In a milestone for the globalization of the NBA, the Paris Olympics will be the first Olympics where more than half of the men's 5x5 basketball players across all countries have NBA regular-season game experience.

With 12 teams of 12 players each, there will be 144 total players in the men's Olympic tournament. Now that all 12 rosters have been finalized, 81 of those 144 have NBA experience — well past the record of 65 from the Tokyo Games. When South Sudan revealed its roster — featuring four players who've played in the NBA — the Paris Games became the first in which all 12 teams have at least one player who played in a regular-season NBA game over the previous year.

In 1992, the first Olympics with NBA participation, there were 22 players who had previously played in the NBA. Half of those were on the U.S. Dream Team (not counting Christian Laettner, who was a rookie in 1992-93). Then-NBA commissioner David Stern said the Dream Team "launched the globalization of the game," and it's hard to argue with the evidence.

The number of NBA players on Olympic rosters has risen steadily since '92. In Tokyo, for the first time in Olympic history, every team included at least one player with NBA experience. In Paris, Canada has 10 active NBA players, a record for any non-U.S. team. The last time Canada qualified for the Olympics in 2000, it had just two: Steve Nash and Todd MacCulloch. Australia has eight active NBA players, tying the previous record. 

This unprecedented depth of talent has already born fruit even before the Paris competition gets underway. The U.S., which has won seven of the last eight Olympic titles, was seriously tested while going 5-0 in pre-Olympic exhibition games. The Americans beat Canada 86-72, Australia 98-92, Serbia 105-79, South Sudan 101-100 and Germany 92-88. Its first game at the Olympics is Sunday against Serbia, which is led by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic.

"In 1992, the world wasn't anywhere close to as good as it is now in terms of basketball," U.S. head coach Steve Kerr said last month. "This is an entirely different competition than it was in 1992."