In his press conference after winning his third straight 200m world title, Noah Lyles appeared to take a “shot” at the NBA, saying “World Champion of what? The United States?”, in reference to the variety in opposition one has to face when winning the NBA title as opposed to a world championship title in athletics.
This statement seemed to really rustle some feathers, at least in North America, with several players and other media personalities such as Drake firing petty jabs back at Lyles. The telling thing here however, is that the rest of the world seems to be on Lyles’ side. In the “Big 4” sports leagues of North America (MLB- baseball, NFL- American football, NBA- basketball, NHL- ice hockey), the winning team is declared as a ‘World Champion’. However, all four leagues are only contested from teams from one country (two with the inclusion of a few Canadian teams in the NHL and one in the NBA). Lyles’ point is therefore simple, how can you be a world champion when only competing against teams from one other nation at best? The counter argument from the American side is clear: “The best players play in the NBA, it is undoubtedly the best basketball league in the world”. No one is disputing that, but that is not the point. Yes the best NBA teams would more than likely absolutely demolish any of the best teams from anywhere else on earth, even the highly competitive Euroleague. Since they’re only facing teams from a certain part of the world this cannot be the case; it has nothing to do with quality. The English Premier League is widely seen as the top football (soccer) league in the world, and yet their champion is never referred to as ‘World Champion’. This is reserved for whoever wins the FIFA club world cup, which sees the champion of each continent square off for that title. The European champion is always the overwhelming favorite, with only the South American champions seen as having even the smallest hope of beating them. In fact, it would not be far-fetched to say that the champions of other regions such as Oceania or North America would not even make it out of the first round of the European Championship; the Champions League. Despite this inferior competition for the favorites, it is the competition that bestows the ‘World Champion’ title. The NBA is not even the most egregious perpetrator of this offence, as it is at least a globally popular sport. The other sports in the ‘Big 3’ are all less popular, with the NFL only really established in two countries, making the ‘World Champion’ moniker sound even more ridiculous. If those who play in the NBA want to be called ‘World Champion’, they should play in the competition that is designated for it; the FIBA world cup. As it turns out however, most NBA stars refuse to play for the United States team and prefer to take the summer off. That is their own right, but they should not be upset when another country is referred to as World Champion, when winning the tournament after the USA again failed to take their best team. This happened just yesterday, as the USA lost in the semi finals to a German team, who, like the majority of the other competing nations, carried their best players inclusive of their NBA stars. If one wants to be called a World Champion, one must earn it in a competition that truly pits the world against one another, rather than complaining from the sidelines, even if they have the talent ‘on paper’ to win it all.
Perhaps it was Lyles’ delivery that made it sound more of an attack than a factual observation, as he led off his statement with “What really hurts me the most”, and some NBA commentators said that statement coming from someone who should be focusing on his own success, reeked of jealousy. That being said, I urge the people who still disagree with him to take a step back, relax, and truly look into the meaning of his words, and realize he has a point, like some already have done and apologized, such as Stephen A. Smith.