(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
NBA players from all eras have come together to rip track-and-field star Noah Lyles over his recent comments on the league.
Lyles took offense at the fact that NBA players call themselves ‘World Champions’ even though they don’t play teams from other countries.
He pointed out that they’re not world champions because the U.S. is not the whole world, and that’s a valid point, even if the league also features foreign players.
However, as expected, NBA fans didn’t like it.
Even former NBA champion Mitch Richmond took to SiriusXM NBA Radio to explain that the NBA is the best league with the best players in the world; thus, they should be called world champions.
“The NBA is the best basketball in our era, our country, in any other country”
Contrary to Noah Lyles, @MitchRichmond23 doesn’t have an issue with using “World Champions” in the NBA@TermineRadio | @JumpShot8 pic.twitter.com/XnwXCuVgbG
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) August 28, 2023
That’s a rather simple argument, but it’s also insufficient.
Yes, the NBA is the best league on Earth.
Yes, chances are no team could beat the Denver Nuggets in a seven-game series.
But Team USA also lost in the Olympics and the FIBA World Cup, even though they were superior to every other team, at least on paper.
No one is putting the NBA’s dominance in doubt, but NBA players can’t seem to take any sort of comment unless it comes with plenty of praise.
There’s a FIBA World Cup that gives its winner the rightful ‘world champion’ denomination, and there’s the NBA, which gives its winner the NBA champion status.
The post Former NBA Player Reveals His Thoughts On Noah Lyles’ World Champion Comments appeared first on The Cold Wire.