USA/CAN – NBA talent pool will be on full display in Turkey

NEW YORK (NBA) - What do Hedo Turkoglu, Pau Gasol, Luis Scola, Andrew Bogut and Tony Parker all have in common?

The five men are established NBA players who hail from countries outside the United States.

The quintet will also play at the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

In what is certain to be one of the most glamorous and competitive basketball events of all time, the 2010 FIBA World Championship, an eye-popping number of leading players in the sport will be in Turkey next year.

Of the 20 teams already in the 24-team team tournament, there are potentially 52 non-American NBA players that will take part with Turkey’s Turkoglu, Spain’s Gasol, Argentina’s Scola, Australia’s Bogut and France’s Parker among the best known.

When adding Team USA's 12 players, that number grows to potentially 64 NBA players in Turkey.

There could be even more NBA players depending on which four national teams are awarded wild cards.

Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Russia, and Senegal all have NBA players and are eligible to bid for wild cards according to the criteria of FIBA.

While several national teams, most recently Greece in the Semi-Finals at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, have shot down the myth that an all-NBA squad like that of Team USA is unbeatable, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that sides with more stars from the NBA have a better chance of reaching the podium.

Argentina, the 2004 Olympic champions who defeated Team USA in the Semi-Finals, were led by San Antonio Spurs superstar Manu Ginobili.

Germany made it to the Final of EuroBasket 2005 in Belgrade and won the silver medal behind the tournament's MVP, Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki.

In 2006, a Spain team that boasted Pau Gasol won the FIBA World Championship gold medal while at EuroBasket 2007, Utah Jazz ace Andrei Kirilenko led Russia's upset of hosts Spain in the title game.

Last year, a Spain team loaded with NBA players pushed the heavily-favored United States to the limit in the gold-medal game while this year, Spain's NBA stars thrashed the EuroBasket competition in Poland.

France, one of the teams Spain beat and a side stocked full of NBA talent, finished fifth with just that one setback.

The 2009-10 NBA season tipped off on Tuesday night and once again, there is a huge international presence.

There are 83 international players from 36 countries and territories on official rosters (active and inactive), matching the record of international players on opening night rosters (2006-07).

Twenty-seven of the 30 teams have at least one international player.

While the Milwaukee Bucks roster features the most international players with seven, including Bogut, the Charlotte Bobcats, Sacramento Kings and Toronto Raptors each have five international players.

Israel, Sweden and Tanzania have NBA players for the first time.

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.

France has the biggest international presence in the NBA with a record 10 players in the league.

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).

By comparison, the NBA had 36 international players from 24 countries and territories in 1999-2000.

FIBA