The Associated Press Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drives against Houston Rockets guard Amen Thompson during the first half Tuesday.

Basketball keeps getting more global.

The NBA season opened Tuesday, and the league’s opening night rosters showed a record 135 players who were born outside the U.S. They come from 43 countries — tying a record — and 71 are from Europe, the most ever from that continent.

That development comes with the NBA in talks, along with FIBA — the sport’s global governing body — to develop a new league in Europe, something that could happen as early as 2027.

“The state of the game of basketball in Europe I think is fantastic,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last month. “They have their own traditions, which we of course want to maintain, but we think there’s an opportunity to bring an NBA-style league to the continent and to take the game to another level.”

Canada has the most non-U.S. players with 23, followed by 19 from France and 13 from Australia. And the Atlanta Hawks are opening the season with 10 international players on their roster, tying an NBA record.

All 30 teams have at least one international player on their opening night rosters. And the NBA is expected to finalize a new All-Star Game format before long, one that will have U.S. players taking on international players in a tournament.

Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — a Canadian — is the reigning MVP. Players born outside the U.S. (Serbia’s Nikola Jokic three times, Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo twice, Cameroon-born Joel Embiid once and Gilgeous-Alexander once) have won the last seven NBA MVP awards, the longest such streak in league history. It should be noted that Embiid is an American citizen and helped the U.S. win Olympic gold at the Paris Games in 2024.

LeBron watch …

At this point, every time Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James plays he updates league records. He’s the NBA’s all-time leader in points and minutes and has a few more milestones in his sights this season.

– His first game of the year will officially make this his 23rd season, breaking a tie with Vince Carter for the most in NBA history by a player.

– If he plays in 50 games, he’ll break the record of 1,611 (regular season only) held by Robert Parish.

– If he makes 350 field goals, he’ll break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s mark of 15,837.

Milestones on the way

– James Harden of the Los Angeles Clippers has 27,687 points in his career and needs 603 more points to pass Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony for 10th on the NBA’s all-time list.

– Sacramento’s Russell Westbrook needs 75 assists to become the eighth player in NBA history with 10,000.

– Indiana coach Rick Carlisle is seven wins shy of 1,000 in his career. He’ll be the 11th coach to get it and probably the last for at least a few more years; Miami’s Erik Spoelstra enters this season with 787 wins.

– Spoelstra is nine wins shy of passing Red Auerbach for the most wins coaching one team. Auerbach won 795 with the Celtics; only Gregg Popovich (1,390 with San Antonio) and Jerry Sloan (1,127 with Utah) had more wins with one franchise.

– Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers has been on the sideline for 1,978 games, which is eighth-most — for now — in league history. If he coaches the full season, he’ll climb to No. 4 on the all-time games coached list, passing Bill Fitch (2,050), Sloan (2,024), Larry Brown (2,002) and George Karl (1,999). No. 1 on that list is Lenny Wilkens (2,487), No. 2 is Don Nelson (2,318) and No. 3 is Popovich (2,214).

Thunder prevail

OKLAHOMA CITY — Thunder fans got everything they wanted on Tuesday — a ring ceremony, a championship banner unveiling and a win over ex-Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, hit two free throws with 2.3 seconds remaining in the second overtime to give the Thunder a 125-124 win.