Washington:
US NBA stars have criticized world sprint king Noah Lyles on social media for his comments that he gets annoyed when teams declare themselves “world champions” to win the NBA crown.
US sprint star Lyles won the 100 and 200 m titles and helped the US 4×100 relay win gold at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
But Lyles said he is saddened when US sports league champions such as the NBA declare themselves “world champions” after being crowned without facing global rivals.
Lyles said, “You know, what hurts me the most is I get to see the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ over their head.”
“World champion of what? The United States?”
The NBA fills rosters with top talent from around the world, and one of its franchises outside US borders, the Toronto Raptors, took the NBA crown to Canada in 2019.
The last five NBA Most Valuable Player awards went to players born in other countries — Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2019 and 2020, Denver’s Serbian center Nikola Jokic, the defending NBA champions in 2021 and 2022, and Joel Embiid of Cameroon this year.
NBA players would argue that they compete in the best league in the world and deserve the label of global best.
“Someone help this brother out,” wrote two-time NBA champion and two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant of Phoenix.
“When being smart goes wrong,” wrote four-time NBA champion forward Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors.
Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns just posted a facepalm emoji.
And Aaron Gordon of the defending champions Denver Nuggets offered a bit of a challenge, writing, “Whatever… I’m smoking in the 200m.”
Lyles said they only beat other US-based teams or the Raptors, not great teams from around the world.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Lyles said. “I love America – sometimes – but she is not the world. We are the world. We have almost every country that is fighting, flourishing, raising its flag to show that they represent Let’s do it. There’s no flag in the NBA.”
The “world” champion is decided by the national teams at the Basketball World Cup, which is now in Asia with an American team of NBA players competing for the crown.
“Why so much concern brother?” Sacramento Kings All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox asked on social media, accompanied by a laugh-to-cry emoji.
The debate carried over to NBA fans in other sports, such as American tennis star Frances Tiafoe, who was asked about the controversy following her win in a first round match at the US Open.
“Noah Lyles, for Jesus Christ. Like, I understood what he was saying, but I didn’t understand what he was saying. Do you know what I’m saying?” Tiafoe said. He said, “He meant what he said but what he said also did not make any sense.
“Because it’s the best league in the world, the NBA. You could argue that three, four of the best players in the NBA right now are not American. I mean, what would you say to that?
“The best foreign players are playing in the NBA. But on the other hand, yes, it’s played in the States. So I get both sides, but I’m definitely paying more attention to all the hoopers’ reactions.”
This is an issue that is not as involved with other American sports leagues.
Similar comments come from Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven finals being called the World Series, when no team from an Asian or Latin American league can play for the title.
The NFL is generally recognized as the world champion because American football is played at that level in very few places in the world, with even the Canadian leagues using some of the dominant rules.
The World Championships in ice hockey are typically played during the NHL playoffs, a global event that national teams typically receive NHL talent only after clubs are eliminated from the title race.
