The NBA Season is officially underway as of October 29th, and this figures to be a great year of basketball. The Miami Heat will pick up right where they left off, while teams like the Golden State Warriors will be gunning to take them down. The San Antonio Spurs, though they have gotten older, still want that 5th championship, and not many people think they have missed their chance.
In celebration of this wonderful time of year, I decided to put together some data about the many different players in the NBA. The Unofficial 2013 NBA Player Census details player height and weight, age, salary, birthplace, and much more. In this article I'll be taking a closer look at the birthplace of players in the NBA, but I encourage you to check out the rest of the study by clicking through the link above.
Where Do NBA Players Come From?
NBA players come from all over the world. From New York City, to the Congo. From Los Angeles to Bosnia. Of course, we know this is a North American league, so it comes as no surprise that the vast majority of NBA players come from the United States.
Most, but not all of the United States are represented in the NBA. In the chart below, we see the representation of each state in the league.
As you can see, California produces vastly more players than any other state. Just one more player and they would out produce the next highest state, New York, by 100 percent. In all, California accounts for about 12 percent of the entire current NBA population.
States that have failed to produce a current NBA player are: Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming.
Now California may have produced more players than any other state in the U.S., but they are also the most populous state in the country, with an estimated population of 38,041,430. With such a large pool from which to draw talent, 53 NBA players suddenly seems less impressive. And rightfully so. The chart below displays the states who produce players at the most efficient rate. I used players per million residents for this.
Louisiana produces a whopping 3 players per million, quite a bit more than any of the other states. What are they feeding the kids down there? The states who produce least efficiently are Oklahoma (.08 per million residents, Arizona (.31 per million residents) and Virginia (.37 per million residents).
As far as cities go, Los Angeles has produced the most current players with 19, and New York City comes in second with 16. More than half of the players produced in the state of New York come from New York City. The top cities are shown below.
As with the states, the top cities are not necessarily the most efficient. One particular city in Michigan takes the cake. The chart below shows the most efficient player-producing cities based on number of players per 100,000 residents.
Saginaw runs away with this category with nearly six players per 100,000 residents. Crazy. Players from Saginaw are Kenyon Martin, Draymond Green and Jason Richardson.
Are you from one of the top producing US locations? Rep your city or state in the comments! Don't forget to check out the rest of the study at BestTickets.com. Thanks for reading!