Gold Medalist Questions the NBA Champs Being Deemed "World" Champs

[Nuntius]

The majority is wrong on most things. Majority rules is better than having a king, but it's by no means a good system.

Bruh... At this point you're just in denial.

And yet, nobody has explained with any level of sanity why a world national team champion should be seen as a world champion.

Because they won a world championship. A world championship is a championship that contains teams and athletes from every continent around the world (obviously excluding Antartica). That is the literal definition of a world championship. Any team (be them a national team or a franchise/sports club) and any athlete that wins such a championship is a world champion. That is what those words mean.

PS: A little clarification on the teams and athletes part. When it comes to team sports, the participating teams need to be from every continent around the world. Just a single athlete from a continent isn't enough to make it a world championship. It needs to be a team. For individual sports, of course, that is not the case and you just need athletes to represent every continent.

[dhsilv2]

That is not what the term "world champion" means, though. That is not what that term has ever meant. You are just making up your own definition here.

And you know what? That's fine. You have the right to make your own definition, no one's stopping you. But that is NOT what these terms means and it is NOT what people mean when they're using these terms.

As I said in the last two replies, we're talking about two wildy different things here.

And I'm saying the way the term has been used is based on a dated model, and is WRONG today! That system hasn't made since in at least 30 years. Today it's sheer stupidity!

If you want to call a team the "World NATIONAL Champion" then whatever. But if you call that team the world champion, that isn't what they actually are. We change how we speak as we get better information, there are changes to how things function, or for countless other reasons. IN 2023, the NBA champion is the most obvious and clear world champion for basketball.

Good grief.

You're clearly living in an alternative dimension because I don't think there is a single person here who believes this.

NBA teams sure know they're the world champs. Banners even say it for a reason!

[knicksfan974]

Lyles mad because he is not getting paid like NBA players are?

[dhsilv2]

Bruh... At this point you're just in denial.

And yet, nobody has explained with any level of sanity why a world national team champion should be seen as a world champion.

Because they won a world championship. A world championship is a championship that contains teams and athletes from every continent around the world (obviously excluding Antartica). That is the literal definition of a world championship. Any team (be them a national team or a franchise/sports club) and any athlete that wins such a championship is a world champion. That is what those words mean.

The NBA is just what you explained. A team of athletes from every continent around the world. It's the highest level of competition and the teams actually play together and aren't just a summer fun camp.

[eyeatoma]

And that's why they aren't world champions and the NBA is.

Look 100 years ago it made sense to have amateur teams compete and to have the winners of each city or state or whatever local municipality play for a national championship and then it made sense for those national champs to compete for a world champion. We didn't have real pro teams then. We didn't have any way to build WORLD teams so that was the system we had in place. That system is grossly dated in 2023 and makes absolutely no sense today. Just because we have a broken tradition doesn't mean it still makes sense in 2023.

I'm all for abolishing traditions that are dated and no longer work but the defition of what the term "world champion" means is nowhere near where I'd start

If I told a 10 year old who doesn't follow sports "these are the world champions", what would they think. No way in hell does someone with no knowledge of this would think "oh each country put together a team and was limited by that". They'd think "oh it's the best team in the world". If it doesn't make sense, it should change.

I teach 10 year olds. They know that world champion means best team, and a team that beat other international teams.

[Nuntius]

And yet, nobody has explained with any level of sanity why a world national team champion should be seen as a world champion.

Because they won a world championship. A world championship is a championship that contains teams and athletes from every continent around the world (obviously excluding Antartica). That is the literal definition of a world championship. Any team (be them a national team or a franchise/sports club) and any athlete that wins such a championship is a world champion. That is what those words mean.

The NBA is just what you explained. A team of athletes from every continent around the world. It's the highest level of competition and the teams actually play together and aren't just a summer fun camp.

See my PS. Basketball is a team sport. Therefore, the teams included in that championship have to represent every continent.

And, again, being the highest level of competition DOES NOT MATTER. It is NOT part of the defition.

[eyeatoma]

And I'm saying the way the term has been used is based on a dated model, and is WRONG today! That system hasn't made since in at least 30 years. Today it's sheer stupidity!

If you want to call a team the "World NATIONAL Champion" then whatever. But if you call that team the world champion, that isn't what they actually are. We change how we speak as we get better information, there are changes to how things function, or for countless other reasons. IN 2023, the NBA champion is the most obvious and clear world champion for basketball.

Good grief.

You're clearly living in an alternative dimension because I don't think there is a single person here who believes this.

NBA teams sure know they're the world champs. Banners even say it for a reason!

Yeah, and the US didn't land on the moon.

See I said so therefore it must be a fact.

[Nuntius]

As far as I know the NBA itself does not.

But they do. NBA franchises (which make up the NBA) literally use the term "World Champions" in the banners they hang in the rafters and the rings they give out to their players.

The NBA is wrong lol. Just because an organization is wrongly touting this, doesn't make them right. That's why we corroborate and get multiple opinions. Which again goes back to that word i mentioned before, majority.

Yes, we agree. I was just clarifying to JonFromVA that the NBA does in fact do that.

[Charlie Sollers]

If the NBA champs aren't the champs of the world then why do they play "We are the champions" by Queen?

[dhsilv2]

Because they won a world championship. A world championship is a championship that contains teams and athletes from every continent around the world (obviously excluding Antartica). That is the literal definition of a world championship. Any team (be them a national team or a franchise/sports club) and any athlete that wins such a championship is a world champion. That is what those words mean.

The NBA is just what you explained. A team of athletes from every continent around the world. It's the highest level of competition and the teams actually play together and aren't just a summer fun camp.

See my PS. Basketball is a team sport. Therefore, the teams included in that championship have to represent every continent.

And, again, being the highest level of competition DOES NOT MATTER. It is NOT part of the defition.

Why would you represent anything but your team? What does a tectonic plate have to do with anything? And does that mean Russia has to field two teams since they cross two continents? That's just a completely arbitrary thing you're putting up.

[dhsilv2]

Good grief.

You're clearly living in an alternative dimension because I don't think there is a single person here who believes this.

NBA teams sure know they're the world champs. Banners even say it for a reason!

Yeah, and the US didn't land on the moon.

See I said so therefore it must be a fact.

You said nobody believes something. I didn't make the claim.

[Meeksology]

Yeah, I think it’s kinda dumb that the US sports leagues champs are called “World Champs” especially the NFL. But yeah, I’m not losing sleep or getting bent out of shape if others want to say it. It’s not that deep

Im with you on this one. I too think it's kinda dumb but it also dont really affect me all that much.

[Bornstellar]

The Spurs have always recognized this. It's why all of their banners say NBA Champions and not World Champions

[JonFromVA]

As far as I know the NBA itself does not.

But they do. NBA franchises (which make up the NBA) literally use the term "World Champions" in the banners they hang in the rafters and the rings they give out to their players.

I was referring to the league itself in it's official documentation (aka nba.com), what teams feel like doing is apparently up to them, their owners, their marketing department and varies.

Still, nothing wrong with it until there's some other competition or league with a more legit claim.

If Noah Lyles just beat the best competitors in the best competition in his sport this year, he's more than welcome to call himself "World Champion" in my book; but basketball is a team sport not a simple collection of individual talent.

Even the US 4x100 relay team bemoans the fact they're throwing together a new team every year to go up against other team's which have competed for years and all they have to do is run fast and hand off a baton. When 2 tenths of a second separates first place and 6th, apparently any flaw in cohesion/chemistry is a big deal.

[Boselecta]

If the NBA champion is not the world champion idk who is. If they played some pointless games vs euro league teams would they then fit the criteria?

[the sea duck]

the nba is an international league that just happens to play in the US (and Canada). very few players in the world good enough to make the nba aren't in the nba. the nba champs are essentially the world champs whether we call them that or not. so if someone wants to call them that, go ahead.

if a non-nba team wants the title, build a resume worthy of contention and then beat the nba champs.

[TacoLord]

Nobody calls the NBA champs "World Champs", he must be thinking of baseball, which is understandable because he doesn't compete in a real sport.

I used to think we’d gotten away from it as well, but from the Warriors’ recent championship just a year ago:



The Bucks did the same thing. It’s amusing how upset people get over this, but it’s also a pretty dumb practice.

This must be a recent thing, and it varies by team. Here's the banners from GS during their 2022 regular season unveiling:


Bucks from 2 years ago:


Cavs:


Spurs:


Celtics and Lakers use "World Champions" on their banners.

The Bulls and Rockets from back in the 90s say "NBA World Champions" which is a little confusing but seems to be consistent among champions from that time. I never hear anyone actually call them "world champs" when discussing it though. I'm wondering if this could be a new trend in the NBA as a way of elevating the league identity against the Euro-leagues and making a push to present itself as the best league in the world. It appears the more recent championships have removed the "NBA" part from the banners, except the Warriors kept theirs the same through 2021.

[Sedale Threatt]

the nba is an international league that just happens to play in the US (and Canada). very few players in the world good enough to make the nba aren't in the nba. the nba champs are essentially the world champs whether we call them that or not. so if someone wants to call them that, go ahead.

if a non-nba team wants the title, build a resume worthy of contention and then beat the nba champs.

But that's the thing: There is no means to do that.

And I'm not advocating for that in the slightest. European basketball is a step above college basketball but obviously vastly inferior to the NBA, which thanks to the prestige, competition and paychecks has an overwhelming monopoly on the world's best players. Beating their best team for an official title isn't something I think or care about. NBA teams would win almost every time and none of our fans would care in the slightest. I know I wouldn't, certainly not in relation to the league title.

But that's the key point: Almost every time. Because as we see over and over again in our professional playoffs, foreign football cups and especially the NCAA tournament, inferior teams upset superior ones all the time. In the NCAA tournament, for example, No. 2 seeds win "only" 93 pct of the time in the 1st round. Utter dominance, but far from total.

Obviously it would depend on format. If you turn it into a short series rather than a one-off, their chances drop dramatically. Then you need to get into which rule set we're using. But no matter how superior you are in any given field, until you've actually proven it on the field of play you shouldn't be claiming any crown.

[Sedale Threatt]

This must be a recent thing...

It's obviously not.

EDIT: NBA teams have consistently put that on their rings since at least the 50s

https://hoopshype.com/gallery/nba-championship-rings-through-the-years/

[Sedale Threatt]

The Spurs have always recognized this. It's why all of their banners say NBA Champions and not World Champions