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The end of the NBA’s American empire: how the 1986 draft changed basketball for ever

The end of the NBA’s American empire: how the 1986 draft changed basketball for ever

European players had long been dismissed as a risk by NBA teams. But two picks by the Portland Trail Blazers helped usher in the league’s international eraNBA commissioner David Stern walked to the podium at the Felt Forum in Madison Square Garden on 17 June 1986. “For the last pick of the first rou...

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/22/nba-draft-1986-international-era-trail-blazers-sabonis-petrovic

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