No two teams better display the rise of the international player, and the NBA's best chance of overturning the power-driven dominance of Shaquille O'Neal's Los Angeles Lakers now lies in foreign-born names like Nowitzki, Stojakovic, Divac and Wang.

Four Mavericks and three Kings expected to play roles in this series were born outside the United States. Twenty years ago, there weren't seven foreign players in the entire NBA.

Even in the late '80s, when the NBA had upwards of 20 foreigners on its rosters, many of those were foreign-born stars who had proved themselves at American universities ? players such as Nigeria's Hakeem Olajuwon, Lebanon's Rony Seikaly and Jamaica's Patrick Ewing.

Today, teams are following Nelson's trail into remote sections of eastern Europe, Africa and even China.