The NBA is at its international peak, but British players are still struggling to break through

By Frank Nunns O’Connell, CNN

(CNN) — The NBA is being hit by an international storm, attracting athletes from all corners of the world. At the start of the 2024-25 season, the league announced that a record-tying 125 international players were on opening night rosters.

Those 125 players came from 43 countries, including Australia, Germany, France, Cameroon and Serbia.

Fast-forward to the 2025 NBA draft. Behind the flashing lights and celebratory fireworks surrounding top prospects Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey was an underappreciated, perhaps even more compelling story of an international player waiting for his big chance.

As social media buzzed through the first round and beyond, Amari Williams waited patiently in the wings. The former University of Kentucky center from Great Britain, far removed from the bright lights, wasn’t your standard international draftee story.

So when he was selected by the 18-time NBA champion Boston Celtics midway through the second round, it was more than just a personal triumph – it was a win for British basketball on the world’s biggest stage.

Born and raised in Nottingham, a mid-sized city two hours north of London in England’s East Midlands, Williams became just the sixth homegrown British player to be drafted to the NBA in the last 25 years, according to Hoopsfix.

Following a five-year college stint – playing for Drexel University in the first four and finishing his collegiate career as a Kentucky Wildcat – the seven-foot center was drafted by the Orlando Magic, who subsequently traded his draft rights to the Celtics. Boston then signed Williams to a two-way contract in mid-August.

“It’s a great feeling,” the 23-year-old told CNN Sports. “They (the Celtics) won it recently, the players they’ve got, all the older guys – I want to adapt and learn as much as I can this year.

“The best thing is there’s no better players to learn from,” he added.

Although Williams’ journey has been a successful one, it has by no means been simple. At the age of 16, he moved 118 miles from Nottingham to an agricultural boarding college in rural northwest England, the only place where Williams could pursue basketball full-time.

“We were essentially living on a farm, going from a city like Nottingham to living in the countryside was very different,” Williams said about his upbringing.

Like many British hoopers, Williams had little opportunity to showcase his talents because basketball-dedicated spaces in good condition are few and far between in the United Kingdom. And even when those spaces are available, they are often used for several different competing sports.

“Not a lot of people were able to train as much,” Williams said. “When I moved to Preston, we were able to train, but it’s tough when you have to share with badminton and other sports.”

The average NBA consumer will point towards the likes of San Antonio Spurs power forward Jeremy Sochan or London-born New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby as the association’s British representation.

But the Oklahoma-born Sochan spent half of his high school life in the US, despite growing up in Milton Keynes, and Anunoby swapped the English capital for Missouri at the age of four.

Over 1.5 million people play basketball weekly across the UK and it has grown to be the country’s second most popular team sport in recent years, according to Sport England’s 2024 Active Lives survey.

Additionally, NBA fandom among adults in Britain has grown by 24% since 2022, according to the UK Government.

So why, despite popularity at a recreational level, are there so few British NBA players?

“There’s a lack of direction in the UK,” Knicks forward Tosan Evbuomwan, who was born and raised in Newcastle – a large metropolitan city in northeast England – told CNN Sports.

“There haven’t been many guys that have progressed through the UK and play at the top levels, so there’s not many people to give you direction. You have to figure it out yourself a lot of the time, to be honest.”

Evbuomwan experienced that lack of direction from the start of his basketball journey. At the age of 15, with no school team in place, he and a group of friends took it upon themselves to create one.

Although it was his first time playing “organized” basketball, there was no organization about it at all: no coaches, no formal training, just a shared desire to play the game. Together, they coached each other and played in their own tournaments.

After impressing at his first competition, Evbuomwan was scouted by the Newcastle Eagles academy team before being offered a scholarship to play Division One basketball at Ivy League school Princeton University in 2019.

Four years of hard work – in which Evbuomwan won Ivy League Player of the Year and was a two-time first-team All-Ivy League selection – resulted in two-way contracts from 2023 onwards with the Memphis Grizzlies, Detroit Pistons, Brooklyn Nets and now the Knicks.

Although the British point guard turned small forward has come a long way on his basketball journey, he never forgets the hardships of where he came from.

“I can probably count on one hand how many shooting guns there are in the whole of the UK,” the 24-year-old chuckled, referring to a specific type of shooting machine used in drills.

“Me and my friends used to play all the time: one-on-one, two-on-two. I didn’t know we were supposed to get shots up and work on movements.

“Getting shots up was the simplest, most basic thing in terms of practice and basketball and I didn’t know to do that at all – and I’m sure I wasn’t alone.”

To be an aspiring British basketball player is to live with hopes and dreams that may never be fulfilled. And despite the game’s immense popularity, the sport is in the grips of a governance crisis in the UK.

On October 14, global basketball governing body FIBA temporarily suspended the British Basketball Federation (BBF) and banned the British men’s national team from playing in FIBA senior competitions.

The decision came after the basketball authority established a taskforce in August to investigate and address “apparent governance issues and regulatory non-compliance” within British men’s club competitions.

An ongoing dispute between the BBF, a group of investors and teams in the UK’s current professional league (Super League Basketball), has reached Britain’s High Court with an initial hearing set for July 2026.

In a statement, the BBF said that it is committed to “restoring, confidence, transparency and sustainability within the sport.”

CNN Sports has reached out to the BBF for comment.

Despite the turmoil in the British professional game, work is being done at the grassroots level to nurture the sport.

In September, the UK government announced that basketball will benefit from a joint £10 million (roughly $13.4 million) investment at a recreational level.

A press release from the government reported that £5 million will be committed to basketball in 2026/27, with the NBA matching that investment with their own funding of £5 million through to 2028. The joint investment plans to bring the game to communities up and down the country.

“Basketball is booming in Britain – and this investment will help take it to the next level, opening up the game to thousands more people right across the country,” said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“This is about more than sport – it’s about community, inclusion and inspiring the next generation to find their spark.”

Despite work being done on the recreational level, without a well-organized system currently in place to help nurture talent at the top level, there are few pioneers that the next generation can look up to.

But rather poetically, Williams cites Evbuomwan as someone who inspired him on his NBA journey.

“In my age group, or around my age, Tosan was the first to do it and be able to make the NBA,” said Williams.

“From playing in Newcastle and going to Princeton, seeing him do it has inspired me and a lot of other people to take that path.”

Ideally, that path becomes more attainable as time goes on, giving aspiring British talent more stars to look up to when they do get shots up.

“Whatever I can do to help him and the younger generation, I’ll always be there,” Evbuomwan said of mentoring Williams.

“Me and Amari have a real relationship and that only helps the situation. In the same way, me and Sochan talk and he’s helped me – being here a year longer, that experience really does matter.”

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