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.
Is the Olympics still going or what are we talking about
The whole debate reminds me of that scene in ELF with the “World’s best coffee”. It’s a silly argument from both sides, but the matter of the fact is that the NBA champion being the World Champion is a self proclaimed moniker. That’s it.
Yes it’s insane people care this much. Go outside OP
Re-watched Elf a few months ago and it gets better every time. I catch something new that’s so clever.
These pointless semantic debates are all the USA haters have to cling onto at this point lol. I’ll say world champions just to annoy them at this point
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
It’s not about just unilaterally declaring the NBA playoffs to be “World playoffs”.
You would need to actually have teams from all around the world to claim they are World playoffs.
That’s silly. To be the best club team in the world you just need to compete against the best club teams in the world and win.
Any org serious about bringing together the best club teams wouldn’t have the teams based all over the world. They’d have the teams based in 1 location to simplify travel and other logistical issues.
That’s what the NBA is - a collection of the best club teams with players from all over the world. What ppl outside of NA don’t like is that their club teams aren’t given a chance. And guess what - they don’t deserve chances at this point. The NBA is where all the best players go and where the best teams are.
The best player on every single Olympic team was either an NBA player or not good enough to make it yet. Many of the non US coaches were former NBA players or coaches. The best non NBA player for the French team has tweeted his desire to get another chance at the NBA. Everyone who knows ball knows the NBA is the premier destination for the best players.
American bball dominance just bothers ppl because they’re not used to one country and one league being far and away the best. But for bball that’s true.
Says who? All the best players are already in the US.
The NBA is explicitly a National competition.
Toronto says otherwise.
NBA literally means “National Basketball Association”. It just happens to have 1 team from Canada.
Are non Americans banned from playing in the NBA?
Or is it the peak league that all the best players from all over the world try to compete in?
It has never been about where the players are from, it was always about where the teams are located.
People only suddenly started caring where the players are from now in discussions about World Champion
It’s actually the word “FIBA”
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They say there’s only one definition, but then there were actually 3 different “World Champions” in 2023 according to FIBA: Germany, Lenovo Tenerife, and Sesi Franca.
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They say adding a word as a qualifier doesn’t count like “NBA World Champion”, but FIBA has a “Club World Champion”
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They say it has to be a competition from teams around the world, but the Olympics don’t count
In the end, the NBA and Olympics are what represent the best players from around the world, but if we give them a title that accurately reflects that, it’s arrogant and disrespectful.
So let’s stop using the word “World Champion” and let them get upset about the next stupid thing that no one cares about, like being invited to shoe-releases.
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semantically they could just say nba champions of the world and that removes all technicality.
For the rest of the world and anyone who truly wants to engage their brain and stop being self-centered, there is absolutely no doubt about the hierarchy. Olympic Champion > World Champion > Continental Champion (for example, European Champion). Except for football, due to FIFA’s rule that full national teams don’t participate in the Olympics. In all other sports, this hierarchy holds.
As for clubs, the NBA champion cannot be the world champion until they play that one game against the EuroLeague champion and other continental competition winners, even though we know what the outcome would be in 98% of cases. Just like in football, the winner of the Champions League doesn’t call themselves the world champion until they defeat the winner of the Copa Libertadores and other continental competitions. And in the history of the FIFA Club World Cup, the world champion always comes from one of these two competitions.
the NBA champion cannot be the world champion until they play that one game against the EuroLeague champion and other continental competition winners
They also have to play the dudes at the Y. Sure, they may win 99.999999999999 % of the time, but we can never know for sure.
Your problem is you are arguing mostly against people that don’t give a shit about football/soccer.
Yeah, I know. It’s a Sisyphean task. I only used football as an example, but this applies to all team sports. It’s not the rest of the world’s fault that USA doesn’t have a professional volleyball league, for instance, so they send players to compete in Europe. Federations usually just semantically add “World Champion” or “World Club Champion” to the titles, but this distinction often gets lost quickly because it’s assumed that the viewer is intelligent enough to distinguish between a club and a national team.
I hate Noah Lyles for creating this stupid debate. People are really still talking about this a year later?
It’s Redditors getting very hung up on Process. Which is pretty much right on brand. The focus on specific details over the bigger picture and the need for consistency, routine and repetition.
This entire debate screams “look at me!!” From European basketball like we dont all know the celtics 4-0 any team in Europe
Call us arrogant all you want, but until any league outside the NBA can keep up, I don’t care if it’s “technically” wrong. It’s still functionally correct
It’s an argument in semantics for the sake of being argumentative. I really don’t give a shit that the NBA champ doesn’t waste their time sweeping the rest of the world basketball leagues
If this is actually something that other leagues want to argue then let’s see the best non-NBA team take on the Boston Celtics.
Lyles really lives rent-free in so many heads and it was so easy for him to do.
It seems the NBA actually has never used the term World Champions. A few teams have it on their championship banner but that’s it
It wasn’t called the NBA Finals officially until the 80s. It used to be called the NBA World Championship Series
Argentina are the football world champions. They don’t whine that River Plate should be the world champs. They contested the World Cup, and they won it.
South Africa are the rugby world champions. They don’t whine that the Bulls should be world champs. They contested the World Cup, and they won it.
Germany are the basketball world champions. They don’t whine that Bayern Munich should be the world champs. They contested the World Cup, and they won it.
Basketball just isn’t structured the way football and rugby is and I think that’s okay to admit. Competition is more evenly distributed across Rugby and Football internationally, whereas high level basketball completely revolves around the US. Not a single person would question the legitimacy surrounding the Celtics being the best club in the world, so it would make logical sense to call them world champions.
Olympic basketball, unlike football, is the highest form international play as well (the FIBA World Cup is explicitly treated as a lesser competition) so it would make sense to call the winner the world champion as well.
You can call the Celtics “the world champions” if you want to. You can call USA “the world champions” if you want to. You can call the Harlem Globetrotters “the world champions” if you want to.
But don’t expect every other country to stop laughing at you
High level basketball revolves around the US so their bemoans hold little weight imo.
I imagine Italians care very little on how Englishmen view their pasta.