GREENBURGH, N.Y. – During one brutal week last February, Kobe Bryant dropped a Madison Square Garden-record 61 points on the Knicks.
Two days later, LeBron James stopped by the Garden and gave New York a triple-double featuring 52 points.
Two months after that, Dwyane Wade came through the Big Apple and scored 55 points on the Knicks’ “defense.”
All told, three of the top six individual scoring outputs last season in the NBA came against the Knicks.
NBA ROSTERS FEATURE 83 INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS
There will be 83 international players from 36 countries and territories on NBA rosters, matching the record of international players on opening night rosters (2006-07). Twenty-seven of the 30 teams have at least one international player.
The Milwaukee Bucks roster features the most international players with seven. The Charlotte Bobcats, Sacramento Kings and Toronto Raptors each feature five international players. Omri Casspi (Israel) of the Sacramento Kings, Jonas Jerebko (Sweden) of the Detroit Pistons and Hasheem Thabeet (Tanzania) of the Memphis Grizzlies are representing their countries for the first time on an NBA roster. France has the strongest representation with a record ten players.
At the end of the 2008-09 regular season, the NBA featured 77 international players from 33 countries and territories on team rosters (both active and inactive). In comparison, the NBA had 36 international players from 24 countries and territories in 1999-2000.
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