On social media, American NBA stars chastised world sprint king Noah Lyles for claiming he is insulted when teams label themselves “world champions” after winning an NBA title.
At the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, US sprinter Lyles won the 100- and 200-meter races, as well as helping the US 4×100 relay team win gold.
However, Lyles is outraged when US sports league champions, such as those in the NBA, label themselves “world champions” after winning a title without facing global competition.
“You know, the thing that hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head,” Lyles said.
“World champion of what? The United States?”
The NBA fills rosters with outstanding talent from around the world, and its only franchise outside of the United States, the Toronto Raptors, won the NBA championship in 2019.
The past five NBA Most Valuable Player honors have gone to foreign-born players: Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2019 and 2020, Serbian center Nikola Jokic of current NBA champion Denver in 2021 and 2022, and Cameroon’s Joel Embiid this year.
NBA players would claim that they play in the world’s top league and thus deserve to be called the best in the world.
“Somebody help this brother,” wrote Phoenix’s Kevin Durant, a two-time NBA champion and two-time NBA Finals MVP.
“When being smart goes wrong,” wrote four-time NBA champion forward Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors.
Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns simply posted a facepalm emoji.
And Aaron Gordon of the reigning champion Denver Nuggets offered a bit of a challenge, writing, “Whatever… I’m smoking buddy in the 200m.”
‘No flags in the NBA’
Lyles made the point that they only beat other US-based teams or the Raptors, not great squads from around the world.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Lyles said. “I love the US — at times — but that ain’t the world. We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show that they are represented.
“There ain’t no flags in the NBA.”
The “world” champion is decided by national teams at the Basketball World Cup, now being contested in Asia with a US squad of NBA players competing for the crown.
“Why bro care so much?” Sacramento Kings All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox asked on social media with a laughing until crying emoji.
The debate went to NBA fans in other sports such as US tennis star Frances Tiafoe, who was asked about the controversy after his victory in a first-round match at the US Open.
“To Noah Lyles, Jesus Christ. Like, I get what he was saying but I don’t get what he was saying. You know what I’m saying?” Tiafoe said. “What he said made sense but what he said also did not make sense.
“Because it’s the best league in the world, NBA. You can argue the three, four best players in the NBA are not American at the moment. I mean, so what do you say to that?
“The best foreign players are playing in the NBA. But then on the flip side, yeah, it’s played in the States. So I get both sides, but I’m definitely probably leaning more to all the hoopers’ responses, for sure.”
It’s an issue that doesn’t connect to other US sports leagues as much.
Major League Baseball receives similar criticism for calling its best-of-seven championship game the World Series despite the fact that no teams from Asian or Latin American leagues are eligible to compete for the title.
The NFL is widely regarded as the world champion, owing to the fact that American football is played in so few other areas throughout the world at that level, with even Canada’s league employing some important differences.
The world championships in ice hockey are typically held during the NHL playoffs, with national teams receiving NHL players only after clubs are eliminated from the title hunt.