speaking with HoopsHype, Sanon shared the effects the war has had on him, how he has developed as a player, and why he believes his game is better suited for the NBA.

Suns’ Yuta Watanabe on Japan’s promising future

Japan has never been a powerhouse on the global basketball stage, and hosting part of the 2023 World Cup was something that they wanted to help put themselves on the map. Considered one of the better teams in Asia, Japan wanted to prove themselves …

Japan has never been a powerhouse on the global basketball stage, and hosting part of the 2023 World Cup was something that they wanted to help put themselves on the map. Considered one of the better teams in Asia, Japan wanted to prove themselves on the world stage, and they somehow did that even though they didn’t make it out of the Round Robin stage.

In dramatic fashion, Japan came back from 18 down to beat the Lauri Markkanen-led Finland team to help Japan win their first World Cup game in 17 years.

Yuta Watanabe, one of the stars of Japan, reminisced recently about his experience this past summer.

“That was really fun. We have great fans in Okinawa. We worked really hard. We beat Finland, Cape Verde, and Venezuela. Those are really good teams, so that was really fun and I’m really excited for the Olympics.”

Currently No. 26 in FIBA rankings, Japan hopes to make some noise in the Paris 2024 Olympics. Obviously, on paper, the team is not on par with juggernauts like the United States, France or Germany, but Watanabe hopes Japan will have an auspicious future, even after he retires.

“If I’m going to retire in five, six years in a realistic world, we [probably] not going to be one of the top teams in the world in five years, but I think at least we will be good enough to compete against those great teams. I mean we did a good job against Germany and Australia in the World Cup. We lost by 20 but we won the second half. I think in five, six years we gonna be there to compete against those teams.”

NBA Notebook: Potential Heat trade targets, Tyler Herro, Mark Williams, 2024 NBA Draft international prospects

Miami Heat potential trade targets, Tyler Herro’s return, Mark Williams’ breakout season, and the top international NBA Draft prospects.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating!

This week’s HoopsHype NBA notebook includes a look at how the Miami Heat could reintegrate Tyler Herro when he returns from injury and potential point guard trade targets from our capologist Yossi Gozlan, how Hornets center Mark Williams is thriving amid a breakout season from our Frank Urbina, and a look at top international prospects in the NBA Draft from our Alberto De Roa.

Podcast: Magic’s Jamahl Mosley on Paolo Banchero, Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Dirk Nowitzki, more

Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Kyrie Irving, Dirk Nowitzki, Luka Doncic stories and more on Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Markelle Fultz

Orlando Magic coach Jamahl Mosley discusses stories behind the scenes coaching Carmelo AnthonyAllen IversonKyrie IrvingDirk NowitzkiLuka Doncic, and Jalen Brunson. Mosley also discussed what’s next for Paolo BancheroFranz WagnerMarkelle Fultz, and more with host Michael Scotto on the latest HoopsHype podcast episode. 

For more interviews with players, coaches, and media members, be sure to like and subscribe to the HoopsHype podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Listen to the podcast above or check out some snippets of the conversation in a transcribed version below.

How did international stars perform against Team USA with NBA players?

You may not remember since they gave up 110-plus points twice this week at the World Cup, but Team USA was once the gold standard for stifling defense in FIBA tournaments. There was a time when even the brightest international stars found it tough …

You may not remember since they gave up 110-plus points twice this week at the World Cup, but Team USA was once the gold standard for stifling defense in FIBA tournaments. There was a time when even the brightest international stars found it tough against them.

Who among these international legends managed to shine, and who got dimmed?

To find out, we delved into the archives, examining all the games Team USA (featuring NBA talent) played against players from our international GOAT list, focusing on their performances in the Olympics and World Cup.

2023 World Cup: Top 23 players in the tournament

HoopsHype ranks the Top 23 players in the upcoming 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup is here, with Team USA gunning for gold after falling short in the 2019 World Cup in China.

Stars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant will miss the tournament, but 57 NBA players will compete in the tournament.

We decided to project the Top 23 players for the World Cup (featuring many of said NBA players). This was voted upon by a panel of our writers and editors, so without further ado, let’s get right into the action.

2023 Basketball World Cup: The full rosters

Starting on August 25, 32 National Teams will vie for the World Cup in Japan, Philippines, and Indonesia. The list of teams includes powerhouses like the United States and Spain, as well as newcomers such as South Sudan or Cape Verde. Here’s the …

Starting on August 25, 32 National Teams will vie for the World Cup in Japan, Philippines, and Indonesia. The list of teams includes powerhouses like the United States and Spain, as well as newcomers such as South Sudan or Cape Verde.

Here’s the full list of players fighting for gold, which includes 57 current NBA players.

The best basketball player in the history of each country

With the World Cup finally here, what better occasion to delve deep into the history of all the countries ever to qualify for the event and choose the pre-eminent star for each nation? (Additionally, we’ve included somewhat notable basketball …

With the World Cup finally here, what better occasion to delve deep into the history of all the countries ever to qualify for the event and choose the pre-eminent star for each nation? (Additionally, we’ve included somewhat notable basketball countries with at least one representative on your beloved HoopsHype international GOATs list).

From heavyweights like USA and France to minnows like Cape Verde and Montenegro, we cover it all.

As always, we weigh in NBA accomplishments far more than FIBA ones when rating players, so prepare for some surprises.

International basketball is booming. But how did we get here?

In the hallways of the Detroit Pistons’ arena years ago, two-time NBA champion Earl Cureton ran into someone he vaguely remembered. It was during a game in the early 2000s. And the man he encountered was especially pleased to see him. But Cureton , …

In the hallways of the Detroit Pistons’ arena years ago, two-time NBA champion Earl Cureton ran into someone he vaguely remembered. It was during a game in the early 2000s. And the man he encountered was especially pleased to see him. But Cureton, now in his late 40s, scratched his head. He needed a minute to remember where he knew this tall, long-haired fella from.

“He was like, ‘I can’t believe you guys are still hanging around!’” Cureton said, recalling the moment. “Like, ‘You look good!’”  

The two talked in the stadium’s catacombs as Cureton frantically engaged his recall. Who was this guy with the hair brushed behind his ears?  

But that’s when Cureton remembered: Buenos Aires!

The man was Luis Scola, who by then was a hero with Argentina basketball after winning an Olympic gold medal with the team in 2004, the same year the American team shocked the world, finishing third – an unthinkable turn of events. Cureton had played with Scola some 10 years prior when the wiry South American was just 16-years-old, before the Olympics and his NBA career with teams like the Houston Rockets.

Playing abroad as a way to extend his own career in the mid-90s, Cureton helped teach basketball to Scola and his burgeoning team in Argentina. By then the globe had grown gaga for the game, thanks to the  1992 Dream Team. But, as Cureton knows, that wasn’t always the case. It took time and effort to teach the flow of basketball overseas.

Today, when considering the globalization of basketball, the numbers are staggering. Last season, for the second time in a row, the NBA’s top-three MVP candidates were international players: Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), Joel Embiid (Cameroon) and Nikola Jokic (Serbia) – with Jokic taking home the coveted award. The Top 5 scorers were all from different countries, too.

To begin 2022-2023, 120 international players (about ¼ of the NBA) from 41 countries filled league rosters. Compared to 1980 when only 1.7% of the league was foreign-born. But how exactly did basketball get to this position?

It starts, as many things in basketball history do, with Spencer Haywood.

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If you ask Haywood now, he calls the year he spent in Italy his “period of exile.” In 1980, a dozen seasons before the Dream Team, the five-time NBA All-Star and former ABA MVP had concluded what he calls a “debacle” of a season. It was one in which his team, the Los Angeles Lakers, won the NBA championship. But Haywood had already been voted off the squad by then after he’d fallen asleep in practice due to substance abuse issues.

To make those matters worse, Haywood wasn’t exactly a darling of the league. To start his career, Haywood, who is now working on a feature-length biopic, had taken the NBA to the Supreme Court over the league’s age limit for players to enter the draft. And, well, he won, beating the NBA in court. As such, he wasn’t exactly endearing himself to the top brass.

After his issues in L.A. in the 1980 season, the 31-year-old faced a choice: if Haywood wanted to continue to play professional basketball (and collect the money remaining on his Lakers contract), he would have to do so overseas. It was a Napoleon-like exile. But as with the French ruler, the first punishment didn’t prove deadly. In fact, in Haywood’s case, heading to Venice for a year proved to be both a salve and a growth point for basketball itself. A necessary, symbiotic moment of cross-pollination.

“What was supposed to have been a bad thing,” said Haywood, “instead opened up the doors. And eyes for [more] European players.”

*

The Silver City, Mississippi-born Haywood had been a teenage hero for American basketball in the 1968 Olympic Games. He’d carried the team to gold and, as such, had a positive reputation internationally. Though his stock was down in America after the “debacle” with the Lakers, fans overseas who caught a glimpse of his American athleticism embraced Haywood through and through. In Venice, people flocked to his games, which were also broadcast nationally for all to see. Haywood dominated for his team, Venezia, averaging more than 25 points and 20 rebounds.

Haywood, who was married then to the fashion model, Iman, says he had originally wanted to stay in the NBA, perhaps to play for the expansion Dallas Mavericks. But his time in Italy as one of the first American stars to play overseas ended up being a boon to him and international basketball. Iman even took gigs around Europe to be closer to her husband.

When the year was up, Haywood, who wanted to be near his mother and daughter in the U.S., moved back home with his wife and played two seasons with the Washington Bullets. But in his wake, others followed across the Atlantic Ocean, including stars like former NBA MVP Bob McAdoo to role players like the NBA champion Cureton.

*

It was the summer of 1983 and Cureton had just won a championship with the Philadelphia 76ers. But now he was suddenly without a contract. A bench player, Cureton feared he wouldn’t earn a new deal in the league thanks to its outdated “right of first refusal” clause, which said a team that a free agent was set to leave was owned compensation for said player. Cureton thought no one would give up value and pay him. So, now spending time in Italy was on his mind. If he left for overseas play, the right of first refusal clause would no longer apply. It was a loophole and a good one, he thought.

So, Cureton signed a deal to play with a squad in Pesaro, Italy. At the time, few Americans still in their primes went that route. Yet, it was in the Boot-shaped country playing later for a team in Milan where Cureton met point guard and future NBA coach, Mike D’Antoni, now a life-long friend. He also met future basketball Hall of Famer Dino Meneghin. The team’s coach, Dan Peterson, was an American, too. Though his first stint in Italy lasted only a few months (the Detroit Pistons called with a contract a few weeks into the season), Cureton, who went on to play in a handful of countries in his two-decade career, saw the impact of NBA veterans abroad almost immediately.

“American players created the atmosphere over there,” Cureton says today. “We made them better players. Bringing American coaches in helped to teach the game, too.”

While the NBA now has just one franchise outside the U.S. (the Toronto Raptors), there is talk of expansion to Mexico City. These days, the league is thriving, and its reach is robust, with programming hitting 214 countries and territories in more than 50 languages. The sport is accessible, easy for young people of all backgrounds to pick up. Unlike baseball and football, there is no expensive equipment. Today, the NBA product enjoys a big footprint in China and is expanding in India and Africa. The league also holds camps in countries like the Philippines with retired stars like Muggsy Bogues. And last summer, all eyes were on the Eurobasket tournament, which featured NBA All-Stars Jokic, Lauri Markkanen and Luka Doncic.

“The NBA is a global league,” says senior vice president, head of international basketball development, Troy Justice. “The level of international talent is at an all-time high.”

*

With Jokic winning the MVP Award last year, the 2022-2023 season marked the fifth consecutive campaign in which an international player took home the coveted trophy. Indeed, the NBA has evolved since the 1980s when foreign players like Detlef Schrempf, Sarunas Marciulionis and Manute Bol were outliers.  

 But instead of flouting the international influence back then, the NBA fostered it. Doubled-down on it. And, somewhat more recently in the 2000s, teams like the San Antonio Spurs took it even further, bringing in guys like Parker and Manu Ginobili. Now, international scouting is a part of every team’s philosophy, with each squad employing at least several foreign-born players. Not to mention the recent No. 1 pick in the NBA draft was Frenchman Victor Wembanyama.

For Haywood, who helped spark the revolution nearly 50 years ago, his time overseas was restorative personally and telling professionally. The fans abroad showed him support during some of his darkest days. And in turn, the talented Haywood gave them the best basketball they’d ever seen in their lives. It was – and remains today – a wonderful symbiotic relationship.

“I was in so much pain from the previous year,” said a reflective Haywood. “The beautiful thing about being in Italy, they just loved [me]. All of the anger, all of the hate, the mistreatment that I felt – they just loved it all out of me. I couldn’t carry it with me anymore.”

2023 Aggregate NBA Mock Draft: Scoot Henderson leaps Brandon Miller at No. 2; Free Agency News

NBA Mock Draft: Scoot Henderson moves ahead of Brandon Miller for the No. 2 pick. Dereck Lively drawing lottery pick consideration. Plus, free agency reporting from HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto.

With the NBA Draft hours away, HoopsHype has gathered the latest intel around the league and projected where the top prospects currently stand by compiling 10 mock drafts from ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, The Ringer, NBADraft.net, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, Yahoo, SB Nation, and USA TODAY’s For The Win.

HoopsHype gathered thoughts from multiple NBA executives and scouts for their insight on the projected first-round picks for the final edition of the aggregate mock draft.

NOTE: These rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for the overall consensus, not our own opinion. For example, if a player was the first pick on a publication’s mock draft, he received 60 points. If a player was second, he received 59 points, and so on. We then tabulated the total number of points for each player’s consensus ranking. 

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report.