Eastern Europe refers to the eastern region of Europe from the east coast of the Baltic Sea to the east coast of the Black Sea to the East Daur Mountains, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and other countries. Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania are also sometimes considered eastern or south-eastern European countries.
Many years ago, Eastern European basketball, represented by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, dominated the Men's Basketball World Cup for a long time, and before the return of American professional players to the world basketball family, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union took turns, among which players like Sabonis (the father of the little Sabonis of the Pacers today) were even considered by many to be comparable to the four centers at the peak (the four centers generally refer to the four centers of the 90s, generally ranked as Hakim Olajuwon and Shaguir O'Neill , David Robinson, Patrick Ewing. ）。 Because of the problem of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, in that year, many excellent basketball players in Eastern Europe did not have the opportunity to contact with American basketball, and then the Soviet Union collapsed, eastern Europe changed dramatically, and the sports of many small countries in Eastern Europe encountered a stage of stagnation, and fell into a low in the short term, but recently, the sports in Eastern Europe gradually returned to their former state, And Eastern European players began to rise again, and many excellent players appeared. There are currently 17 active Eastern European players in the NBA, and they are distributed in 7 countries.
Latvia has two, the Wizards' Davis Bertans and the Lone Ranger's Porzingis.
There are three lithuanians, Kulboka of the Hornets, Sabonis the Little of the Pacers, and Valanciunas of the Pelicans.
Serbia has the most five, namely the Warriors' Bjelica, the Eagles' Bogdan Bogdanovic, the Nuggets' Nikola Jokic, the Lone Ranger's Boban, and the Thunder's Alexei Bokushevski.
The only Croatian is Bojan Bogdanovic.
Slovenia has three players, they are the Nuggets' Vlatko Chanchar, the Lone Ranger's Luka Doncic, and the Raptors' Goran Dragic.
There is one in Herzegovina, and he is Yusuf Nurkic of the Trailblazers.
Montenegro has two, Marko and Nikola Vucevic, both of whom play for the Bulls.
Of the 17 active NBA Players from Eastern Europe, the most famous of these are Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic, who are now at the absolute heart of their teams.
Jokic was drafted by the Denver Nuggets in the 2014 NBA Draft, officially entered the NBA in 2015, was named to the All-Rookie First Team in the 2015–16 season, the All-Star Western Conference Bench and all-Team First Team in the 2018–19 season; the All-Star Western Conference Bench and all-Team Second Team in the 2019–20 season; and the regular season MVP in the 2020-21 season and was named to the All-Star Western Conference Starting Lineup and all-Star First Team.
Luka Doncic began his career at Real Madrid Basketball Club in the Spanish Basketball League. In the 2018 NBA Draft, Luka Doncic was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the 3rd pick in the first round, then traded to the Dallas Mavericks, and was named the All-Star Rookie and all-Rookie First Team in the 2018-19 season; the All-Star Western Conference Starting Lineup and the All-Star First Team in the 2020-21 season.