“World Champions of What?”
T. G. George
“WORLD CHAMPIONS OF WHAT? THE UNITED STATES?” US track and field star, Noah Lyles, won both the 100 metre and 200 metre races at the World Athletics Championship in Budapest. Following his historic performance, he was interviewed and expressed his contentious opinions on US national sports labelling themselves as World Champions. He feels this title is inconsiderate of global competition.
Noah Lyles
This argument was hence taken to Twitter and Instagram, where US athletes were outraged by the defamation. Classic keyboard warrior, Kevin Durant, had his thoughts heard, saying “somebody help this brother”. Other NBA stars, such as Damian Lillard, Devin Booker and De’Aaron Fox also commented in disapproval. Oh, and Drake joined in on the discussion. But at this point, that man practically identified as an NBA player.
Drake attending Kentucky basketball training
Although the argument is petty, let’s break it down.
Noah Lyles believes that to be a World Champion, you must compete against the world, in a competition open to other nations. This has raised further criticism of the apparent sense of nationalism, where Americans feel they are the centre of the world.
However, others would argue that leagues, such as the NBA, possess the highest quality of basketball players from across the world. This claim has merit, as the last five MVP winners have all been international players. Furthermore, the NBA is undeniably the most competitive basketball league in the world, with stars from the top leagues in Australia, Europe and Asia challenging for the mere 450 roster spots.
Joel Embiid (Cameroonian) winning MVP
When looking at the dictionary, the debate becomes even more technical. According to the Collins Dictionary, a world champion is “someone who has won a competition open to people throughout the whole world”. Given the NBA has no restrictions on overseas players, it is therefore a competition open to people throughout the whole world, facilitating the best of the best. However, this competition is not open to teams from across the world. This brings us to a similar case, the UEFA Champions League. This league contains the highest performing European football teams from the previous season that compete for the title of European Champion. This league comprises the richest clubs, most talented players, and most experienced managers. Many would say it is the highest quality of world football. But the winner does not label themselves ‘World Champion.’
So, what competition does adequately assess a ‘World Champion’? The obvious case is a World Cup, such as the Rugby World Cup or the FIFA World Cup last year. The FIBA Basketball World Cup in the Philippines recently concluded. This competition, as well as the summer Olympic games, has traditionally been dominated by the USA, winning 16 Gold Medals, and the FIBA World Cup 5 times. Therefore, the US basketball fans have had genuine reason to suggest that they are the World Champions, and that their national league deserves the title.
This year, the US were looking for redemption following their quarter-final exit at the 2019 World Cup in China. Their campaign began with strong wins over New Zealand, Greece, Jordan and Montenegro, before suffering a shock defeat to Lithuania, 110 to 104. The US team consisted of all NBA players, whereas Lithuania had only one, Jonas Valančiūnas. The US bounced back with a comfortable win over Italy in the quarter-finals. However, the US endured another shock defeat against Germany in their semi-final clash. Although only a narrow loss of 113 to 111, the German team only contained four NBA players. With their title hopes evaporated, the US faced Canada in the match for third place. The game went to overtime, where an amazing performance from Dillon Brookes saw the US lose their third game of the campaign.
Evidently, this was a disastrous trip for the US national team, who entered as favourites. They failed to even bring home a medal, let alone claim the title as World Champions. They were also topped by players competing in foreign leagues. This failure exposes the underlying reality and stubbornness of the American nationalistic antics, that are not backed up by genuine performance, where the quality or accessibility of US national leagues is questioned.
It is therefore clear, with the rising dominance of international competition, that the NBA’s self proclaimed ‘World Champion’ title is becoming increasingly more contested. The NBA could engage in an expansion project, a collaboration with FIBA to create a competition for all world teams, involving billions of dollars and years of logistics. Or, more simply, replace World with National. Problem solved. Noah is finally happy.