Is an NBA champion a world champion? In the 20th Century, people indeed knew the NBA championship as the World Championship. It signifies that if you win in the NBA; you are beating the rest of the world. The logic stems from the USA having the top basketball talent. Although the last five MVP awards have gone to non-USA players, the overall talent is still way higher.

However, field and track athlete Noah Lyles begged to differ. He has been getting a lot of stinging comments.

Noah Lyles’ NBA World Championship comments receive another backlash

After winning 100m, 200m, and 4X100 m relay competition, which is no small feat, the speedy phenom revealed his thoughts about NBA Finals being the world championship.

He mockingly said, “You know, the things that hurts me the most and they have the world champion on their head. World Champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong, I love USA at times, but that ain’t the world. We are the world. We have every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show that they are presented. There ain’t no flags in the NBA.”

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Kevin Durant’s response to this observation was, ”Somebody help this brother”. Devin Booker did the “🤦🏾‍♂️“. Meanwhile, Toronto Raptors superfan Drake also had a response.

He stated, “He thought this speech was gonna be so hard in the mirror the night before … now the whole league doesn’t rate u”.

Damian Lillard wrote ‘Tf 😂😂”. Juan Toscano-Anderson referred to the NBA as the “best competition in the world”. 

These were among a few reactions from the NBA athletes. Lyles fresh off a rare triumph of acquiring a hat-trick of gold medals, managed to rile up millions through his comments. 

Incidentally, the USA National Team, full of highly rated NBA players, is in the FIBA World Cup.

If the USA wins, then will it prove Lyles wrong?

Exploring both sides

It is true that foreign players have won the last few MVPs, but it also shows that the league has perhaps the best foreign pro players. As for the USA players, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kyrie Irving can dominate any international team. This can be concluded because the current USA team looks heavyweight too. Lyles may be hinting at the matter of representation.

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Since the NBA is the USA’s domestic league and doesn’t give awards based on nationalities, it may be a stretch to call it a “World Championship”. For Lyles, the patriotic fervor is necessary to deem a league or an event as international.

Whose side are you on? Do share in the comments.

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