With countless professional basketball leagues throughout every continent, the game of basketball has become a global phenomenon since the NBA’s “Magic-Bird” era of the 1980s.
Not only are the best three players in the NBA foreign-born (Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Luka Dončić), but on Thursday night, the San Antonio Spurs are going to use the top pick in the draft to select Victor Wembanyama, the highest-rated prospect since 2003–he is from France. The game of basketball is now the third most popular sport in the entire world. A fitting depiction of that notion is a clip of a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks that recently went viral. The footage shows the men playing a competitive pickup game of basketball at the Gonba Temple in China while donning their signature red robes. The guys could be seen throwing “no-look” passes, crossing each other over, blocking shots, tossing alley-oops, and hitting fadeaway mid-range jumpers with ease.