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In recent years, the NBA has become a melting pot of international talent, yet British representation has remained scarce. While only a few British-born players have carved out careers in the NBA, a handful of others have made the leap from the UK system. Here are six who have successfully made their mark in US basketball.
Chris Harris
Southampton-born Chris Harris played just one season in the NBA but will always be remembered as the first Briton to feature in the big league.
Harris, emigrated from England when he was a child, went to school in New York before taking up a basketball scholarship at the University of Dayton in Ohio, who he twice helped to the national championship finals.
That earned him a shot at the NBA for the 1955-56 season, beginning with the St Louis Hawks before being traded to the Rochester Royals. He died in 2022, aged 89.
OG Anunoby
Ogugua Anunoby, or OG as he became known, was also a young emigrant, upping sticks and leaving Harlesden in North West London as a four-year-old and heading for Jefferson City, Missouri, where he went to high school.
After an impressive college career at Indiana, Anunoby was selected by the Toronto Raptors in the 2017 draft. Two years later he was becoming the first British player to win the NBA, though he missed all of the Raptors’ run through the playoffs after undergoing surgery.
Anunoby made history in the 2022–23 season, leading the league in steals and becoming the first Raptors player and first British player to achieve the milestone. His stellar defensive play earned him a well-deserved spot on the NBA All-Defensive Second Team.
In 2023, he ended his six-year run with the Raptors. Anunoby is now a New York Knicks player.
Ben Gordon
Another Londoner to cross the pond as a kid was Ben Gordon, who would go on to spend 11 seasons in the NBA, capping his rookie year at the Chicago Bulls in 2004-05 by becoming the first rookie to be named the Sixth Man of the Year.
Gordon led the Bulls in scoring in his final season before being traded to the Detroit Pistons, where he earned the distinction of scoring the NBA’s 10 millionth point in its history.
The shooting guard was always proud of his British roots and played for Team GB in the 2017 EuroBasket qualifiers.
John Amaechi
You can’t talk about the NBA’s Brits without mentioning John Amaechi, US-born admittedly but raised in Stockport.
Amaechi didn’t head back to the United States until his late teens, impressing at college to earn a season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
After returning to Europe to play for, among others, the Sheffield Sharks, he went back to the States for a second stab at the NBA with first Orlando and then Utah.
He represented England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, walking away from Melbourne with a bronze medal round his neck.
James Donaldson
James Donaldson set the record for the most regular season games played by a British player, racking up 957 appearances.
A native of Heacham, Norfolk, Donaldson’s NBA career spanned 14 years, with stops at the Seattle Supersonics, San Diego/Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, and Utah Jazz.
Although he made his only All-Star appearance in 1988, his best individual season came the year before, when he led the Mavericks to the No.2 spot in the Western Conference.
After remaining with the Mavericks until February 1992, Donaldson was traded to the Knicks, ultimately concluding his NBA journey with the Utah Jazz.
Luol Deng
And finally the UK’s greatest-ever player, Luol Deng, a two-time NBA All-Star.
A refugee from war-torn Sudan who wound up in Brixton, South London, young Deng carved out an incredible junior career in England at club and national level.
At 14 he was persuaded to head for the Land of the Free and never looked back, enjoying a successful 15-year career in the NBA, chiefly with the Bulls, but never forgetting the debt he owed England, turning out for them at the 2012 Olympics and many other tournaments.
