US Track star Noah Lyles started a huge debate after winning a gold medal in the 100-meter dash and earning the “Fastest Man in the World” title when he complained that the NBA champion Denver Nuggets didn’t deserve to be called world champions. After the Germany basketball team won the FIBA World Cup, they can call themselves world champs, and now former NBA player Richard Jefferson says that’s all OK.
“The Denver Nuggets, they're the best team in the world. Germany, they're the world champions,” Jefferson said in a social media video. “So, two things can be true: You can be the best team in the world and you can also be a world champion.”
Jefferson, a 19-year NBA veteran and 2016 NBA (world?) champion with the Cleveland Cavaliers, went on to explain that LeBron James wasn’t the MVP every year in his prime, even though he was the unquestioned best player in the world for a better part of a decade.
“For all the people that are new to the NBA world,” Jefferson noted. “All it is, is about arguments, so welcome to this world.”
Richard Jefferson’s main point was that Noah Lyles shouldn’t have beef with the “world champion” moniker. You can call Germany basketball the world champs because they won the FIBA World Cup, and you can call the Nuggets world champs because by winning the NBA, there is no doubt they are the best of the best around the globe.
In the end, none of this really matters, but it’s the dog days of the NBA offseason, so at least it keeps us talking hoops!