What does “world champion” even mean?
I guess I am down with the two sides this is being presented. I know that this is a national title, so saying “world champions” with two participating teams from North America is just wrong. I also know that when the PBA is having its Philippine Cup, teams are prohibited from using imports. This is why we use the words “reinforced” or “open” and even resort to names like “Commissioner” and “Governor” to describe the import-laden conferences.
Can you really say that a team is a “national” champion if their MVP is from Serbia and the next star player is from Canada?
With that said, an actual world champion is most certainly, the FIBA World Cup champion. Besides the fact that almost every country with a basketball federation tried their best to qualify in the qualifiers and the other qualifying tournaments FOR the bigger qualifying tournaments, there are standardized rules in place.
The NBA and PBA are the cooler versions of the Euroleague rules but the Euroleague rules pretty much are the ones being used in the FIBA tournaments. It would SHOCK the hell out of people if all of a sudden the three-point line is closer to the ring, superstars are called traveling most of the time, and the whole “five fouls, you’re out” shtick is going to be enforced.
When the NBA started to call their champions “world champions,” basketball wasn’t as big as it is now. That’s why I guess Europeans would take offense on the term but they didn’t – citing that a US team would whoop their ass even if they had the likes of Drazen Petrovic, Arvydas Sabonis, Oscar Schmidt, and Sarunas Marculionis. However, this is a term that has endeared everyone as a merchandise mover, and as The Dream Team was walking in and out of Barcelona’s scenic spots, they could have said something about it but they didn’t.
In some ways, this inspired players from war-torn countries, third-world upbringing, and basically... non-basketball nations to aspire for the NBA. To have a Serbia versus Germany final despite the NBA players of the USA and Canada, even if it's crazy embarrassing for the supposed powerhouses is a testament that without "world champions," basketball would have been still in the United States.
It’s just that. This was a term created by David Stern when the NBA was trying to globalize the league. I don’t believe I have seen anyone in the Philippines buying the NBA champion t-shirt with their cartooned faces surrounding the gold trophy getting pissed at the sight of the words “world champion.”
And I guess the whole world doesn’t need to get concerned by this as well. When the UEFA has a Champions League, does this mean the champions from the rest of the world need to participate in this tournament? Or in the WWE, should they prohibit a guy like GUNTHER from holding the Intercontinental Championship because he’s not from the mainland United States?
This is not about an American city winning a world championship or the US team losing the 2023 FIBA World Cup against players whose rookie cards aren’t as valuable as compared to them.
It’s not even the fact that the faces of the NBA aren’t participating in the tournament.
It’s just a grand name to make a league bigger.
And it’s not like the rest of the world was complaining about this up until AMERICAN track star Noah Lyles mentioned this in front of everyone. I don’t know if this is the current trend in the US that every pronoun and some nouns are for debate, but most NBA players should have known better.
Anyway, I really think this is a non-issue. Maybe, this could prompt Adam Silver to change the distinction. After all, the NBA is big enough of a term as well – judging by the bootleg apparel all around the world.
But this would just make the brand work less – agreeing for a change because some track and field guy questioned the term.