I understand this topic has been done to death, but it seems completely asinine that this discussion has been reduced to pure semantics since the US’ triumph.
It comes across as completely obtuse to say there is any material difference between the FIBA World Cup and Olympics outside of the name. I mean, if you really want to get into the weeds of it the World Cup is a QUALIFIER for the Olympics so clearly it shouldn’t be held in such high regard. It just seems some are going out of their way to completely ignore the obvious hierarchy of basketball internationally in order to keep their pride intact.
The nba is a national competition, the winner of that can’t be the world champion. Best team in the world probably, that’s a subjective statement but realistically the best team in the world is the nba champion. World champion implies victory in a competition of teams from around the world. Of course the nba champ would very likely win that hypothetical tournament anyway but until that exists, world champion is a tag they haven’t earned imo
Every other sport notes a difference between olympic and world champion why would basketball be different. The olympic winner is the olympic champion, world cup winner is world champion
Difference for basketball is that their the World Cup is a qualifier for the Olympics. It’s explicitly treated as a lesser competition.
That would just mean that being an Olympic champion is worth more than being World Champion.
Eh, seems there is hardly any distinction since both competitions feature the same competitors.
Yeah I dont mean that the olympic title should be viewed as lesser, if basketball as a sport places more prestige on the olympic title than a world title thats fine, a lot of sports at the olympics do that