It's weird that Canada has been so bad in international competition given the number of NBA players they've produced. Of course, Steve Nash not suiting up for them in his day probably didn't help.
Why are there so many players from the former Yugoslav republics? My theory is height. People from Bosnia are the tallest in the western world, with an average height of 1 standard deviation greater than the average American. Assuming a standard distribution, this means that Bosnian men are 16x more likely than American men to reach a height of 6'7". They are 42x more likely to reach a height of 6'10".
It is not strange if you know basketball history of Yugoslavia and its former republics. We have long basletball tradition, since WWII and very quality basketball schools. Hight have its roll also. Yes we are among highest people in the world. For example, I am 180 cm tall and I can not be considered as very tall man in Serbia. Also Slovenia is current European champion and Serbia is vice-champion at the World Cup and Basketball Olympic Tournament.
I presume you got the data on height from wikipedia, which is very poor (Bosnia is basically male students in one university, which obviously is extremely flawed). Going by a study published in eLife in 2016 (10.7554/eLife.13410), there's not much difference between northwestern Europe, the Baltics and former Yugoslavia. Only the freakishly tall Dutch stand out. I'd say interest in the sport is at least as important as average height.
I definitely don't trust the data 100%. But still, you'd be hard-pressed to find any university in the U.S. where male students averaged 6 feet tall. Maybe northern Wisconsin or something. :)
I am born and raise on Dalmatia, Croatia. I was always second lowest kid in my class and they called me "Mrva"(meaning: little boy). Funny thing is I was 183 cm tall in first grade of highschool and grew to 190cm by the end of fourth grade. There were 3 guys over 2m in my class and almost 10 in our generation. I am not saying it is like that in whole Balkans but that is my expirience. Of course when i came to Zagreb to college I wasnt the lowest kid anymore.
I also think that the Soviets did a lot to fuel interest in basketball in all the countries in their sphere of influence, including Yugoslavia, back before '92 when Communist countries could still beat the USA in Olympic basketball, due to the restriction on NBA players being allowed to participate.
Simply put, ex-Yugoslavia is historically the heart of European basketball, even more than the former Soviet Union. Slovenia is at the top, right now, while Serbia and Croatia used to lead the way in past decades. The first truly impactful European players in NBA history came from there.
Dutch men are the tallest in the world (185,6 cm / 6 feet 1).
and we are shit. I don't think it's height. Serbia has ruled European basketball for some time.
It's kinda like baseball where the every european championship has been won by either the Dutch or Italians
Yugoslavia doesn't stand out much in height compared to the rest of Europe except south. Interest/tradition/training quality is much more important than height (like speed skating in the Netherlands, Lithuania is also a similar "anomaly" in basketball). At some point half of the Euroleague coaches were ex-YU.
Basketball is so popular here in China, but they suck pretty badly at all team sports. Still pretty surprised that they didn't even manage to make the list though.
Montenegrins are the tallest among the Balkans, but they're on listed. In Lithuania, Basketball is most popular sport, so it's surprising it doesn't have more players.
Is Greece not here because 4 of them weren't born in Greece? I think Greece should be included because it should be by what country does the player represent.
Haha, Quizmaster! Love your comment! I live in northern Wisconsin and people here are quite tall. Especially the younger people. Lots of Scandinavian lineage...Norwegian, German ,Dutch. Well, maybe not everyone is Scandinavian but it is a large percentage around here. My nephew is 6' 6" . Fun quiz!
I think it's more just that basketball is more popular in the Balkans than in the rest of Europe. You see more basketball courts there, anyway.