Okay, let's get into it. It is Wednesday, February
18th, 2026. Right. And if you have been anywhere
near a screen or a sports bar or, you know, the
internet in the last few days, you know exactly
what time it is. The dust is settling. The dust
is settling. The confetti's been swept up. We
are on the other side of the 2026 NBA All -Star
Weekend. And, you know, usually the Wednesday
after All -Star Weekend is a bit of a... A hangover.
It's quiet. Yeah, totally. It's usually just
people complaining about the dunk contest or
something. But this here feels... I don't know.
It feels distinct. It felt consequential, didn't
it? Yeah, there's a weight to what we just watched.
And look, for most people, All -Star Weekend
is just a spectacle. It's the dunks. It's celebrities
sitting courtside wearing sunglasses indoors.
And absolutely zero defense. Hero defense for
48 minutes. But that is not why we're here. We're
here to do what we do, a deep dive. We're going
to ignore the highlights and look at the actual
documentation. We are looking at the source code
of the league, really. We have the official historical
list of NBA All -Stars. The complete registry,
updated as of, well, this week. And it is a fascinating
document. You know, I opened this file expecting
just like a list of names, maybe some dates.
Right. But what you're actually looking at is
a timeline of how the sport has evolved going
all the way back to the very first game in 1951.
It's a living document. It is. But before we
get into the history, I want to start with a
number that you pointed out, a number that actually
made me stop and like do the math twice because
I didn't believe it. The 466. 466. Yeah. And
it sounds like. a decent number of people until
you actually zoom out. As of right now, think
about the entire history of the NBA. Right. The
thousands upon thousands of players who've been
drafted, who've signed 10 -day contracts, the
guys who started for a year or two. Journeymen,
G League call -ups, all of them. Out of that
entire ocean of humanity that has played professional
basketball, only 466 men have ever been selected
to an all -star roster. That is the statistic
that defines this whole deep dive for me today,
because we throw that term all -star around so
loosely. We say, oh, he's playing at an all -star
level. That was an all -star performance. But
the actual club, the registry, it's the 1 % of
the 1%. It really is. I mean, I had to realize
there are guys who play 10, 12 years in this
league, solid starters, household names in their
cities. Guys with $100 million contracts. Exactly.
Who never, ever. crack this list not one time
you can be a very good player for an entire decade
and never be one of the 466 so our mission today
is to figure out why We want to understand the
mechanism behind this list. We want to find the
anomalies, the guys who maybe shouldn't be there
but are, and the legends who missed out. And
we have to talk about the massive structural
shift we just saw in 2026. Oh, absolutely. Because
if you were watching this weekend, you realized
pretty quickly that the NBA has just completely
reinvented the wheel. It wasn't just, you know,
a format tweak. It felt like a historic pivot.
I think in 20 years. We're going to look back
at the 2026 All -Star Game as the moment the
league officially acknowledged a new era. The
world format. The world format. But let's not
get ahead of ourselves. To understand why 2026
is so important, I feel like we have to understand
what it replaced, what we lost. Because for the
longest time, the All -Star Game was a very,
very simple concept. It was geography. Pure and
simple. It was tribal. Right. I grew up in the
90s. It was the Eastern Conference versus the
Western Conference, and that meant something.
That was the traditional era, and it ran for
decades. It was the absolute bedrock of the event.
Why did it work so well for so long? Because
the league was structured that way. You played
your conference rivals four times a year. If
you were a Knicks fan, you genuinely hated the
Chicago Bulls. Oh, yeah. If you were a Lakers
fan, you despised the Spurs or the Kings. So
when the All -Star game happened... You were
forcing these rivals to become teammates for
one night to beat the other side. It had a very
Civil War kind of vibe to it. Like, I hate you,
but for tonight, I hate them more. Exactly. But
looking at the source material, you can see where
the cracks started to form. Why did they abandon
that? So what happened? The talent imbalance.
If you track the selections year over year and
you look at, say, the... mid -2000s through the
2010s, you just see these waves where the Western
Conference became an absolute juggernaut. It
became lopsided. Completely. You had years where
the 10th best player in the West was objectively
better than the 3rd or 4th best player in the
East. So you were leaving legitimate superstars
at home in the West while the East was kind of
scraping the barrel to fill out a roster. Exactly.
Frankly, it got a little stale. The tribalism
died down as players started moving teams more
often. Free agency changed the whole vibe, so
the league started tinkering. And this is where
it gets interesting, right? Specifically between
2018 and 2023. Captain's era. I remember this
so vividly. It felt like they were trying to
turn the All -Star game into a pickup game at
the local gym. That is the perfect way to describe
it. The format, which is all detailed in the
notes here, was that the top vote -getter from
each conference was named a captain. Oh, okay.
And then they televised a draft where those two
captains picked their teams from the whole pool
of all -stars, regardless of conference. Which,
I have to admit, gave us some great television
moments. Oh, absolutely. Watching Kevin Durant
try not to pick James Harden or LeBron making
jokes while drafting his friends, it was fun.
But did it actually fix the game? The data suggests
mixed results. It added personality, for sure.
But it completely removed the structural stakes.
There was no East Pride or West Pride anymore.
It was just Team LeBron versus Team Giannis.
Exactly. It was fun, but it felt ephemeral. It
was an exhibition in the truest sense of the
word. It felt like nobody really cared who won.
They just wanted to see who got picked last.
Yeah, it had a real Pro Bowl vibe to it. Precisely.
And the league could sense that apathy setting
in. So looking at the timeline, we hit 2025 just
last year. And the source describes this as a
transitional tournament. 2025 was weird. Weird
is a very polite word for it. It was the throw
spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. What
was the format again? I feel like I blocked it
out. They tried a four -team tournament. You
had three teams of actual all -stars, but then,
and this is the part that still baffles me, they
added a fourth team composed of the rising stars.
Wait, wait, refresh my memory. This was... Rookies
and sophomores. Rookies, sophomores, and even
some G League standouts. So you technically had
a format where an NBA all -star team, the 24
best players on earth, could lose to a group
of guys who weren't even fully established in
the league yet. That sounds like a fever dream.
Imagine if the rising stars had actually won.
It would have completely delegitimized the whole
all -star concept. Total chaos. That's a very
strange experiment. But it brings us to the present
day. The New World Order of 2026. The source
explicitly describes this year's game as a tournament,
but the team composition is the real headline.
Two U .S. all -star teams versus one world all
-star team. There it is. Let's pause on that.
Two U .S. teams, one world team. That distinction
is doing a lot of heavy lifting, isn't it? It's
doing all the lifting. It implies that the international
talent is so concentrated, so dominant, that
they can field a single squad that rivals the
combined might of the entire United States. And
it's an acknowledgment of reality. When we get
to the roster breakdown later, you'll see why.
The top of that world roster, Jokic, Giannis,
Luka, Wemby, these aren't just participants.
No. They're the MVPs. They're the faces of the
league. Grouping them by east and west was just
diluting their impact. By putting them all on
one team, the league essentially created a dream
team of international talent. And it creates
a narrative that Team LeBron never could. It's
national pride. It's the Ryder Cup of basketball.
And it forces the U .S. players to care because
nobody wants to be on the American team that
gets blown out by the world team on American
soil. It taps into a completely different kind
of competitiveness. OK, so that's the stage.
We've moved from geography to a playground draft
to this new global showdown. But I want to peel
back the curtain a little bit more. We see the
names on the list, the 466. But how does the
sausage actually get made? The voting ecosystem.
Right. Because I think a lot of fans, you know,
they assume it's just a popularity contest. They
think, oh, whoever has the most Instagram followers
gets to start the game. Is that true? It's a
piece of the truth, but it's not the whole truth.
The lead realized a long time ago that if you
leave it 100 percent to the fans, you get some,
let's say, eccentric results. Right. You get
role players starting because an entire country
decided to vote for them for a month. The Zaza
Pachulia effect. Exactly. Or the Yao Ming rookie
year effect where he started over a prime shack
because of the massive vote from China. So to
maintain the integrity of this lift so that when
we look back in 50 years, it actually reflects
the best players they put in a weighted system
for the starters. Correct. Walk me through the
math on that. How do I become a starter? Okay.
So for the five starters from each squad, the
fan vote accounts for 50%. That's the popularity
baseline that gets you in the conversation. Yeah.
But the other 50 % is split evenly. 25 % goes
to the media and 25 % goes to the current players.
I have always found the player vote to be the
most fascinating part of this whole process.
Why do you think that is? Because the players
know. You can fool the fans with a highlight
reel. You can maybe even charm the media with
a couple of good interviews. But you cannot fool
the guy who has to guard you on a Tuesday night
in Milwaukee. That's a great point. If the players
don't respect your game, they are not going to
vote for you. Period. It serves as a fantastic...
check and balance. We've seen it happen where
a player is number one in the fan vote by a mile,
but the players rank him fifth or sixth. And
that drops him out of the starting lineup. Exactly.
It keeps the list meritocratic. It essentially
prevents memes from becoming all -star starters.
Okay, so that gets us the 10 starters. But an
all -star team is 12 guys deep. Who picks the
bench? The reserves. The reserves are a completely
different animal. This is where the democracy
ends and the technocracy begins. The reserves
are chosen by the 30 head coaches in the league.
And I'm assuming there are some guardrails there.
A coach can't just vote for his own point guard
to help him hit a contract incentive, right?
It's explicitly forbidden. Yeah. Coaches cannot
vote for their own players. They have to vote
for the opposition. And how does that work? Do
they just pick seven guys they like? It's structured.
They select two guards, three front court players,
and then two wild cards who can be from any position.
And they're not just writing names on a napkin,
right? It's not a total free -for -all. No, and
this is a crucial detail that often gets overlooked.
There's a pool. A panel of media experts compiles
a ballot of roughly 120 players, 60 from each
conference. If you aren't in that pool, the coaches
can't select you. So there's a vetting process
before the vetting process even starts. Correct.
But even with all these systems, the weighted
percentages, the coaches' ballots, the pools,
there is one variable that chaos introduces every
single year. And looking at the 2026 data, this
variable played a huge role. You're talking about
injuries? The replacement variable. Because here's
the thing about the record books. The list tracks
selections. It doesn't necessarily track participation.
Right, right. Because if I get voted in as a
starter, but I pull my hamstring the week before
the game, I'm still an all -star in the history
books. You absolutely are. But your spot on the
court is empty. So the NBA commissioner steps
in, and he has the unilateral power to name a
replacement for that injured player. That is
a lot of power for one person. He basically gets
to decide someone's legacy with a phone call.
It is. And when you look at the 2026 list specifically,
you see a lot of asterisks, a lot of little notes
in the margin saying replacement selection. And
we should clarify for the listener, does a replacement
selection count less? When we look at that 466
number, is there a separate list for real all
-stars and replacement all -stars? Not at all.
A selection is a selection. Whether you were
the leading vote -getter in the entire world
or the last guy called by the commissioner on
Friday morning because someone rolled an ankle.
It counts exactly the same on your resume. It's
the foot in the door theory. Just get in the
room. Exactly. And as we'll see later, some of
the biggest names in the game today started their
all -star careers as replacements. Okay, so we
have the stage, this new world tournament. We
have the mechanism, this complex mix of fans,
players, coaches, and the commissioner. But now
we have to talk about the players themselves.
Right. And if we're talking about this list,
there's one name that just... dominates the data
so thoroughly it almost looks like a typo? The
king. We have to talk about LeBron James because
looking at this 2026 entry for him, I mean, are
we sure this is real? I double -checked the source
three times. It's real. Okay, give me the rundown.
Where does he stand as of February 2026? He stands
alone. He holds the record for practically every
longevity metric the league tracks. First, let's
start with total selections. He now has 22. 22.
22. Let's just contextualize that. That is more
than two decades of being one of the best players
in the world. Think about it this way. There
are players in the league right now, rookies,
who were barely born when LeBron made his 10th
All -Star game. That's insane. He has been an
All -Star for the entire lives of some of his
current teammates. It's absurd. It feels like
he's a geological era of the NBA, not a player.
Second stat. Consecutive selections. Also 22.
He has never missed a year since his first selection
way back in 2005. That's the one that gets me,
the consistency. Most guys, even the absolute
legends, they have a down year. They get hurt,
they get old, and they miss a year. LeBron just
doesn't. He just doesn't. And the third record,
which might be the most impressive from a physical
standpoint, most games played, he has now appeared
in 20 All -Star games. Wait, hold on. Catch me
up on the math there. 22 selections, but only
20 games played. Right. So the source notes that
he missed the 2025 game. just last year, and
one other one prior to that, likely for injury
management or rest. But 20 games played is still
the record by a comfortable margin. So who's
even in the rearview mirror at this point? Is
anyone even close to these numbers? The gap is
just widening every year. For decades, Kareem
Abdul -Jabbar was the gold standard. He finished
with 19 selections. Okay, so LeBron is plus three
on Kareem. He's plus three on Kareem. Then you
have Kobe Bryant. Kobe. Kobe finished with 18.
And remember, Kobe had that incredible streak
of 17 consecutive selections. We all thought
that would never be touched. Yeah. LeBron blew
past that five years ago. It really puts him
in a category all by himself. It does. And then
you drop down to what you could call the 15 club.
This is where you find Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett,
Shaquille O 'Neal. Titans of the sport. Absolute
legends. No doubt. But there are seven selections
behind LeBron. That is an entire Hall of Fame
career worth of difference between them. You
know, speaking of Tim Duncan, I saw a little
note in the source material that felt so perfectly
on brand for him. The perfect attendance record.
Yes. Break that one down for me. So Tim Duncan,
as we said, 15 selections. And the record shows
he played in every single game he was selected
for with one major asterisk. Let me guess. The
lockout year. The 1999 lockout year. The league
canceled the All -Star game entirely due to the
labor stoppage. No game was played. But if you
exclude that one year, which was completely out
of his control, Duncan never missed a game. That
is the most Tim Duncan stat I have ever knew
in my life. Right. He never sat out for rest.
He never had a minor injury keep him home. If
he was picked, he showed up and played. Just
reliability personified. He just punches the
clock. Unbelievable. But going back to LeBron.
There's one more dimension to this record that
I think is the most startling. It's the age factor.
The SourceTracks players who were selected after
turning 40 years old. Ooh, I imagine that's a
very, very short list. Most guys are coaching
or golfing by the time they hit 40. It is a tiny
club, three names in the entire history of the
NBA. Wow, who are they? Kareem Abdul -Jabbar,
Dirk Nowitzki, and LeBron James. That is the
entire list. And here's the kicker. Of those
three... Only Kareem and LeBron have earned multiple
selections after turning 40. So Dirk was just
one time. One time. And it was largely a ceremonial
nod in his final season. I believe it was a commissioner
special edition, actually. But LeBron and Kareem,
they were still out there producing. They were
still essential pieces of the league structure.
It forces us to just completely rethink what
a player's prime is. I used to say a player peaked
at 28 and was done by 34. LeBron has stretched
that timeline by a full decade. He has absolutely
normalized the extraordinary. But, and this is
interesting, there's a flip side to this coin.
Okay, what's that? If the old guys, LeBron, KD,
Curry, are staying around forever, occupying
these roster spots well into their late 30s and
even early 40s, what's happening to the young
guys? That is a great question. We always hear
the future is now. But if the kings aren't leaving
the throne, can the princes actually get in the
room? Exactly. I looked at the Ricky data in
this source, and honestly... It is shocking.
Lay it on me. We have this perception that the
NBA is a young man's league, right? We see the
draft hype, the highlight reels on social media.
We assume rookies are just taking over. Right.
I feel like every year there's a rookie of the
year who feels like they should be an all -star.
Feels like one? Maybe. But are they actually
selected? Yeah. The history says a definitive
no. In the entire history of the NBA going all
the way back to 1951. Only 45 rookies have ever
been named All -Stars. Okay, 45, that's, you
know, almost one a year on average. It doesn't
sound too bad. On average, yes, but you have
to look at the breakdown. The source highlights
the draft lottery era. So everything since 1985.
Since 1985, the number of rookies selected has
just fallen off a cliff. How many since 85? Only
eight. Eight in 40 years. It has become incredibly,
incredibly rare. The 1985 game was the last time
we saw two rookies in the same game. Michael
Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. Since then, it's
been a complete drought. So who is the last one?
Who is the last rookie to actually make the team?
You might want to sit down for this. The source
list, Blake Griffin in 2011 as the most recent
rookie to be named an All -Star. No, Blake Griffin
in 2011. That was 15 years ago. Exactly. As of
this 2026 list. We have gone a decade and a half
without a true rookie all -star. That is mind
-blowing. I would have bet money that Luka or
Wemby made it their rookie year. They were that
good. They were phenomenal. But Luka Donicic
made it in 2020, his second year. Victor Wemba
Nyama made it in 2025, his second year. They
were close. They were generational talents. But
they didn't crack the list as rookies. And what
about starting? Is that even rarer? Oh, much
rarer. The last rookie to actually start an all
-star game was Yao Ming. way back in 2003. Wow.
So the rookie all -star is basically an endangered
species at this point. Why do you think that
is? Is it just that the veterans are too good
and they're hogging the spots? I think it's a
combination of a few things. One, yes, the overall
talent level of the league is so incredibly high
that a 19 -year -old, no matter how gifted, usually
has holes in their game that a 28 -year -old
veteran has already patched up. Right. And two...
The coaches who pick the reserves, they tend
to be conservative. They value winning impact
over raw potential. They'd rather reward the
guy who's been grinding for six years on a good
team than the shiny new toy on a bad team. That
makes a lot of sense. The veteran wall is very
real. But on the other end of that spectrum,
you have the guys who bloomed late. The late
bloomers. I love these stories. Me too. Who had
to wait the longest to finally get their name
on this list? The record holder is a great piece
of NBA history. A guy named Nathaniel Sweetwater
Clifton. Sweetwater Clifton. In 1957, he became
the oldest player to make a debut selection.
He was 34 years and three months old. 34. That's
usually when guys are thinking about retiring.
Exactly. It speaks to an incredible level of
perseverance. And in the modern era, it's just
as rare. The only other players to make their
debut at 34 or older are Sam Cassell in 2004
and Anthony Mason in 2001. Sam Cassell. The absolute
master of the mid -range game. I remember that
season. He was incredible. And Anthony Mason,
the ultimate enforcer. These guys weren't the
chosen ones at 19. They work, they refine their
game, and eventually the league just had to recognize
them. It's the aha moment. It reminds you that
development isn't linear. You can have your best
year at 34. Precisely. The All -Star Game isn't
just for the phenoms. It also rewards survival
and improvement. Speaking of improvement. We
need to talk about the group that has improved
the most over the last decade. The group that
basically forced the NBA to change its entire
format in 2026. The international contingent.
Let's talk about the class of 2026 and the world
takeover. This is where the rubber really meets
the road. We mentioned earlier that 2026 introduced
this world team tournament format. And when you
look at the names provided in the source, you
realize this wasn't a marketing decision. It
was a competitive necessity. The talent at the
top of that world roster is just staggering.
These aren't just all -stars. These are the best
players in the world, period. Look at the list.
You start with Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Greek
freak. He's up to 10 selections now, from 2017
straight through to 2026. He's been a staple
for a decade. He's essentially the LeBron of
the world team in terms of his consistency. Then
you have Nikola Jokic. The Joker. Eight selections
consecutively from 2019 to 2026. His consistency
is just robotic. He makes being a top five player
look so easy. And Luka Doncic? Six selections.
He started in 2020 and has been an absolute lock
ever since. And what about the younger wave coming
up behind them? Shy Gilgis Alexander. He's already
up to four selections from 2023 to 2026. And
of course, the alien himself. Victor Wim Banyama.
He already has two selections, 2025 and 2026.
He is just getting started. It's terrifying.
That is a starting five Giannis Jokic, Luka,
Shai Wemby that could beat any team in history,
arguably. If you put that five against the 1992
Dream Team, it's a game. It is a terrifying lineup.
And the source even notes some interesting nuances
about nationalities over the years, like Kyrie
Irving, born in Australia, but he plays for Team
USA. Or the history of guys like Steve Nash,
born in South Africa but raised in Canada, or
Luol Deng. But in 2026, the sheer density of
top -tier talent designated as world is what
forced this format change. It's not a gimmick
anymore. It is a necessity for a competitive
balance. But I want to look at the fresh blood.
The source lists the 2026 class specifically.
Who are the guys who got their very first taste
this year? There's a really interesting crop
of first timers in 2026, and it shows that perfect
mix of young phenomenons and guys who finally
figured it out. OK, hit me with the list. First
up, you have Chet Holmgren. Chet, finally. One
selection, 2026. He's been battling Wemby for
that spotlight, and he absolutely earned his
spot. He feels like he's been on the verge for
a couple of years. Good for him. Then Jalen Duren.
The big man, love of his game. One selection,
2026. He brings that physical, old -school dominance.
It's nice to see a traditional big man getting
some love. Who else? Jalen Johnson. One selection.
2026. His versatility has been incredible to
watch this season. And the MDA. Denia. That's
a great breakout story. One selection. 2026.
Another big feather in the cap for international
development. And you mentioned there was a veteran
who finally broke through. Norman Powell. That's
my favorite one on this list. One selection.
2026. A classic grinded out career. He's been
a scorer off the bench, a starter, a trade piece.
He's done it all. And finally, in 2026, he's
an all -star. It gives hope to every single role
player out there. Just keep getting buckets.
And there is one more name that is crucial to
the 2026 narrative. Alperin Schengen. Ah, the
Turkish wizard. The source notes he has two selections
now, 2025 and 2026. But for the 2026 game, he
was actually a replacement selection. Oh, interesting.
Who did he replace? He replaced Shai Gilgis Alexander.
Ah, and that leads us perfectly into the what
ifs. Because we look at this list and we see
all the names, but the list also tells us who
didn't play. This is where the record book gets
a little bittersweet. We often remember the game
itself, the dunks, the MVP. But the official
list meticulously records who was selected but
couldn't participate because of an injury. And
2026 was a rough year for that. It was a brutal
year for the top -tier guards and forwards. We
just mentioned Shai Gilgis -Alexander missed
the 2026 game. But look at this. Giannis Antetokounmpo
also missed the 2026 game. No, Giannis, in the
first -ever world tournament. That's a huge blow.
A huge blow. He's listed as a selection. But
the note says, missed 2026 game. And perhaps
the biggest name missing from the court, Stephen
Curry. Steph missed it too. 12 selections total
for his career. But the note clearly says, missed
2023 and 2026 games. Wow. That is a lot of star
power in street clothes. It really changes the
entire dynamic of the weekend when the faces
of the league are on the sideline in suits. It
absolutely does. And it raises that important
question about the replacement variable we discussed
earlier. When Stafford Giannis has to sit, someone
else gets that all -star designation added to
their resume forever. It's the sliding doors
moments of the NBA. One man's twisted ankle is
another man's contract bonus. Historically, it's
massive. Think about Michael Jordan. The Joe.
14 selections. But he missed the 1986 game because
of that broken foot early in his career. That's
a game played he never got back. And we mentioned
the 1999 lockout. Right. The only year with no
game. So you have guys from that era like Karl
Malone or Gary Payton whose selections count
is one higher than their games played count purely
because of labor negotiations. It's fascinating
how politics and injuries carve out the history
just as much as the jump shots do. Absolutely.
And you see it with the replacements, who then
become stars in their own right. The source mentions
Anthony Edwards. He was a replacement selection
back in 2023. He got in through the back door.
But by 2026, he's the MVP of the game. Talk about
seizing the opportunity. He went from just happy
to be here to completely owning the building.
Exactly. De 'Aaron Fox is another one. The source
says he was a replacement in 2023 and a replacement
again in 2026. These guys are right on that fringe,
and they keep getting the call when spots open
up. It counts just the same in the history books.
So we have covered the New World Order, the uncatchable
LeBron, the vanishing rookies, and the injury
asterisks. When you step back and look at this
entire list of 466 names, what is the big takeaway
for you from this 2026 snapshot? For me, it is
the undeniable passing of the torch. We spent
two decades analyzing the LeBron era, and he's
still here, which is a miracle in itself. Right.
But when you look at the 2026 roster, Wemby,
Chet, Shy, Luka. Jokic and the format shift to
world, it feels like we have officially and finally
entered a global era. The list isn't just a record
of American stars anymore. It's a global registry
of basketball excellence. It really does feel
that way. The boundaries are gone. And hey, here's
my final thought for you. We spent this whole
time looking at the past, but looking at this
2026 list, seeing the sheer density of that world
team, seeing how the rookies are getting blocked
out by veterans and seeing this new format. Yes.
Have we officially passed the torch? With the
world team looking so dominant on paper, are
we entering an era where the U .S. is now the
underdog? The source notes over 320 players have
multiple selections. But looking at the recent
names, it feels like the momentum has completely
shifted across the Atlantic. That is a provocative
thought. For 75 years, this game was an American
export. But now... It feels like it's a global
import. The world team might just be the favorite
for the next decade. It's a brave new world,
literally. Hey, thank you for listening to this
deep dive. Do yourself a favor. Go pull up this
list, Wikipedia, NBA .com, wherever. Scan through
those 466 names. There are so many stories in
there we didn't even get to touch. It really
is history written in names and numbers. We'll
see you next time. Take care.