How many latino players will play in the NBA in the 2022-23 season?

When you think of the words “sports” and “latino”, you probably immediately go to soccer, and rightly so. After all, the biggest sport in most Latin American countries is soccer and that love is carried over to their children and grandchildren, even if they move to the US.

But there are some caveats to consider, with other sports making headway in latino communities, such as baseball in the Dominican Republic and Panama, or cycling in Colombia, or football in Mexico. And of course, sitting across all of these demographics is basketball.

So popular is basketball, that in many parts of the world it has been taken on and adopted wholeheartedly. The best example of this is in Europe, where the Greeks and Turks go mad for the game, and the Eurobasket League has become a popular font of NBA talent.

In Latin America, the story is similar, and according to NBA Latin America, the US-based latino population make up about 17% of the NBA’s fan base, or roughly 15 million people.

When you look at the ethnicity of the NBA stars, you see that the overwhelming majority are African-American, making up 73.2% of the league. White players make up 16.8% and Hispanic players come in with 3.1% of the NBA.

Of course, this is a single snapshot of the premier basketball league in the world, and if you were to take note of the entire worldwide picture, the makeup of all professional basketball players across every league would show double the Hispanic participation at just over 7%.

Naturally, some categories overlap, with many “White” and “African-American” players also having latino ancestry, and the issue of Spain, which as a European country should fit the definition of “White” but are more generally included in “Hispanic” in the US context.

In fact, we have included Spain in our list, and they make up by far the largest Hispanic contingent in the NBA, with six current players. Taken as a whole, there are eleven current NBA players who are from Hispanic countries. For accuracy, we have also included Brazil, who are not strictly speaking Hispanic, but do fall under the Latino umbrella.

Hispanic/Latino players currently in the NBA

Santi Aldama

Memphis Grizzlies

Leandro Bolmaro

Utah Jazz

Chris Duarte

Indiana Pacers

Usman Garuba

Houston Rockets

Juancho Hernangómez

Toronto Raptors

Willy Hernangómez

New Orleans Pelicans

Al Horford

Boston Celtics

Ricky Rubio

Cleveland Cavaliers

Juan Toscano

Los Angeles Lakers

Facundo Campazzo

Dallas Mavericks

Raúl Neto

Cleveland Cavaliers