Top 5 non-American players to make it to the Basketball Hall of Fame

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#3 Drazen Petrovic

Petrovic would have perhaps had a higher ranking on this list had he not died in a car accident in 1993 at the young age of 28. In his four seasons in the NBA, Petrovic averaged 15.4 ppg. His best scoring form came in his last two NBA seasons (1991-92, 1992-93), when Petrovic was with the New Jersey Nets.

Petrovic averaged 20.6 ppg and 22.3 ppg, shooting more than 50% from the field and nearly 45% from the three-point line in each of these seasons. Reggie Miller deservedly called Petrovic the best shooter he ever played against.

Petrovic competed against the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympic Games men’s basketball final as a member of the Croatian team. He won a gold medal for Yugoslavia at the 1990 FIBA World Cup and also helped the country to a bronze and silver medal in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic games.

His biggest legacy is that he is largely considered to be the man who paved the way for a lot of European players to make it to the NBA. Petrovic was posthumously inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.

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#2 Dikembe Mutombo

Dikembe Mutombo had a celebrated NBA career

Since we are considering Hakeem Olajuwon to be American (Olajuwon went to college in the US and won a gold with Team USA at the 1996 Olympics), Dikembe Mutombo currently ranks as the greatest African player to play in the NBA. Mutombo, a Democratic Republic of Congo native, played for 18 seasons in the NBA after being selected fourth overall in the 1991 Draft.

Mutombo was an eight-time All-Star, four-time defensive player of the year and three-time blocking champ. He ranks second on the NBA’s all-time shot-blocking list and was also a two-time rebounding champ in the league.

Although his best years in the league came with Denver and Atlanta, he was a key member of the Philadelphia 76ers team that went to the NBA Finals in 2001. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

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#1 Yao Ming

Although Yao Ming played only eight seasons in the NBA, and does not really have a significant international achievement with the Chinese National team, his influence on the game cannot be denied. Yao is the man singularly responsible for the meteoric growth of the NBA in China.

Over his nine-year career with the Houston Rockets, Ming was an All-Star in eight seasons despite being available for only five games in his final season (2010-11). He was a five-time All-NBA member. He averaged 19.0 ppg and 9.2 rpg over the length of his NBA career.

Had injuries not taken their toll on Yao, he would have had a much greater career than his final NBA stats suggest. Ming was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016 alongside Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson.