I was watching NBA highlights the other night, like usual, and while the main stars like Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were doing their thing, I noticed something about the league that hadn’t really caught my attention for more than a brief second in the past.

There is a new breed of stars brewing in the NBA – a growing group of guys who are impacting some of the league’s greatest teams in a major way and whose names I really can’t pronounce.

They are the international players, and they are pretty damn good.

In the 90s, international players weren’t all that common with a few names like Vlade Divac from Serbia and Tony Kukoc from Croatia floating around.

But in the NBA today, I counted almost 20 players from all across the world. From France to Nigeria to Mexico, players are coming into the league and making things happen.

They are showing up on all sorts of average teams such as the Bulls, Pacers, Grizzlies and the Cavaliers. But where they are really impressive is on the NBA’s elite teams.

The most obvious of the internationally heavy teams is the Sacramento Kings, who carry the best record in the league, at the present time.

Pedrag Stojakovic from Yugoslavia is averaging 22.7 points a game and carried the Kings while Chris Webber was injured. He earned himself a spot on this year’s all-star roster.

The Kings also have Divac, the starting center who is still going strong at 11 points a game. One of the team’s key role players is Hidayet Turkoglu from Turkey who puts up 10 points a game.

They account for three of the team’s top seven scorers.

Another team that is enjoying success due in large part to their international help is the Dallas Mavericks, the third best team in the league.

Their German sharp-shooting forward, Dirk Nowitzki, leads the team in scoring at 24 points a game and will also be attending this year’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia.

The Mavericks have also been shaping a hopeful star for the future from China. Zhizhi Wang, a 7-1 center, is only averaging 5 points but provides a large presence in the middle and is improving fast.

By the way, Wang enjoys listening to Britney Spears and N’Sync and he loves chocolate ice cream.

Some may remember the Meoqui, Chiguahua, Mexico native Eduardo Najera, who used to give Iowa State’s Marcus Fizer trouble when he played for Oklahoma.

Najera, only the second Mexican-born player in the league, is also pitching in on the Mavericks’ season with his 7 points a night.

Another team with multiple international players is the Seattle SuperSonics. Yugoslavia natives Predrag Drobnjak and Vladimir Radmanovic are helping their team battle in the Western Conference to stay above .500 along with Olumide Oyedeji (say that five times fast) from Nigeria .

But it’s not just the highly ranked Kings and Mavericks taking advantage of these types of players. The Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs and even the almighty Los Angeles Lakers each have an international player spicing up their line-ups.

International players aren’t impacting the Eastern conference as much as the West, but the Detroit Pistons are at least trying to mirror teams such as the Kings.

Zeljko Rebraca and Ratko Varda, both from Yugoslavia, are a part of the Pistons’ third place team in the Central Division.

I like seeing these guys coming over to America to play basketball. Many of them grew up watching the NBA and recognize its superiority in the game.

It adds a great diversity factor to the NBA, and it is an indicator that the NBA does harbor the best basketball players in the world. So when people like Jordan and Iverson excel, you can justify calling them the best players in the world.

So keep an eye out for these players. More and more of them are entering the NBA each year, and their impact is getting greater.

And when the NBA switches over to the IBA (International Basketball Association) you will know why.

Kyle Moss is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.