So, I got curious the other day about Swedish players in the NBA. Just one of those random thoughts, you know? Figured I’d spend a few minutes looking it up. Seemed simple enough.
First thing I did was just hop on my computer and type in something basic like “nba players from sweden”. Pretty straightforward. I expected to get a neat little list right away.
Well, it wasn’t quite that easy. Sure, one name popped up immediately everywhere: Jonas Jerebko. Yeah, I remember him, played for quite a few years, decent player. So, check one off the list.
But after that, things got a bit murkier. Some search results were kinda messy, mixing up players or giving vague answers. You know how it is online sometimes. I had to refine my search a bit, try different phrases like “swedish drafted nba” or look into historical player lists.
Digging a Little Deeper
I started going through some older records. It takes a bit of clicking around. I remembered another guy, Jeffery Taylor. Played for Charlotte for a bit. Yeah, he’s Swedish-American, but definitely represented Sweden internationally. So, added him to my mental list.
Then I pushed further back. Was there anyone else? It’s not like Sweden is a basketball powerhouse sending dozens of guys over. I spent some time looking through draft history, checking databases people put together online about international players. You gotta cross-reference this stuff sometimes because one source might miss someone or get a detail wrong.
After poking around for a while, checking team histories and player bios, here’s basically who I landed on:
- Jonas Jerebko: The most well-known one recently.
- Jeffery Taylor: Played a few seasons in the 2010s.
There might have been guys who got drafted but never played an actual NBA game, or maybe someone way, way back that’s harder to track down easily. But for guys who actually logged minutes in the league, the list seemed pretty short. I specifically tried looking for anyone earlier, maybe 80s or 90s, but didn’t really turn up confirmed Swedish players who stuck around.
So, that was my little investigation. Started with simple curiosity, did some searching, had to filter through some noise, and ended up confirming a couple of names. Honestly, I thought maybe I’d find one or two more, but it seems the Swedish connection to the NBA, in terms of actual players on the court, hasn’t been super extensive. Interesting little exercise, anyway.
