2000 - NEXT Hotspots

Time was when baseball was our international sport and the Dodgers its High Ambassador. (They signed Cuban P Adolfo Luque way back in '30.) Today, hoops rivals soccer in global popularity (see below), and the Mavericks are the ones cashing in. (Well, kind of.) Their most recent overseas project is this year's second-round pick, 7'1'' Wang Zhi-Zhi (see left). He'll be the NBA's first Chinese player-if he ever gets here. Their roster already includes a Croat (F Bruno Sundov), a German (F Dirk Nowitzki) and 31 scouts in Angola, Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Turkey (see above). Donn Nelson tops the pyramid. But it's not nepotism: Coach... [read full story]