Jokic, Doncic, Wembanyama? John Amaechi insists UK can produce NBA superstar in years to come
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Friday 13 February 2026 06:42, UK
The landscape of the NBA has changed immeasurably since John Amaechi was strutting his stuff on basketball's biggest stage.
Back then, Americans dominated the MVP race and big men banged hard in the paint.
Now you have French phenom Victor Wembanyama shooting the ball with the same desire as Stephen Curry - but he's doing that, as a big man.
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Not just a big man, in fact, a massive man!
Year three Wemby is quite something to behold and he's one of two 3-point-shooting European big men in the thick of the NBA's Most Valuable Player race this year.
Nikola Jokic was putting up ridiculous numbers before the injury he suffered earlier this season and Luka Doncic is no slouch shooting the ball either.
Together, the trio occupy three of the top four places in the race - alongside last year's winner, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
According to Amaechi, there is nothing to stop these shores producing a basketball player who can match the achievements of the Europeans who are now dominating games night-in and night-out in the NBA.
"It starts by recognising the talent in this country is equal," said Amaechi, speaking to Sky Sports' Ellie Prophet. "We are genetically identical to France, for example, in terms of our genetic talent pipeline.
"The difference is access. It is currently a very expensive game to play. To hire a court in this country is absurdly expensive still, and so kids can't do that. But also it isn't taught well, everywhere.
"It's taught by well meaning people, I understand that, but basketball fundamentals must be taught well in order to have a chance to really make it somewhere.
"If we fix some of those things and also create a league at the top end that people aspire to be in - one that's an actual career, not just a job on the side - then there's a chance."
Realisation of Stern's vision shows how NBA can change the game
Change doesn't happen overnight, but when the NBA commits to something - as it has done by partnering with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to launch a new men's league in Europe, starting next year - it works hard to proactively engender it.
No Europeans had won an MVP award when Amaechi was playing, before Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki claimed the first one in the 2006-07.
The German's crown was the solitary award for our continental friends before Giannis Antetokounmpo won the award a dozen years later.
That award though, was the first of five in the last seven years which have been won by European players - two for Giannis, and three for Jokic.
It's a sea change from years gone by, and it all started with former NBA Commissioner David Stern's quest to globalise the league decades ago.
"I talked to David Stern, who's the old commissioner of the league, about 30 years ago, when I was still playing, and he told me that this would happen, and it was hard to even conceive of it," explained Amaechi. "Back in those days there were a handful of European players in the league and now there's 20-odd percent.
"The game is so global now that everybody feels like they own a piece of it. You can go to Greece and talk to people there, and although they love the NBA, it's like basketball is handed down to them from the Parthenon.
"They are so embracing it, that it's taught in schools and taught well in schools, and that access to it is reasonable and cheap, and that's created this opportunity, this well of players who are amazing.
"This country's got a wealth of players too. We've got amazing players, but our access is a bit spotty."
Perhaps NBA Europe will be the key to everything changing.
Amaechi: NBA Europe gives UK chance to create 'basketball communities'
Amaechi is a passionate advocate for the sport he loves and has had an interesting career since retiring from the professional game, working prominently as a psychologist, consultant and authoring a book.
He recognises challenges as well as anyone - but also recognises how much the NBA's forward-thinking approach to problems can deliver change.
The 55-year-old remembers when the idea of playing a regular season game in Europe would've seemed pie-in-the-sky.
"This is huge," he said, speaking about the recent games in Berlin and London. "I talked to David Stern, the old commissioner of the league, about 30 years ago when I was still playing, and he told me that this would happen, and it was hard to even conceive of it.
"Back in those days there were a handful of European players in the league, and now there's 20-odd per cent. It's amazing. So this is an event, new people get to see the game. People who've loved it and never get to touch it, get to touch it. It's great.
"I would see the NBA Europe thing as... an opportunity where less opportunity exists. I think there is a real chance here to create teams around which entire communities of basketball can grow. Maybe other countries don't need that as well as we do, but we need that, and I think every country will benefit."
Amaechi believes he knows where the issues lie for the sport, and the key things that can be tackled by virtue of the NBA committing to the European expansion.
"It is the pathways. It is the cost of access to the sport," said Amaechi, when asked what he believed the biggest barrier is for players in this country.
"We can have more of those opportunities for people to have careers and lives enriched by this game, and not just through playing it, but through the business of sport that will happen around it. That's what I think it is.
"It's going to happen by respecting what's amazing about what happens in Europe, and building the governance, the framework, the rigour that the NBA has and the commercial acumen, but making sure that it stays at its heart European."
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