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NBA Players Born in Mexico

NBA Players Born in Mexico

Although Mexico is an adjacent neighbor to the United States, there aren’t too many players in the NBA who were born in Mexico.  However, from the few NBA players born in Mexico, they have definitely made an impact on the game and their respective teams.

Below, we look at the NBA players who were born in Mexico and their impact and accomplishments in the National Basketball League.

Horacio Llamas

Horacio Llamas Grey was born on July 17, 1973, in El Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico.  He was listed as standing tall at 6’11” and weighted 285-pounds.  Horacio moved to the United States as a teenager and played two years at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. 

At Pima Community College, Llamas earned the Arizona Community College Athletic All-Conference honors in his freshman and sophomore years.  Rather than attending a Division I NCAA college, Llamas chose a Division II university, where he earned the NCAA Division II Player of the Year honors during his senior season.

In 1996, Llamas impressed a Phoenix Suns scout and was signed by the team.  He was the first Mexican national to participate in an NBA game and chose to wear the number 17 after his date of birth.  Although Llamas only played 28 games in total, he made an impact in Phoenix on the Mexican community due to his nationality.

Eduardo Najera

Eduardo Najera was born in Ciudad Meoqui, Chihuahua, Mexico on July 11, 1976.  He is 6’8” tall and weighs in at 240-pounds.  He was only the second Mexican-born player to play in the National Basketball League (NBA) and was the first Mexican player to be drafted to the league.

Najera played college basketball at the University of Oklahoma from 1997-2000, where he was a major star and player.  He helped the team reach four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and finished in the school’s all-time top ten list in nine categories.

Najera was drafted in the second round with the 38th overall pick by the Houston Rockets.  While in the NBA, he played for the Dallas Mavericks, the Golden State Warriors, the Denver Nuggets, and the New Jersey Nets.  He would retire from the NBA in 2012 and would go on to coach the NBA’s D-League Texas Legends.

Jorge Gutierrez

Jorge Gutierrez was born in Chihuahua, Mexico on December 27, 1988.  He is 6’3” and weighs in at 195-pounds.  He attended Abraham Lincoln High School, where he led the team to the state championship, earning the MVP honors after averaging 22.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

He would attend California for college, where he was named the 2012 Pac-12 Conference Player of the Year as well as the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year.  Although he was undrafted, he would play for the Denver Nugget’s 2012 NBA Summer League.  In 2014, he was signed by the Brooklyn Nets to a 10-day contract and was later signed to a multi-year contract.

Gustavo Ayon

Gustavo Ayon was born in Zapotan, Nayarit, Mexico on April 1, 1985.  He is 6’10” and weighs in at 250-pounds.  Ayon attended at the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, in Mexico, for three years of college. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the Mexican College Championship Tournament, in leading his team to the National Championship.

Following that season, he signed with NCAA Division I San Jose State University. However, Ayon never played for the Spartans, instead choosing to sign with a Mexican professional team, Halcones UV Xalapa.

Ayon would join the NBA in 2011 after signing with the New Orleans Hornets.  He was then traded to the Orlando Magic and then to the Milwaukee Bucks, where he was waived.  However, he would be claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Hawks and would score a career high 18 points in a loss to the Toronto Raptors.