Five Influential Black Athletes With Foreign Roots
The Black Athlete is everywhere. They represent crossing borders and oftentimes have roots in places far beyond the country where they master their game under the lights. With our favorite sports slowly restarting, here are five international black athletes, past and present, who have put their homelands and countries away from home on the map with their influential style of play.
Kobe Bryant (11) guarding Federico Biagini at the 1989 Piattelli Trophy competition in Montecatini Terme, Italy. (Photo Credit: Federico Biagini)
Kobe Bryant - Reggio Emilia, Italy
In 1984, when Kobe Bryant was six-years-old, he and his family moved from Philadelphia to Italy after his father, former NBA-star Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant, retired from the league to play professionally in the country’s competitive Serie A. Reggio Emilia--a city over 200 miles north of Rome--was where Kobe and the Bryants finally settled after moving as his father changed teams over several seasons. Here was where Kobe watched his father play for the clubs Reggiana and Olympia Pistoia. Soccer, the truly global sport, helped Kobe learn these fundamentals of basketball. This added to his already great size and athleticism displayed indoors and out on the many Italian courts against his peers and grown men during middle school. He would go on to manifest what he had learned in the NBA into winning five championships with the Los Angeles Lakers. In January 2020, Reggio Emilia made Bryant an honorary Italian citizen after the untimely deaths of he and his daughter Gianna, a baller in her own right whose number was posthumously retired at The University of Connecticut.
Tony Parker leading the offense for Paris Baskets Racing in the French League. (Photo Credit: https://asroundasorangeandblack.wordpress.com/)
Tony Parker - Paris, France
Born in and Brussels before moving to Paris, Tony Parker idolized two people growing up. Michael Jordan and his father, Tony Parker Sr., a former Loyola University-Chicago basketball player working his craft professionally for a host of French basketball teams during his career. Young Parker watched his father play while developing his own game as a youth growing up in France and spending summers in Chicago with his paternal grandparents. Drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 2001, Parker’s instrumental play was the catalyst for four of the Spurs' five championships over the team’s nearly 15-year-long dynasty under Coach Greg Popovich. His leadership skills and slick point guard ability, an elusive ball-handle and an unstoppable finish at the rim sent him to six-All-Star games. Tony Parker’s lasting influence on the NBA is seen in how he elevated the role of the point guard through the Euro-game. A style many are still modeling their games after today.
Osaka lining up another 120mph serve in match on clay. (Photo Credit: Marijan Murat)
Naomi Osaka - Osaka, Japan
The marriage between Naomi Osaka’s parents, a Japanese woman and Haitian man, in 1990s Japan was considered ‘dishonorable’. She’s stated in interviews that she doesn’t know how to be Black or Japanese, only herself--and that’s exactly how The 2018 US Open Champion plays. The Top-10 ranking professional’s discipline in her approach toward tennis fuels her ascendancy. While she’s soft-spoken during press conferences, her 120mph tennis swing shows a different side. Her game is precise. Calculated movements and powerful serves often lead to points being scored while her opponent watches the ball zoom by. Always the consummate professional, she’s been known to console those on the other side of the net as she did a tearful Coco Gauff post-match at the 2019 US Open. Osaka proudly shows her Japanese heritage on the court and attended a ceremony in 2018 in Port-au-Prince honoring her bloodline to the country of her father.
Giannis eying the competition during his time with the Greek A2 Basketball League team Filathlitikos.
Giannis Antetokounmpo - Athens, Greece
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s wiry 6’11 frame and his space-clearing 7’4 wingspan is something every defense in the NBA has a tough time stopping. Before the second child of Charles and Veronica became the Milwaukee Bucks’ All-Star power forward nicknamed ‘The Greek Freak’, he lived with his family in Sepolia, a gritty but colorful neighborhood in Athens, Greece after they migrated from Nigeria. He and his brothers Thanasis, Kostas and Alex who would all go on to become athletes. They honed their skills on the court at the Filathlitikos Gym, where they slept some nights when transportation was an issue. It is this level of dedication that propelled Giannis through the Greek A2 Basketball League with Filathlitikos and towards his gaining the honor of becoming the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2019. An achievement that transformed him into an international icon to the people of Greece.
Ronaldinho picture here with his older brother, Roberto de Assis Moreira, both sporting the jerseys of the team they both played for in Brazil as youths—Gremio. (Photo Credit: @olymipa_vintage)
Ronaldinho - Porto Alegre, Brazil
The 2005 Ballon D’or winner, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira “Ronaldinho” is a product of the game’s richest culture—Brazil. After a competitive youth career, Ronaldinho earned him a spot on Brazil’s national team for the 2002 World Cup. The flashy midfielder’s play during the tournament helped ‘The Canaries’ lift the Jules Rimet Trophy after defeating Germany in the final. His time at FC Barcelona helped him bring the new ‘Jogo Bonito’ (The Beautiful Game) to the world while mentoring Lionel Messi in-game at the city’s prized Camp Nou. Ronaldinho’s flair on the pitch gave him universal appeal making Lebron James, Stephen Curry and James Harden fans of work in the process.