$126 million Manchester City star surprisingly goes near perfect on quickfire NBA quiz
NBA has become a global brand for basketball and has attracted players from all over the world. Europe has been a constant source for great basketball players. Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise when star international soccer players know a lot about NBA. Kevin De Bruyne, who plays for Manchester City FC, appeared for a quick NBA quiz and was nearly perfect with his answers.
The quickfire quiz had players from the Premier League. Besides De Bruyne, it included two other players, Sasa Kalajdzic from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Dejan Kulusevski from Tottenham Hotspur. Although Kalajdzic gave the right answers to most of the questions (8-of-9), Bruyne also did almost great with seven correct answers.
The soccer star was unable to answer which NBA team won the most titles in the 1990s. Instead of the Chicago Bulls, he went with the LA Lakers. It is quite surprising that De Bruyne, who is in the middle of a $126 million contract, missed out on it. Kevin was born in 1991, the first time Michael Jordan won the title and the first of his six rings.
Kevin is a big basketball fan and follows the NBA season. A few years ago, he posted a picture on IG of him tossing his kid in the swimming pool. He captioned it:
“Throwing my kid like a basketball because we miss the NBA season.”
Now that the NBA season is here, Kevin De Bruyne must be ecstatic about it.
NBA regular season opens with record 125 international players
NBA is witnessing the highest number (125) of international players on rosters from the season openers, as reported by the league. Players from a total of 40 countries are playing in the league. This is the 10th year in a row that the NBA has witnessed 100 or more players from outside the USA.
Before this, the record number of international players to start a season was in 2017-18 with108, a feat repeated in 2021-22. Currently, all 30 teams in the NBA have at least one foreign player on their roster.
Once again, Canada has the highest number of players playing in the league outside the USA. It has a total of 26 players, followed by France with 14 players. A total of 64 players from Europe are playing in the league, which includes Nikola Jokic, the reigning Finals MVP.
Perhaps the diversity of the NBA could easily be fathomed by counting the MVP awards in the past five seasons. All the MVP awards in the past five seasons have been won by international players. Joel Embiid, born in Cameroon, in 2022-23, Jokic from Serbia in 2021-22 and 2020-21 and Giannis Antetokounmpo from Greece in 2019-20 and 2018-19.