The NBA is where the best players in the world play. So, whoever wins is the best team in the world. It's pretty simple. The fact that this competition happens mostly in one country doesn't change that.
This is true, but it only happens to be that way until it is not. MLB for example is not always the best in the world, but they call that anyway.
There's a difference between being (theoretically) the best team in the world and being World champions. I dont get why poeple and NBA players are so offended by Lyle's statement... it's just factually true and not disrespectful ! No one's disputing the fact that the NBA is the best league in the world, that NBA's top players are the best in the world, that NBA teams are the best in the world, etc...but you just can't call yourself World Champions until you've actually beaten competition from around the world to get that title. You gotta prove it. Creating a clubs World cup, with the best team from every continent competing against eachother (like in soccer), would be a (very entertaining) way to do it. Until then, only Spain can call themselves World Champions, and the US could argue the Olympic title holds as much meaning/importance. It is very american to call yourself "World champions" when winning your domestic league. Nobody else does that, Manchester City dont call themselves World champions just because they've won the Premier League (arguably the toughest league in the world) and the Champions League (european competition featuring the best teams of the continent, which are most probably the best teams in the world, but it just makes them "European champions"). It doesn't take anything away from the NBA and it's players/teams in terms of level/talent, but it's just stating facts. You gotta beat teams from outside your borders to call yourself World Champions, Pop explained it perfectly a few years ago. Same argument goes for MLB, NFL... No disrespect, Lyles is actually an NBA fan, but it's something that's been said for years (in Europe at least) and I'm kinda surprised poeple don't get the point he's making haha all love though, we all love the NBA
this is a bad thread title OP Personally I think Noah Lyles is lame. I think the only reason he brought this up is because no one knows him despite having a pretty illustrious track career. He is up there with Usain Bolt on paper, but he has no popularity at all. Nobody refers to the NBA Champions as World Champions. He brought this up out of nowhere because he on "Im a real World Champion" type ****. Technically he is right but it's a bad faith argument.
Even in the FIBA tournaments where the USA doesn't win, the top teams are always dominated by NBA Players. This is sort of like saying Formula 1 racers can't say they are world champions until they beat Indy Car champions. Semantically it's correct, pragmatically it's not. Sure, I'm down for the NBA champions to play a game against [pick your foreign team]. Just hope you enjoy 130-76 games. Maybe in 50 years another league can develop a talent level within 80%.
Gregg Popovich explains why NBA champions aren't actually world champions (msn.com) Stephen A. Smith called Lyles an ignorant, Tyrese Haliburton said his comments weren’t intelligent, and NBA players as a whole rallied to bully Lyles. However, 13 years ago, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said exactly the same thing. Gregg Popovich Rips The ‘World Champion’ Distinction “There are no world champions in the NBA, so anybody that has the flag up that says world champions is not correct. It’s not appropriate,” Popovich said. “The world champions, I believe, are the Spanish team right now. USA is the Olympic champion. The Lakers are the NBA champion.” “It doesn’t make sense for an NBA team to call themselves world champions. I don’t remember anybody playing anybody outside our borders to get that tag. Isn’t that true? I keep waiting for somebody to tell me I’ve missed something,” he added. There you go. NBA players mocked Noah Lyles, but you better believe they won’t say anything to or about Popovich. No one’s saying you’re not the best players in the world, so there’s no need to get your sensitive egos hurt, guys.
Other nations make other rules. I think in a Best of 1 or Best of 3, other teams have a mini chance. Even the Premier League and the La Liga can always lose to other teams. Basketball is really one-sided but I think it is going to get better. The teams are not going to field their A team...... If the Saudis can make a Super league and attract B level stars, it might get interesting. A league without a salary cap....
Might add, all it takes is a snow ball effect and the top money resource outside the US. And an event like the Lock-Out season but much longer.
1) This argument is all semantics, and since there are no actual definitions for this we're all simultaneously right and wrong. 2) Pop is a hypocrite. For years we all had to hear about how great he was for not taking. He gave several interviews where he said stuff like it was ruining the integrity of the game, insulting to players, etc. And then last year they tanked harder than anyone by far, and Pop catches no heat for that. Lame. He has lost the moral high ground on these discussions.
Apologies to the rest of the world that setting up two hoops with regular court dimensions is much harder than running really fast.
Thought the comment was stupid, and then listening to him it sounds even more ignorant. I have never in my life thought that they actually meant "World" champions when they say "World Champions". But I guess some do. But it is the best league, with the best players, that other countries best players come to play in. So, in a sense.....
I thought of World champions as a joke but honestly almost nobody questioned that. But I guess we are all Woke and all.
I've said it long time ago. People just confuse "best" and "champion." Champion is a fact, winner of a tournament that is actually played. Best is an opinion, not a fact no matter how that opinion seems to be right. We all know that the best team doesn't always win the championship.
Lyles is 100% right, of course. Just because most of the best soccer players play in the Premier League doesn't make that league's winner the "world champion".
You can always play 1 Game as a Final, upsets rarely happen in a 7 Game series because the deeper and more talented team would probably erase their mistake and win out. 1 Game, anything can happen. That would also apply to any newer expansion teams, may it be in Saudi Arabia or wherever the next big thing league is. The NBA has the best talent and the most money, I think the money part can be shifted to somewhere else.
The Miami Heat was the "champion" of the Eastern Conference. Do you believe that they were the best team in the East? Most people don't.
