San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama isn’t the only reason why French fans will be watching the NBA this season. Far from it. The opening night rosters in the NBA have been turned in — and there are 17 French players on those lists, the most of any international land. Canada, which has had more player representation than any other country outside of the U.S. over the last several years, has 16 players on opening night rosters. In all, there are 125 international players from a record-tying 43 countries on rosters to open this season. Of those, 70 are European. Australia has nine players on opening night rosters, followed by Germany (seven), and Nigeria and Serbia (six each). Every NBA roster has at least one international player, with Dallas, Miami and Washington leading the way with seven each. International players have taken the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award in each of the last eight seasons, with Miami’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greek, of Nigerian descent) winning for Milwaukee in 2019 and 2020; Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia) winning in 2021, 2022 and 2024; Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (Cameroon-born, now an American citizen) in 2023; and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) in 2025 and 2026. Homecoming games There was a ton of superstar-level player movement this offseason, with LeBron James going to Philadelphia, Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami, Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto and more. Here’s a look at some notable return games by players headed back to former homes this season: — Oct. 21, Utah’s Jaren Jackson Jr. returns to Memphis. — Nov. 10, Boston’s Paul George returns to Philadelphia. — Nov. 18, Milwaukee’s Tyler Herro returns to Miami (for the first Antetokounmpo vs. Bucks game, too.) — Nov. 19, Portland’s Damian Lillard returns to Milwaukee. — Nov. 23, Brooklyn’s Julius Randle returns to Minnesota. — Dec. 25, Philadelphia’s LeBron James returns to Los Angeles to face the Lakers. — Jan. 21, Philadelphia’s Jaylen Brown returns to Boston. — Jan. 28, Miami’s Antetokounmpo returns to Milwaukee. — Feb. 6, Portland’s Ja Morant returns to Memphis. — Feb. 15, Minnesota’s LaMelo Ball returns to Charlotte. Player stat targets of note — Cleveland’s James Harden is 661 points from becoming the ninth player in NBA history with 30,000. He’ll also likely become the 11th player with 9,000 assists; he’s 127 away there. — Houston’s Kevin Durant (32,597) is 1,046 points away from matching the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant for No. 4 on the NBA’s career scoring list. — Denver’s DeMar DeRozan (26,711) enters this season 16th on the scoring list and Golden State’s Stephen Curry (26,528) is 19th. It’s well within the realm of possibility that they’re near No. 10 Shaquille O’Neal (28,596) by season’s end. — Miami’s Klay Thompson is 74 3-pointers from tying Ray Allen (2,973) for third on the all-time list, behind only Curry and Harden. Jokic chasing history If Denver’s Nikola Jokic finishes in the top two of the MVP balloting — something he’s done in each of the last six years — he’d set a record. Nobody has done that seven years in a row. Jokic won the award in 2021, 2023 and 2024, plus was second in 2022, 2025 and 2026. He’s the third player with six consecutive top-two finishes. Boston’s Bill Russell won in 1958, 1961, 1962 and 1963, while finishing second in 1959 and 1960. Another Celtics legend, Larry Bird, was second in 1981, 1982 and 1983 before winning in 1984, 1985 and 1986. Many Indy milestones await Indiana’s first win this season will be a cause for celebration — it’ll be the Pacers’ milestone 2,000th victory in regular-season play since joining the NBA. The Pacers also had 427 regular-season wins in their ABA era. The Pacers’ Rick Carlisle is scheduled to coach his 2,000th regular-season game on March 8 against Charlotte. He needs 65 games to hit 2,000; that game is the 63rd on Indiana’s current schedule, which doesn’t account for two that will be added as the NBA Cup tournament plays out. Carlisle is 30 wins from tying Rick Adelman (1,042) for 10th-most in NBA history. Coaching, team milestones to watch A few other milestones that could be reached this season: — Miami’s Erik Spoelstra is two wins shy of tying Cotton Fitzsimmons (832) for 16th on the NBA’s all-time list for coaches. Spoelstra is also 34 wins shy of matching one of his idols, Jack Ramsay, for 15th; Ramsay won 864 games in his career. — Golden State’s Steve Kerr will likely climb into the top 25 on the coaching wins list. Kerr enters the season 28th with 603 regular-season victories, 10 behind No. 27 Mike Dunleavy, 25 behind No. 26 Doug Moe and 35 behind No. 25 Chuck Daly. — All of Kerr’s wins have come with the Warriors; only Gregg Popovich (1,390 with San Antonio), Jerry Sloan (1,127 with Utah), Spoelstra (830 with Miami), Red Auerbach (795 with Boston), Red Holzman (613 with New York) and Phil Jackson (610 with the Lakers) won more with one team. Kerr is obviously well within reach of Holzman and Jackson on that list. — Orlando’s 33rd game of the season, which would be Dec. 31 at Indiana, will be the 3,000th regular-season contest in Magic history. New Orleans’ 68th game, currently set for March 12 at home against Toronto, will be No. 2,000 in Pelicans history. — The Los Angeles Lakers’ 34th game this season (Dec. 31 at New Orleans) will be their 7,000th in franchise history, including playoffs. ___ Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
