American NBA Stars Who Played Overseas

Basketball players who play in the NBA usually stay and retire in the NBA. There are many cases of star NBA players from Europe or South America who return to their native continents when their playing careers are near the end, but there have only been a few American NBA stars who have moved abroad even though they were household names in the NBA.

People often talk about the gulf in difference between the NBA and other professional leagues around the world, a comparison similar to the one made between PlanetWin365's promotion code and the codes of other more inferior betting providers. And even though this difference is often exaggerated, it is still a little strange to see NBA stars moving abroad.

In this article we will look at the 3 highest profile NBA stars to have moved abroad and how their careers went on afterwards.

Scottie Pippen

Scottie Pippen was definitely one of the best players of his generation. As everyone probably knows he was part of the best partnership in the NBA in the 90s and was one of the biggest reasons why the Chicago Bulls formed a dynasty when he was playing together with Michael Jordan.

Apart from the two stints he had with Chicago Bulls, Pippen also played for the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA and he also tried to return to basketball after his retirement, and to join in with the Miami Heat in 2007.

However, he didn't do that, but managed to surprise the world basketball community by playing for the Finnish basketball side Torpan Pojat and for the Swedish Sundsvall Dragons in a tour that he made in Scandinavia in 2008.

Stephon Marbury

Marbury spent 13 years in the NBA and he managed to appear twice in the All Star games. He was one of the best point guards in the world for a period of time and was part of several much adored NBA sides such as the New Jersey Nets, the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks.

However, after 13 years of top flight basketball, Stephon decided that it was time for a change of scenery and he moved to China, where he first played for Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons and then joined Foshan Dralions and Beijing Ducks.

Allen Iverson

Iverson was the idol of many of today's best point guards. He had an all star career with the Philadelphia 76ers, but after 2006 changed four different NBA franchises in just 3 years.

However, that wasn't the most surprising part of his career as he spent one year overseas, in Turkey, just before he retired. Many people saw this as an attempt to escape his infamous lifestyle in the US, where he was accused of participating in fights in night clubs and where he got divorced from his wife and had to pay $ 2.5 million as a result.

Unfortunately, Iverson only played ten games for the Turkish side Besiktas, retiring after he realized that his calf injury was too serious to continue playing.