If an alien civilization came and said they will destroy the Earth unless we win a game of basketball, if you ask every single person for the 12 man lineup delegate pretty sure every spot on that list will be an NBA player. That makes the NBA champs the world champs because literally the best players in the world are in there. It's that simple.
. Giannis is the best player in Greece you get that or no? Luka is the best player in Slovenia you get that or no? They don't need to represent their country they just need to be the best in their country. That's the whole point of having a representative you understand that right? The representative is supposed to be the best in their country which are Luka and Giannis. Bro find a Serbian better than Jokic I will wait. You can't say anything to refute my claims still keep saying your nonsensical BS. It isn't that complicated you just don't get it. The whole difference between Domestic and Global is the Range. The domestic is. Limited only to your country global is open to the entire world. NBA gets the best players in the entire world not just US. The whole world doesn't revolve around the US but basketball revolves around the NBA. That's just facts. Everyone in every nation acknowledges best players are in the NBA and players of all nationalities play in the NBA. NBA is based in the US but they are clearly an international competition. Ever heard of basketball without borders? That sound local to you? Wtf.
That's flat out stupid. If they don't represent their country but represent a city in the US how the fk is that an international competition? The NBA isn't a competition between folks representing their countries (which is literally the definition of international competition) , its a competition between cities In the US plus Canada with some foreign players. International competition are players/teams that representing their nation to bring glory hence why the Olympics, fifa world cup and FIBA are considered international competitions. So mind numbling stupid. Nba is located where? Is it not a major professional sports league based in us/canda?
You are the stupid one here. We aren't talking about international champions we are talking about world champions duh. You are so out of it you even forgot what you are arguing for. What does world champion mean to you? Best in the world right? That's the NBA champ end of story. Also you are wrong NBA isn't a competiton between cities and Canada because clearly Giannis isn't from Milwaukee and Kawhi isn't a Canadian. They are only based in those cities but clearly they aren't limited to those cities as anybody with a brain can tell. You aren't even obligated to live in the city you are playing in.
International competition are used to crown world champs. That's what I mean by American elitism if u think the best league simply equals the world. Being the best league doesn't mean that they are the world champs. U are so stupid. LA Lakers sign players to contracts to represent their city. Like how the Denver Nuggets signed jokic to represent Denver. Essentially these players are mercenaries playing to the highest bidder. The nba is literally a contest between cities in the US and Canada. The international players u listed doesn't represent their country but the city that signed them. It's a domestic league signing mercenaries to represent a specific city. An international competition is a contest where a player or team is playing to represent their nation. The us is not the world, its that fking simple but too bad your American elitism is making it too hard for u to realize it. By the way los angles, Denver, Houston, Boston, etc etc are us cities. Need to work on us geography. If u don't realize that in the NBA it's literally players representing a us/canada city vs other players representing another us/canada city
You don't think the best team in the world is the world champs? How can you be called the world champion if another team in the world is guaranteed to beat you? We are done here. Also you are the dumb one here "the city" is different from the sports team in fact lots of teams have relocated from their city. The city is just their base of operations it is not the team itself. If you look at the Denver Nuggets none of them are born and raised in Denver, Colorado. That's why NBA is an international organization even if it is based in the US cuz you know the members are not limited to the US. Not sure why that's so hard for you to understand. NBA is not a contest between cities how do you explain Lakers and Clippers being in the same city then? They don't represent the city as the city does not pay NBA players their salary the team pays their salaries. The NBA is not a domestic league it is an international league, Toronto for example is in Canada which is a different country than the US so really both in common sense and technical terms you are wrong already. Just stop.
Love the title of this thread. The NBA is a regional sport. It has niche rules that cater to a specific type of dribble-heavy basketball. The greatest basketball athletes in the world love the attention and star-studded lifestyle. This regional sport calling itself a "world champion" is fine. The NBA crowns a champion in the game they play. But the basketball purist in me loves to see the World Cup and the Olympics. Here, we see high-scoring, team-oriented games showcasing skill and athleticism. The only thing the World Cup/Olympics needs to do is play on a 94-foot court. I do think the extra 3+ feet throw off the timing of USA players who are unaccustomed to it. Maybe it's time for the league to negotiate with FIBA and call for the larger court in these international championships and add FIBA goaltending into their league. Team Italy and Team Lativa--with almost no NBA presence will push Team USA to the limit. They will need some luck to make it to the final.
China has a lot of international players. Is China's basketball "world" basketball? Nowadays every pro league has international players. Nobody calls them world competition. A championship shouldn't be called "world" when the teams are all in the same continent. "World Series" is similarly excessive. At least they have an excuse that there aren't very many baseball leagues in the world. The little league world series, on the other hand, got some international teams involved. Adults should learn from the kinds.
China in this example is far from being a multi ethnical society or sports community. The league is filled with college scorers from the NCAA. The only “international ballers” are likely Joe Cheese due to him playing on different continents and Kyle Anderson. I brushed off the fact that they had problems with ball sports for decades other than table tennis and badminton.
I think you missed my point. The argument for the NBA champion being the world champion is that it has become international. My counter is that just having international players does not make it an international league. Other leagues, such as China, have international players too. Nobody calls them world leagues. So the only argument left is that the NBA is the best league in the world. It goes back to the concepts of best and championship. I'm not going to repeat that. "Best champion of the world" and "world champion" are not the same concept.
To talk about one point you have to strengthen the basis on which to make the point. The point is easily missed because of that if you do not dismiss the China part. International = Diversity. Yeah, your main point but part of the point was that you mentioned Chinese league with internationals. They are not very international, they have American collegiate players and Chinese players. The Majority comes from 2 countries. You can name 10 more international leagues, that is what I meant. They are not world league and they are not international, not international enough.
In a nutshell. Let us say the NBA is 100x better than the CBA chinese league. NBA is also 100x more international than the CBA. And of course the international talent is 50x-100x better. I agree that world champions should be earned winning an international competition which the NBA is not.
Man you gotta stop saying "facts" or "guaranteed" when it's just not the case, and stop calling poeple stupid when you're missing the simple point and your arguments don't make sense. The NBA is a domestic league, it crowns a team that has beaten other teams from the same league, in the country...therefore, it is just factually/semantically/technically wrong to call yourself "World Champions". It's as simple as that. Because, yes, there is a difference between being considered the best team in the world and being crowned world champion. You earn that title winning an international competition. The NBA champion is not "guaranteed" to beat any other team. It's sports bro, anything can happen, and there are some good teams that, on a given day, could beat the NBA champs (just as some international teams beat the US from time to time, as Lithuania just did). Yes, the probability the NBA champs winning the game against any international competition is veeeery high. Even against the best Euroleague teams. NBA teams are the best and would probably win 9 games out of 10, even 999 out of a 1000 if you want, I don't care, but that one defeat alone proves that you cannot call yourself World Champ. Because being the best does not guarantee you to beat everyone. That's why the US national team is always the favorite at the World Cup and the Olympics, but don't win all the time. Otherwise we would just consider them World Champs without competing. I won't delve into your chess comparaison, it does not make any sense (it's mainly an individual sport, Carlsen beats poeple in international competition and looses sometimes, etc....), nor will I adress your point about, following my/our logic, LeBron not being the best player in the world as he has not beaten me or every individual on planet Earth...come on man. I won't be direspectful and call you stupid, I don't know you. But I think you're really missing the point and being very excessive with flawed arguments. Whataver, in the end it's not an important debate haha Which is why I don't get why poeple miss the point and get upset about Lyle's statement... In Europe it's viewed as american arrogance, nobody else claims to be world champ when they win their domestic league (soccer champions in European Leagues, rugby champions in Europe, etc...even in sports played in a very limited number of countries). But in the end nobody really cares, because NBA teams/players are unanimously considered to be the best, it's just wrong and unnecessary to call yourself "World Champs" and get hurt when poeple like Lyles point that out.
You are talking about degrees, not essence. I used China as an extreme example because everybody knows they are a low level league. European countries are more ethically diverse and Euro teams have international players too. I could have used them as a counter example.
The essence is not even a subject important to talk about because this obscure NBA basketball world is so obscure that I cannot find any resemblance to other sports. The money volume is also obscure but at least soccer has a tons more nations that are high profile. The cure for all the semantics and naming is to improve the rest of the world, simple as that so that Americans are to be stopped in the arrogance they see themselves in. (No need to haul in the Europeans and Asians into the convo) And that will take an eternity of time. Renaming world champions to *NBA champions - the best league in the world would be much easier and time efficient.
Geography needs to b taught better. A us city team beating up another us city team doesn't equate to world champions. The arrogance and elitist mindset of most Americans. U have to earn your title of world champion by winning it in an international competition where nations compete against each other for that distinction. The NBA is a a North American league with a bit of international players who represents us cities. A league based on one continent does not represent the world.
I want to see the World Cup become the highest honor in basketball like World Cup soccer. Top players would be eager to play. That would bring basketball to the world stage. But it will take a long time to achieve if ever.
As long as the American players value the Olympics that would never happen. There is no way to force NBA superstars to play in the WC, I cannot think of anything without involving violence and negative stuff. Soccer built its legacy on WC since the Hitler - Churchill days and well even before that.
What you don't get is where is the slippery slope on this train of thought? Magnus Carlsen for example can call himself the world champion even if he hasn't beaten every single player in the world. You Could beat Magnus Carlsen just like any other team can beat the NBA team. You are talking about possibilities not probabilities. So why can Magnus Carlsen call himself the world champion because he beat the best chess players in the world but the NBA cant call themselves the world champion even if they have the best players in the world? It really doesn't make any sense. So what if Carlsen is an individual? Team wise nobody has a chance vs the Denver Nuggets in a 7 game series. 7 game series removes almost all chance and lets the best team win most of the time that's why upsets rarely happen in the NBA playoffs. Saying other team has 0.00001% chance to win ok but that also applies to you beating Magnus Carlsen right? Anything can happen Carlen can have a heart attack and die when the match starts making you the winner. So using your anything is possible logic nobody can be the world champion of anything which is dumb AF. Calling the NBA a domestic competition is just dumb AF since the players are all over the world. You and Dat Rocket need to learn geography cuz you don't realize Giannis and Luka didn't grow up in the US. If KFC which is an AMERICAN company served you fried chicken made from chicken from China are you now eating domestic chicken? Or are you eating Chinese chicken? Just cuz Giannis is playing for Milwaukee doesn't make him a US citizen, and it doesn't make the competition a domestic competition if 30% of players are from all over the world. The orgs may be local, but the players playing within which is the important thing are international and that's what makes the NBA an international competition cuz guess what the players who compete in it are from different nations. It ain't that complicated wtf. If Orlando Magic was based in Philippines and Lakers were based in Ukraine and Bucks were based in China but they had the exact same roster would that change the NBA to an international competition now even if the players are literally the same people? Lol y'all are such jokers.
When you attach the word world that essentially means it is among the best in the world like when people say world class. When people say Google is a world class organization that mean Sif you compare Google to among the best companies in the world it will be among the top. It doesn't mean literally every country should be there otherwise even FIBA isn't a world class cuz not every country participates in Olympic basketball. China basketball is not world class that's why nobody calls them world champions. NBA is world class that's why they should be called world champions cuz they are literally the best in the world. So when you say World Champ it should be the best or among the best team in the entire world. Having some country participate and then call them world champ is just dumb because the word is WORLD not COUNTRY. Olympics is just Country Champions, as in countries made their teams and duked it out. The WORLD champion is the NBA, cuz if you ask which team is the best team in the world that would be the Denver Nuggets.
