The NBA is a global league. They know Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Stephen Curry in every single corner, and the league keeps adding more international players by the year.
However, just like track and field star Noah Lyles pointed out, there’s no need to say the NBA champion is the World Champion, especially considering the N in NBA literally stands for NATIONAL.
Stephen A. Smith called Lyles an ignorant, Tyrese Haliburton said his comments weren’t intelligent, and NBA players as a whole rallied to bully Lyles. However, 13 years ago, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said exactly the same thing.
Gregg Popovich Rips The ‘World Champion’ Distinction
“There are no world champions in the NBA, so anybody that has the flag up that says world champions is not correct. It’s not appropriate,” Popovich said. “The world champions, I believe, are the Spanish team right now. USA is the Olympic champion. The Lakers are the NBA champion.”
“It doesn’t make sense for an NBA team to call themselves world champions. I don’t remember anybody playing anybody outside our borders to get that tag. Isn’t that true? I keep waiting for somebody to tell me I’ve missed something,” he added.
There you go. NBA players mocked Noah Lyles, but you better believe they won’t say anything to or about Popovich. No one’s saying you’re not the best players in the world, so there’s no need to get your sensitive egos hurt, guys.