Track and field athlete Noah Lyles recently raised plenty of eyebrows when he questioned why American sports, and specifically the NBA, refer to themselves as ‘world champions' when they win a title. The take wasn't exactly well received around the league, though views on it did seem to soften when a similar quote from Gregg Popovich over a decade ago popped up, and Team USA subsequently failed to finish on the podium at the FIBA World Cup.
Still, for the most part those around the NBA seem to be in fairly staunch disagreement with Lyles, and Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has joined that chorus. Speaking on Podcast P with Paul George Presented by Wave Sports and Entertainment, Ballmer discussed the topic with one of the stars of his team.
“It’s sort of like a technicality which is, if you have to play for your country and only your country to have a world championship, I get that definitionally. I love the national games because they have a certain kind of spirit to them but if you want to know what the best of the best competition looks like, you watch the NBA Championship. It’s not like the old days [with] the dream team… So I actually think the best test of basketball is the NBA Championship.”
Steve Ballmer's view appears to be the prevailing one among the NBA community, though Lyles has also had plenty of support from some major names. But ultimately, it's a conversation about semantics. Nobody doubts that the NBA is the best basketball league in the world, whether the winners are called NBA champions, world champions, or something else entirely.
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