Best NBA players from South America
Best NBA players from South America. The National Basketball Association (NBA) features athletes from all over the world, including the United States, as well as a sizeable contingent from the Caribbean and Central and South American nations.
The following is a list of some of the best players in the world who hail from Latin American countries.
Nenê, Brazil
Nenê, whose birth name was Maybyner Rodney Hilário but whose legal name is now shortened to simply Nenê, is a former NBA player who stands 6 feet 11 inches tall and was born in the city of So Carlos in Brazil in 1982. It was in 2003 when he was drafted into the Denver Nuggets that he received the honor of being named to the NBA All-Rookie First team.
He is also the first Brazilian player to be drafted into the NBA. In addition, Nenê spent four years playing with the Washington Wizards before moving on to the Houston Rockets, where he remained until his retirement in 2020.
Patrick Ewing, Jamaica
In 1952, Patrick Aloysius Ewing was created in Kingston, Jamaica. He is best known for his time spent playing basketball for the New York Knicks between the years 1985 and 2000. He was a massively powerful center player and was recognized for his dominance as well as his athleticism on the floor. He stood 7 feet 2 inches tall. When he was in high school in Jamaica, Ewing began playing basketball and rapidly established himself as one of the top high school basketball players in the country.
He made it to the NBA All-Star game eleven times during his career and was honored as the Rookie of the Year in 1986. The NBA postseason betting odds on a club were much more likely to go in that team’s favor if Patrick Ewing was on the roster, and the New York Knicks retired his number 33 jersey out of respect and to celebrate his career.
Manu Ginóbili, Argentina
Ginóbili was a shooting guard for the San Antonio Spurs from 2002 until 2018, during which time he was a member of the team’s illustrious “big three” alongside Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. Prior to joining the Spurs, Ginóbili played professionally in Argentina and Italy. With his increasing dominance on the court and his skill and knowledge of the game, Ginóbili won four NBA Championships with the Spurs in 2003, 2005, 2014, and 2017.
After a slow couple of seasons with the Spurs, mainly due to injury, Ginóbili’s dominance on the court eventually led to him being four times NBA Champion with the Spurs. Even when he was in his 40s, he continued to be one of the best players in the NBA. He had multiple games in which he started from the bench and scored 20 points while he was over the age of 40.
Al Horford, Dominican Republic
Horford was originally selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2007 NBA Draft. He played for the Hawks until 2016 when he was traded to the Boston Celtics. It is the third-largest city in the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Plata is where he made his debut.
His family moved to Michigan while he was in the middle of his teen years, and he ended up being an all-star basketball player at the high school he attended there. He went on to play collegiate basketball for the University of Florida Gators and was a two-time NCAA champion (2006 & 2007). After that, he was chosen in the first round of the NBA draught. He eventually went on to become a member of the NBA All-Star team five times, winning three titles with the Atlanta Hawks and two titles with the Boston Celtics.
Tim Duncan, U.S. Virgin Islands
Duncan, who was born in St. Croix in 1976, had the ambition when he was younger to compete in the Olympic swimming competition. Unfortunately, Hurricane Hugo wreaked havoc on the island, and one of the casualties was the only Olympic-sized swimming pool that the island had. It was reduced to rubble in the storm’s wake.
Because of this, he started looking into other sports, and given his height, he decided that basketball would be the best fit for him. He was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 1997, and he remained with the team until his retirement in 2016. During his time with the Spurs, he won the rookie of the year award in 1998. After that, in 2019, he was hired on by the Spurs to work as an assistant coach, a position he held until 2020.