Genuine question about Noah Lyles’s comments.
Noah says that NBA Champ isn’t world champ. I don’t agree with his comments, but everyone argues that all the best players in the world play in the NBA. However, I want to consider an aspect of this argument that isn’t as discussed as much.
Example 1: Sergio Llull. Legit superstar in Euroleague, drafted into NBA, but he declined to play in the NBA by his own decision. In the Olympics and FIBA, he legit torched Team USA with players like Kobe and Chris Paul and Wade. I’m just wondering, if he had the talent to play as a legit superstar in the league like Jokic or Luka (insane shotmaking ability/playmaking), then is it actually true that the “best players in the world” come to play in the NBA?
Example 2: Yi Jianlian. Insane talent with good height and length but had problems succeeding in the NBA. I would assume that although he had insane talent, one of the reasons why he didn’t reach his potential was that he had problems communicating and acclimating to American life, especially with learning the language and living as a foreigner. Wouldn’t that aspect of acclimating to American culture, communicating, living USA lifestyle, limit the talent and potential that a foreign player can possess?
Example 3: Real Madrid beat both OKC and Dallas in Preseason. Although the starters didn’t play big minutes in those games, those were still NBA players. If even second, third string NBA players, which are still the top talents in the world, can lose to Real Madrid, would Real Madrid players have a legit shot at the NBA, but just due to some external reason other than basketball didn’t join the NBA?
Thank you for your inputs!
Those are certainly exceptions, it clear the best players overall are in the NBA. Still not the world champions, NBA champions.
Exceptions to the rule do not negate the rule itself. The NBA does have the best players in the world and the league is generally considered to be the highest level of competition for the sport and therefore could reasonably argue that the team that wins the championship each year is the best in the world. Noah’s comments come across as more just sour grapes.
Anthony Parker had some success with the Raptors and Cavs after a great career in Europe.
Noah’s going to be upset when he finds out about what they call the baseball finals lol
Noah Lyles is not wrong, the NBA is the top league in the world but it’s only played on one continent. I really hope the NBA can partner with FIBA and other Euro leagues to make a champions league type of event for basketball. Champions league is a soccer tournament with all the top club teams in the world, if basketball were to have something like that where all the teams took it seriously it would be absolutely awesome! Would an NBA team win it every time? Most likely but I wouldn’t be suprised if one NBA team wins the NBA finals but another team wins the champions league. It that case who would be the “world champion”?
Gotta say, he is chasing publicity and boosting his profile outside the track and field community, and so far, he’s accomplished just that. The fact that he won the gold medal certainly helps his case a lot. I still stand by my belief that all great talents are in the NBA. And a few who are not there, I don’t think they are “the superstars” like Jokic, Luka or Giannis, they are probably a second tier or All-Stars at best, so really that doesn’t change anything.
I still stand by my belief that all great talents are in the NBA
Again it’s semantic. Us Europeans who side with Noah Lyles are perfectly aware that basically all the best talent in the world is in the NBA, but again point is about semantics in that it is dumb to call yourself a world champion for winning a domestic league, no matter how inarguably better we all know NBA is than any other league.
It’s just the fact that it’s a domestic league competition, no other teams beyond US and Canada had chance to compete so you cannot call yourself world champion by winning it. I mean, you can, but you also can get laughed at by people abroad for doing something a bit ignorant like that.
Yeah but at that point no one is a “world champion” because Lyles didn’t race all the humans in the world including tribes living on remote islands.
Precisely
Exactly. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Oh my god you simply don’t get it. He doesn’t need to race every human to prove it wtf, difference is that people from all around the world can compete in their local continental championships to get a chance to get to a final 100m race.
Yeah they “could” but they didn’t. In fact, those tribes on remote islands don’t even know the championships were being held.
If Noah Lyles is so heartbent on taking these literal, he must also take it literal within his own sport.
Noah Lyles was 100% right. It’s dumb Americans that confuse supporting a for-profit professional organization based in the U.S. (i.e., the NBA) with some misguided sense of patriotism.
As for your specific question, it’s not that EVERY best player in the world plays in the NBA. Rather, it’s that the NBA is the greatest COLLECTION of basketball talent in the world from top to bottom. In ⚽️, the English Premier League and La Liga can argue over which is the superior league. For golf, PGA, European League and LIV compete against each other, although most people would say that the PGA has a higher level of talent. But, for basketball, NBA is without question the best leavue in the world and there are only a few exceptional cases where the best player opts out of playing in the NBA.
Lmao prepare for downvotes btw for first paragraph. I got so many downvotes for saying same thing in past threads, but Americans just do not get it. Those that are a bit less secluded and follow anything outside of their country do know that calling yourself world champions for winning domestic league is ridiculous, but others naah, they will just never get it.
This is Reddit. Getting downvoted (when you’re not blatantly being a jerk) just means you have a nuanced position that upsets the simple-minded. I take it as a compliment 😃
Before watching these Olympics I thought no team outside the NBA could beat the NBA champs but after seeing the talent level anything is possible.