NBA 2014-15 Season: Globe-Trotting San Antonio Spurs Leads League With 9 International Players

The National Basketball Association has released the full list of international players that will play in the league ahead of the 2014-15 season. There are 101 international players, representing 37 countries, up from 92 foreign players that made NBA rosters in 2013-14.

The San Antonio Spurs have the most international players with nine. Manu Ginobili, from Argentina; Aaron Baynes and Patty Mills, from Australia; Tiago Splitter, from Brazil; Cory Joseph, from Canada; Boris Diaw and Tony Parker from France; Marco Belinelli from Italy and Tim Duncan from the U.S. Virgin Islands are part of the reigning NBA Champion's roster.

All of the 30 NBA teams have at least one international player. The Brooklyn Nets and Minnesota Timberwolves each have six international players. Golden State Warriors have five international players. Eight teams -- New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and Toronto Raptors -- have four international players. The NBA's list is based on country of birth, which is why Kyrie Irving, who was born in Australia and dual citizenship, is listed as international.

Canada is the best-represented foreign country in the NBA with 12 players, followed by France with 10. Australia has eight players, Brazil has seven and Spain has five. The record number of foreign players has been felt in international competition as the sport has flourished globally.

The U.S. finished in third place in basketball in the 2004 Summer Olympics and has place renewed emphasis in developing players and teams for international competition, led by Jerry Colangelo as USA Basketball chairman and coach Mike Krzyzewski. The effort resulted in Olympic gold medals during the 2008 and 2012 games. Most recently, the USA Men's Basketball team won gold in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.