Luka Doncic was named the NBA’s second-most influential European star — and fans won’t believe who beat him

There’s no doubt that Luka Doncic is one of the most influential international players the NBA has ever seen. Every time he whips a no-look pass through traffic, or shoots a fadeaway three-pointer while falling out of bounds the crowd erupts. 

But the reaction is just part of the story. And according to a new study, Doncic isn’t even the most influential international player in the NBA today. 

That honor would go to Giannis Antetokounmpo. 

A new study from Betsson ranked Doncic as the second most popular and influential basketball player from Europe over the last five years. 

The study ranked the best European basketball players based off of their team’s winning percentages, global popularity, and positive fan sentiment on social media. The dataset was from 2020 to 2025, and included Google Search volume. 

Giannis finished atop the rankings with a staggering overall score of 96.66 out of 100 behind a 61.9% win percentage, massive global search traffic and a social media positivity score of 61%. 

Doncic was second, posting a 57.2% win rate while generating more than 368,000 monthly Google searches. More telling was Doncic’s 62% positive fan sentiment rating, the highest among every player listed in the study.

Doncic recently finished fourth in the NBA MVP voting and did not receive a single first-place vote. He’s the first NBA scoring leader to not receive a single first-place vote since James Harden in 2020. Many fans are outraged by that fact and believe it’s partly due to his unpopularity among other fanbases. But his positive fan sentiment rating in this study would say otherwise. 

Three-time NBA MVP and 2023 NBA Champion Nikola Jokic finished third, while Victor Wembanyama landed fourth thanks to his exploding popularity despite a lower team win percentage that’s sure to change over the next five years.

Other notable players on the list included Kristaps Porzingis, Rudy Gobert, Lauri Markkanen, Domantas Sabonis, Ivica Zubac, and Deni Avdija.

Every player on the list has become a household name, not only winning on the court, but sparking conversations worldwide off the court. 

As noted by the graphic below, international players are dominating the NBA landscape like never before. The last eight NBA MVP winners have been international players. That trend looks like it’s going to continue as Doncic enters his prime and Wembanyama continues his rise in the sport on both sides of the ball.

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