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Kentucky Basketball: Wildcats Bring International Flavor

With multiple foreign born players, the Wildcats are more like a NBA team than ever before.

Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

The NBA has become a melting pot of international talent. Players like Dirk Nowitzki, Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, Andrew Wiggins, and Manu Ginobili, just to name a few, have made the NBA a world league. Every draft has it's fair share of European, Latin American, Asian, and African players that many of us may not recognize.

Kristaps Porzingis was drafted out of Latvia by the New York Knicks to a chorus of boos. The reasoning? They didn't know anything about him. He didn't play for Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Indiana, or any other major college programs, therefore American fans were not familiar with his talent.

It's not a secret that one of the best ways to market yourself to the NBA is by playing for a college basketball powerhouse such as Kentucky. And let's be real, the main goal for every high level basketball player is to one day play in the NBA, not some professional team in China or Israel.

It has been said by recruits, college basketball analysts, and just about anyone familiar with the program, that the Kentucky Wildcats are run like a professional team. Now with the addition of so many international players, it is truer than ever before.

Who are the international stars that will be a member of the Wildcats this season?

Skal Labissiere

Home country- Haiti

Isaac Humphries

Home country- Australia

Mychal Mulder

Home country- Canada

Jamal Murray

Home country- Canada

Welcome to Big Blue Nation all Canadians, Australians, and Haitians!