Quoted in 2010:

‘There are no world champions in the NBA, so anybody that has the flag up that says world champions is not correct,’ said Popovich prior to last night’s 94-73 Spurs win. ‘It’s not appropriate. 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.’ When someone mentioned Toronto, Pop said, ‘There’s a team in Canada. That’s true. The world’s bigger than North America. I know sometimes we as arrogant Americans don’t respond to the rest of the world, but it’s true. There’s a big world out there.’

Full article: https://www.slamonline.com/archives/gregg-popovich-hates-the-term-world-champions/