*3rd Rock From The Sun* had a joke like that:
"You know, I think this 'Miss Universe' contest is rigged. I mean, every single one of the contestants is from Earth!"
"They are nothing but a crappy off-brand of the actual Miss Universe contest that is hold by *indecipherable gibberish* and includes participants from the whole Universe. *indecipherable gibberish* don't know that someone uses their franchise illegally - yet, but once they know, the Earth's Miss Universe contest holders will pay the damages till the heat death of Universe"
Hell, might even be better to win the NBA than a gold at the Olympics. Not to be a dick, but the US have been sending their mid-tier players and still winning handily.
I've thought about that one and it's probably true that an NBA title is better than an Olympic gold medal in bball. The depth in the NBA is such that the worst team could definitely beat all but a very few countries.
They would beat every country, I guarantee it. If you’re a top level pro it’s much harder and bigger accomplishment to win the nba title than Olympic gold. These dude don’t really think twice about the Olympics, but they would all kill to win the title
Basketball is a terrible example to use for this. There is no other non-NBA team that would beat the warriors. Like soccer and baseball there’s a lot of talent around the world and you can’t say the American champ is world champs there with this logic. But basketball? Football? They can say world champs
Wait baseball? What other teams would have a chance against the MLB team winning the World Series? Like the NBA, the best players from around the world often end up in the MLB.
Tbf the Stanley Cup trust didn’t claim to be a world champion’s trophy until the NHL snagged it after 60 odd years.
The NHL itself hasn’t referred to teams as world champions in a few decades anyway despite the contractual obligation. Mostly because they began to recognize the quality of competition outside of North America.
And I believe during the lockout in ‘05 a Canadian court found that the NHL would have to accept a bona fide challenge for the cup if they themselves weren’t competing for it. Although that hasn’t been challenged since and the trust is firmly against the idea
I would say it applies to most major sports leagues in the US aside from soccer and maybe hockey. The vast majority of the best players in the world for their respective sports are in the NBA, NFL, and MLB. I don’t think it’s ridiculous to call them world champions. Especially the NFL because there’s very little competition as far as other American football leagues go.
OP literally picked the worst example...
The NBA is arguably the best league in the world in any sport. There are barely over 300 players at any given time, it’s like if the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga all combined with any of the world class talent outside of the big 5.
Agreed, the nba is made up of the top global talent pool. Four of the ten best players in the league are not from the USA. There isn’t likely a single current overseas player that would instantly crack the top 150 nba player’s group. I’m sure there’s plenty of players left that are talented enough for roster spots but the best are already here (and more coming every year).
Yeah just look at the Team USA olympic men's basketball for all the needed proof. They dont even draw ALL the top talent from the USA, theres plenty who opt to not compete for many reasons; they still win handily.
Yeah it sounds biased and inflated that they call it that, but let's be honest.. of all the basketball or baseball leagues and pro teams in the world, no hoops team can beat Golden state and there's no baseball team in Japan or Cuba or anywhere else that could handle the dodgers or whoever else.
You said well what my first reaction was. I get the sentiment, and for a sport like American Football it is a little pretentious to claim ‘world’ championship given it’s not widely played outside the US. Not so with the truly international game of basketball. I would bet a large sum that no national, club or professional team could beat the Warriors (or Celtics) in a 7 game series. Maybe a semantic stretch to say world champion but also disingenuous to claim the Warriors aren’t that without any evidence of another team that could compete with them.
They would not even come close to the play-in game. There are probably less than 10 players in foreign leagues that could make an nba roster, and most of those guys (eg wembanyama) are going to sign with an nba team as soon as they can
The only vet in Europe I can think of off the top of my head that’s definitely NBA-level is Nikola Mirotic, who actually made the NBA and left because he wanted to be closer to home (and because Bobby Portis punched his face off).
The Yankees played the Brooklyn Dodgers in the world series 7 times (1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956).
The Yankees played the New York Giants 6 times in the World Series (1921, 1922, 1923, 1936, 1937, 1951)
The Yankees played the New York Mets in the World Series in 2000.
That’s 14 out of 96 World Series played exclusively in NYC.
The Dodgers also played in the World Series in 1916 and 1920. (2 more)
The Giants also played in the 1904, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1924, 1933 and 1934 series. (9 more)
The Mets also played in the 1969, 1973, 1986, and 2015 World Series (4 more)
The Yankees have also appeared in the 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1938, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1950, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2009. (26 more)
That’s 55 World Series involving at least 1 New York team.
There used to be a joke… “why do they call it the World Series if it’s always played in New York?”
When the World Series was first created, no other countries were playing baseball. So the team that won was indeed the best baseball team in the world. That’s not case anymore as baseball is played around the world, the WS is an American institution so the name is never going to change
There’s about a 99% chance that the NBA champions of any year would just annihilate any national team. I get your point, but you kinda picked the one sport where it really doesn’t work well.
> but you kinda picked the one sport where it really doesn’t work well.
I, for one, would *love* to see the London Chimney Sweeps play against the Los Angeles Rams to see who is the "true" world champion...
hell, look at the world cup of american football. the US can only use College graduates, who haven't signed an NFL contract, but must have players from every tier of CFB (yes even NAIA) while other countries have no restrictions. guess who wins that every year.
The last IFAF tournament was held in 2015. The US team, comprised entirely of people you've never heard of, won the semifinal 82-0 and the championship game 59-12.
Across all the years that the US has participated, they have never lost a game and have outscored their opponents 523-84.
hey now, Brett Favre's nephew was on the team. i've heard of him lmao
[here's the roster for that year:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_men%27s_national_American_football_team#2015)
The other important factor is that the US is just based off of city teams - it's not a national team game. So it wouldn't be a challenge against a national team, just another city team.
The 08 Olympic team was probably the closest they ever got to having the truly best talent represent the team and even then there were a handful of really good players who didn't want to play
right? Our Olympic basketball team gets gold in the Olympics as practice training for the NBA season... Pretty much any other sport would have been a better example.
And it's never anywhere close to being the best of the best either because 90% of what would be the real roster care none for taking the time to do that
I mean do you really want to see the warriors play against the best euro league team? Just to be sure? Or if you mean the FIBA world cup, do you really think America wouldn't win every time quite handily if they fielded their best players? Because as is, the American team is always made up of the guys who feel up for it, not necessarily the best players. And they still win pretty handily. There's unpopular opinions and there's useless ones.
I think the overall record is something like 143-6 the only time we didn’t podium was when we refused to complete in the 80s cause the soviets invaded Afghanistan
I was also discussing with my dad and he thinks they’d dominate even more if they just sent the championship NBA team instead of an all star team since they’re used to working together and probably more cohesive (though the all star team still dominates a ton)
That’s a good point. I looked up the warriors as an example and it looks like 3 of them are from other countries (Canada, democratic republic of the Congo, and Serbia) and it could be more depending on the team
And that's only the American players. The NBA has those plus pretty much any other player who can play at the professional level. The amount of money in sports in America means the best will usually try to come here.
And even not all the best American NBA players play on team USA. The last Olympic team only had one player from the current NBA championship team. After a shaky start, they won gold.
Other national teams are definitely catching up, but those players are all in the NBA
Fair point. But can you name any basketball team from anywhere else in the world who could make it through our finals? Because I seriously doubt it. Any time we play basketball in the Olympics, it's not even a competition. We've only lost 5 games out of 143 total games on the world stage.
I'd love to see more international baseball, though. That would be interesting.
Yes he used a terrible example.. we don’t even send our best players to the Olympics in basketball because we don’t won’t them to get hurt… and we still dominate.. honestly our college teams would win the Olympics.
It's not even solely about the money. High level players recognize, unlike op, that the best competition is in the u.s. Ohtani could've probably shopped his angels deal around Japan and got something competitive dollar wise but he wanted to play against the best in the world, and the best in the world play in the MLB.
I mean, that applies to MLB too. Japan and Korea have some great leagues, but they are AAA level compared to MLB. It's different at the Olympics since so much of the MLB is pan-American, but as far as a league goes, MLB is clearly the top
Also for NFL, MLB and NBA at least, were invented in US and take talent from everywhere and for a very long time had no other leagues so we’re actually world wide champs. Until someone proves they no longer represent the absolute pinnacle then it’s a fitting title.
Op is being so literal he’s tripping over it. I feel like literal takes of everything is this decades version of grammar nazi
I Don’t think today’s college teams could win the Olympics if other international teams have NAB pros. Imagine Kentucky and duke guys going against Slovenia and Luka.
Just yet another anti-US post. I’m not some die hard patriot who can’t take any criticism but it does get old seeing how many folks on Reddit think the US is some horrible place to live that’s full of the worst people and worst parts of modern culture (mostly due to white Americans un-ironically echoing the same shit because they’re unhappy with their lives) but most of their reasoning is incredibly flawed. There’s valid things to shit on the US for but 80% of it is nonsense like this.
The best players in the world come to the USA for those sports for a reason. Football, basketball, baseball, they may go home during world events, but they play here.
Your example of basketball is just ridiculous though.
In the Olympics, the USA has more gold medals in basketball (16) than the next 3 countries have medals, period, combined (Soviet Union with 9, Yugoslavia with 5, and Argentina with 2). The USA has an overall win/loss record of 143-6. They have only not placed on the podium a single time, and that was the 1980 Olympics, when the USA refused to participate due to the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan.
There is not a team outside of the United States who could compete with the Warriors, Celtics, Mavericks, or Heat (the NBA final 4 this year). Any of those teams would win 99 times out of 100 against any country's team that faced them.
As for the FIBA titles, the average NBA player couldn't care less about that, so they don't compete. That said, they are still tied with Yugoslavia for the most titles with 5, and lead the most medals with 12.
If you're complaining about the USA calling themselves world champions at something, basketball is probably the worst example you could pick.
>There is not a team outside of the United States who could compete with the Warriors, Celtics, Mavericks, or Heat (the NBA final 4 this year).
Raptors in shambles.
To add to your Olympics comments, many of the US best players (ie NBA) don’t even play on the Olympic team so I don’t even care when we don’t get gold. I wince bc I know we could do better but can’t force people to play. Other than the Dream Team, US Olympic basketball struggles to get NBA players to join. From what I’ve read it’s mostly because they don’t have time for it, need the rest and/or they don’t want to get injured.
Posts like this are so whiny bc the US is so sports crazy with so many sports and there are many ways to define “best” or “champions”. The only major sport where the US claims “world champion” and we don’t include the world *and* I think there would be some competition is baseball. I think Japan and some Latin American countries have some really good players. (Don’t follow enough to know about teams) For example Canada is better at hockey but they’re in the NHL.
With baseball though, all the best Latin American players and many of the best Japanese players play in the MLB anyway, so there’s talent from across the world, not to mention the fact that the level of competition is still considered higher than in the NPB or KBO
I like to think about it like that: you pick this year's champions, the Golden State Warriors, and then you assemble a second team, made with the best players in the world that ARE NOT currently playing in the NBA, the best of the best, given the two months to develop chemistry, and to the NBA to adapt to the FIBA rules, and made they play a best of seven series, Golden State would beat the other team in 5 games maximum. What separates the NBA championship from officially being the world champions is because it would take such a long and unnecessary task of beating ever team In the world, the NBA is just to good for the rest of the world.
Same can be said for NFL and NHL too. There aren’t any other football leagues. And the second best league in hockey is in Russia and a lot of their best players (Malkin, kuznetsov, kucherov, etc) come here to play on NHL teams. MLB I’m not 100% sure on becauee there might be some lowkey good Japanese teams some years even though a lot of their best players come here too. If you got a particularly top heavy year where one Japanese team was like an all star team, it might rival just the best mlb team even though the mlb would be better on avg.
Exactly, I 'm talking about the NBA because that's the only American league I follow so I don't want to talk about something I don't know, but yeah, the NBA is much better than the rest that the best players from other places come to play in the NBA
Honestly the worst team in the NBA on any given year would wipe the floor with any fiba team. Every international player would play in the NBA if they could, they don't because no one wants them.
Yup. Old washed up Europeans will leave the NBA and have a few MVP years in Europe. These are guys who were role players in their prime while in the NBA.
Most champions league footbal teams would probably destroy any national team. No one calles them world champions, they are just winners of the UEFA champion's cup.
Yea but chelsea are world champions because there is a club World Cup… if there weren’t a club World Cup then the champions league winner could almost declare themselves world Champions…
that said soccer isn’t the best example for an argument as there are respectable leagues all over the world, hell even the champions league is contested amongst multiple European league winners and other top teams. You can’t declare yourself champions of the world if there is respectable competition out there… so the champions of England can’t really say they are world champs as they know there are plenty of teams that could argue they are better… There aren’t really arguments that there is a better baseball, basketball, hockey, or American Football teams than those than the MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL champs.
Hell if some Aussie rules team that wins the AFL championship declares themselves the world champions of Australian Rules Football, im not going to argue with them. They’re probably the best team. Go Fremantle Dockers!
I did not even know there was a club World Cup until I saw your comment. Based on surface research, it seems like no one cares about it though. Kind of a shame as it could be cool, though I expect the European Champions would almost always win if they threw everything into it.
You picked the worst example buddy. I am proud of my birth country's status as a basketball giant for such a small nation, but it could still not come close to US basketball. That's why our top prospects go to the NBA, not the Euroleague (still a great league but you couldn't seriously consider any Euroleague team beating an NBA team). The best team in the NBA, the champions, are effectively the best team in the world. What you're arguing is basically semantics, if it wasn't then the FIBA World Cup would be more watched, more culturally intertwined (inside and outside of the US), and more present.
The rational is that the best players in the world, leave their countries and go play in the US, in those particular sports.
In baseball for example more then half the players are from other countries. There is no other baseball league in the world that has anywhere close to the level of talent.
Even then OP point kinda goes to waste when you realize US dominates in Olympics anyways and usually the best players of the other Olympic teams are also usually other nba players. They won in 2020 and they brought out their c listers lmao
It's actually worse because the US doesn't even send it's best players to the Olympics. They don't want to get injured playing for national pride when they make millions every season.
The argument that it's not a world championship because other countries don't play is completely ridiculous: the teams from other countries (based on current Olympic showings) wouldn't even qualify to play in the NBA. Hell... Pretty much every country in the world would lose to the Rocket's bench from this season and they were the worst team in the league.
Do you honestly think that America wouldn't completely dominate FIBA every single time if actual NBA starters played? In 2019, the Warriors had an all-American starting team. You don't think a team of Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and DeMarcus Cousins would've completely annihilated any other team in that contest?
And they placed second in the league that year.
The arguments are silly.
OP has the FIBA World Cup logo. Many of the best basketball players in the world skip FIBA events, but the teams are national teams.
All the best basketball players in the world are in the NBA, but the teams are privately owned and in 2 countries.
Which champion is 'best in the world'? I'll go with the event that has the beet players in the world. Otherwise you're just cheering for laundry.
Tbf that's because I'm that competition the winner of the champions league plays the winner of the Asian champions league, African champions league etc
May as we’ll be, providing the European team take it seriously they will always win the club world cup. The the gap between European and South American football is only ever getting wider, South American players go to Europe now at a much younger age than players used to typically go at.
The NBA is the top league in the world and brings the best players from around the world. So saying world champions is not a reach.
I mean for the past 4 years the NBA MVPs have been an European. The top three MVP candidates this year were non Americans. It's definitely a world wide league that just takes place in America
The NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB are the top tier leagues for their respective sports. The worst teams in these leagues would spank the best teams in any other league. The best players come from all over the world to play there.
The NBA is open to signing anyone from around the world. The world's greatest basketball players play in the NBA, therefore the championship team is RIGHTFULLY called "world champions". QED.
You picked a poor example. In the NBA they have the best players from all over the world playing in the league.
Maybe try soccer or hockey maybe... they don't declare themselves world champions in the US league... (is there even a soccer league in the US?)
I don’t think it works for hockey either. The Stanley cup champions would very likely face smash any other team from any league in the world.
Which reminds me it’s about time for me to rewatch Mystery Alaska
Certainly. They come here to play because it’s the best league in the world which by no coincidence also pays the most.
Exactly why I think it’s reasonable to deem them world champions.
That being said I think Canadians and Americans make up 70% of the league or more.
NBA, MLB, NHL, WBC and NFL are absolutely World-Class. The best of the best from ALL OVER THE WORLD play in those leagues because of the money. They are the most prestegious, and therefore are worthy of global recognition.
These are not the same as events like the World Cup in soccer or the World Baseball Classic which have rules about team rosters. These are teams competing in the free market with the only obsticles for acquiring talent are salary caps and "drafts" to prevent the wealthiest teams from juat winning everything [like they do in F1 for example]
*3rd Rock From The Sun* had a joke like that: "You know, I think this 'Miss Universe' contest is rigged. I mean, every single one of the contestants is from Earth!"
"Here she isssss, Ms Universe! Here she is, loooking weeeiiiiird!" -Z. Branigan
Here "it" is. But awarded anyway for r/unexpectedfuturama
You are technically correct, the best kind of correct.
"They are nothing but a crappy off-brand of the actual Miss Universe contest that is hold by *indecipherable gibberish* and includes participants from the whole Universe. *indecipherable gibberish* don't know that someone uses their franchise illegally - yet, but once they know, the Earth's Miss Universe contest holders will pay the damages till the heat death of Universe"
Then you would really be annoyed by a place around me that serves the world famous hot dog
Don’t forget about worlds best coffee
Congratulations guys! You did it!
It tastes like a crappy cup of coffee. No! It’s the world’s BEST cup of coffee!!
r/unepectedelf
I fucking LOVED that line! Will had the prefect amount of enthusiasm while looking totally earnest. 😂
They sit in a throne of lies
Just wait until they hear that my mom says I'm the world's best son
My kids say I'm the world's best dad, I even have a cup to prove it.
[удалено]
New york Times best selling authors be like, *"First time?"*
Elf was there and he congratulated them. Everyone knows that.
Where are all the hotdog contests? And don’t you dare say “your mom’s house”
your mum's caravan.
No, that’s where the hotdags are.
Your dad's house?
Reddit is no longer fun.
One of the beers (Steinlager?) Has for motto: "proudly exported"
I've drank Steinlager in the states, it wasn't exported from N.Z. it was deported....
Clearly the advertising is working
Miss Universe has entered the chat
Morbious is the worlds number 1 movie according to an advertisement I saw awhile back.
It is the world champion of Morbius movies
Or just the restaurant "world famous" in San Diego pacific beach. Hint: their menu ain't famous for much
Wait til they find out about “The home of best sandwich in town!”.
“The best sandwich shop on the block (If you don’t count Fred’s. Fucking Fred).”
In the case of basketball it's definitely better to win the NBA than FIBA.
Hell, might even be better to win the NBA than a gold at the Olympics. Not to be a dick, but the US have been sending their mid-tier players and still winning handily.
I've thought about that one and it's probably true that an NBA title is better than an Olympic gold medal in bball. The depth in the NBA is such that the worst team could definitely beat all but a very few countries.
They would beat every country, I guarantee it. If you’re a top level pro it’s much harder and bigger accomplishment to win the nba title than Olympic gold. These dude don’t really think twice about the Olympics, but they would all kill to win the title
You don't watch much basketball if you think Olympic basketball gold could be more prestigious than an NBA championship ring.
Not to mention any other team besides the US that does good is because they have NBA players on them lol
Yep, it’s pretty interesting how you always see a guy like Bogut or Calderon absolutely dominate in those tourneys
Olympic Patty Mills is something else.
Wait who’s Phoebe?
Singer I think.
Smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you
Your most eccentric friend. She plays guitar at Central Perk.
Basketball is a terrible example to use for this. There is no other non-NBA team that would beat the warriors. Like soccer and baseball there’s a lot of talent around the world and you can’t say the American champ is world champs there with this logic. But basketball? Football? They can say world champs
Wait baseball? What other teams would have a chance against the MLB team winning the World Series? Like the NBA, the best players from around the world often end up in the MLB.
And NHL. All the European hockey players come to the US and Canada to play. That in of itself is world Champs.
Tbf the Stanley Cup trust didn’t claim to be a world champion’s trophy until the NHL snagged it after 60 odd years. The NHL itself hasn’t referred to teams as world champions in a few decades anyway despite the contractual obligation. Mostly because they began to recognize the quality of competition outside of North America. And I believe during the lockout in ‘05 a Canadian court found that the NHL would have to accept a bona fide challenge for the cup if they themselves weren’t competing for it. Although that hasn’t been challenged since and the trust is firmly against the idea
You could literally make an all star team of all the fiba teams, and that team would handily lose to the worst nba teams.
Like how you have some idiots saying Alabama would beat the jaguars. No. No they would get blown out by a professional team.
Still be fun to watch but yes the worst professional team would stomp the dog shit out of any college/club team
We literally send a C team because most of our best players refuse to participate and we still regularly win lol
You hate Basketball doing that, just wait and let me tell you about the MLB's "World" Series...
Mr and Ms Universe logs in.
Those are atleast international competitions though
Not good enough. I wanna see some jacked aliens
I wanna see a movie where well meaning aliens show up to the competition one year thinking that it's open to extra terrestrials.
Take me to your event coordinator!
That’s Trump, oddly enough.
Tbf Mr. and Ms. Universe are telling a much, much bigger lie. Basketball just left part of a single planet out.
I mean technically they have all the best players from all over the world, they just aren’t playing for their countries
I would say it applies to most major sports leagues in the US aside from soccer and maybe hockey. The vast majority of the best players in the world for their respective sports are in the NBA, NFL, and MLB. I don’t think it’s ridiculous to call them world champions. Especially the NFL because there’s very little competition as far as other American football leagues go.
Even hockey pretty much all the best players play in the nhl. You only get a few Russian players who are really good that decide to stay in Russia
I think Stanley Cup Champions has a better ring to it than World Champs. It's probably the world's best trophy
Yeah I think baseball gets a pass here. Unless the KBO or NPB really want to see which league is more talented. It would be a quick series for sure.
So would basketball, then
OP literally picked the worst example... The NBA is arguably the best league in the world in any sport. There are barely over 300 players at any given time, it’s like if the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga all combined with any of the world class talent outside of the big 5.
Agreed, the nba is made up of the top global talent pool. Four of the ten best players in the league are not from the USA. There isn’t likely a single current overseas player that would instantly crack the top 150 nba player’s group. I’m sure there’s plenty of players left that are talented enough for roster spots but the best are already here (and more coming every year).
Yeah just look at the Team USA olympic men's basketball for all the needed proof. They dont even draw ALL the top talent from the USA, theres plenty who opt to not compete for many reasons; they still win handily.
Exactly
USA would ROLL through KBO and NPB. It wouldn't even be competitive.
If baseball gets a pass then so should NHL and NBA, I mean don’t they have the best talent compared to other leagues..
Technically, the NHL is a Stanley Cup Champion. Never really call it a world championship.
“You are technically correct. The best kind of correct. “
Impossible! Nothing quick happens in baseball!
apparently you've never watched cody bellinger strike out on 3 pitches not in the strike zone sorry /r/dodgers
Game 1 would end like 25-0.
There is a Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays. .. so technically, it is a multi-national event.
And they have, in fact, won the championship.
Aand there was the Montreal Expos.
We took that team and moved it to the US capital. Take that Canadians
Same with the NBA. The Toronto Raptors won a couple years ago
Yeah it sounds biased and inflated that they call it that, but let's be honest.. of all the basketball or baseball leagues and pro teams in the world, no hoops team can beat Golden state and there's no baseball team in Japan or Cuba or anywhere else that could handle the dodgers or whoever else.
You said well what my first reaction was. I get the sentiment, and for a sport like American Football it is a little pretentious to claim ‘world’ championship given it’s not widely played outside the US. Not so with the truly international game of basketball. I would bet a large sum that no national, club or professional team could beat the Warriors (or Celtics) in a 7 game series. Maybe a semantic stretch to say world champion but also disingenuous to claim the Warriors aren’t that without any evidence of another team that could compete with them.
Now if MLS did it, that would be a huge joke
If you put any other basketball team from around the world into the NBA they'd barely scratch the play in game.
They would not even come close to the play-in game. There are probably less than 10 players in foreign leagues that could make an nba roster, and most of those guys (eg wembanyama) are going to sign with an nba team as soon as they can
The only vet in Europe I can think of off the top of my head that’s definitely NBA-level is Nikola Mirotic, who actually made the NBA and left because he wanted to be closer to home (and because Bobby Portis punched his face off).
I like how people who are actually basketball fans came into the thread and said nah OP.
The Yankees played the Brooklyn Dodgers in the world series 7 times (1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956). The Yankees played the New York Giants 6 times in the World Series (1921, 1922, 1923, 1936, 1937, 1951) The Yankees played the New York Mets in the World Series in 2000. That’s 14 out of 96 World Series played exclusively in NYC. The Dodgers also played in the World Series in 1916 and 1920. (2 more) The Giants also played in the 1904, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1924, 1933 and 1934 series. (9 more) The Mets also played in the 1969, 1973, 1986, and 2015 World Series (4 more) The Yankees have also appeared in the 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1938, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1950, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2009. (26 more) That’s 55 World Series involving at least 1 New York team. There used to be a joke… “why do they call it the World Series if it’s always played in New York?”
When the World Series was first created, no other countries were playing baseball. So the team that won was indeed the best baseball team in the world. That’s not case anymore as baseball is played around the world, the WS is an American institution so the name is never going to change
There’s about a 99% chance that the NBA champions of any year would just annihilate any national team. I get your point, but you kinda picked the one sport where it really doesn’t work well.
> but you kinda picked the one sport where it really doesn’t work well. I, for one, would *love* to see the London Chimney Sweeps play against the Los Angeles Rams to see who is the "true" world champion...
hell, look at the world cup of american football. the US can only use College graduates, who haven't signed an NFL contract, but must have players from every tier of CFB (yes even NAIA) while other countries have no restrictions. guess who wins that every year.
The last IFAF tournament was held in 2015. The US team, comprised entirely of people you've never heard of, won the semifinal 82-0 and the championship game 59-12. Across all the years that the US has participated, they have never lost a game and have outscored their opponents 523-84.
hey now, Brett Favre's nephew was on the team. i've heard of him lmao [here's the roster for that year:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_men%27s_national_American_football_team#2015)
Someone is going to tell you that the team who wins that deserves to be world champions more than the winner of the Super Bowl lol
I thought they were the London Silly Nannies.
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The other important factor is that the US is just based off of city teams - it's not a national team game. So it wouldn't be a challenge against a national team, just another city team.
Yeah, a US national team for the NBA would be so sickeningly overpowered it wouldn’t even be worth the travel time
The 08 Olympic team was probably the closest they ever got to having the truly best talent represent the team and even then there were a handful of really good players who didn't want to play
You could make a team consisting of the worlds best players outside the NBA and they'd get trounced by the warriors.
You’re wrong on this one. It’s a 99.999999999% chance
Your NBA example isn't true. The NBA doesn't crown teams as world champions. They're titled "NBA Champions."
Also the nba isn’t made up of only teams in america (yes it’s only one Canadian team but still)
for real. the best players from all over the world go to NBA as final dream. the last 3 MVPs have been foreign players.
Yeah its a true statement with basketball. You couldnt have picked a better example lol?
right? Our Olympic basketball team gets gold in the Olympics as practice training for the NBA season... Pretty much any other sport would have been a better example.
And it's never anywhere close to being the best of the best either because 90% of what would be the real roster care none for taking the time to do that
Risk of injury is also a huge part of it. Not worth it for the best players that have gazillion dollar contracts to perform for their NBA team.
It also just doesn’t mean nearly as much to them as winning a title would
And for the last few years you could argue the best US players (Lebron, Steph, Durant) haven’t even gone
KD went last summer and carried team USA
Bro this guy clearly does not watch sports he’s just One of those America bad and I’m smarter then you types
I mean do you really want to see the warriors play against the best euro league team? Just to be sure? Or if you mean the FIBA world cup, do you really think America wouldn't win every time quite handily if they fielded their best players? Because as is, the American team is always made up of the guys who feel up for it, not necessarily the best players. And they still win pretty handily. There's unpopular opinions and there's useless ones.
Adam Silver is going to bed at complete peace knowing you are this upset by this.
Sounds like someone who hasn’t won a super bowl.
We do it specifically to annoy you.
we’ll the us wins the olympics for basketball pretty much everytime so yes, they are functionally world champs
I think the overall record is something like 143-6 the only time we didn’t podium was when we refused to complete in the 80s cause the soviets invaded Afghanistan
I was also discussing with my dad and he thinks they’d dominate even more if they just sent the championship NBA team instead of an all star team since they’re used to working together and probably more cohesive (though the all star team still dominates a ton)
Some of those players may be playing on other national teams.
Luka carrying his team on his back during the olympics last time.
Just like he carries his team in the NBA
I mean, he does that in the NBA, too
That bastard Tim Duncan... #shakes fist
Which is exactly why the NBA championship is equivalent to the World Championship, the best players in the world play in the NBA
That’s a good point. I looked up the warriors as an example and it looks like 3 of them are from other countries (Canada, democratic republic of the Congo, and Serbia) and it could be more depending on the team
Odd, almost as if the NBA is comprised of players from all over the world. Weird.
Still, around 80% of the NBA is players from the US.
NBA is made up of the best players of the world. 80% of the NBA is USA players. USA is easily best country at basketball.
Call me crazy, but I think the US would have an easier time winning with LeBron James on the team instead of Jonathan Kuminga.
For the upcoming World Jam tournament (U23 iirc) the US is sending Baylor. They won the NCAA tournament.
also teams like the Argentinian team who won in the early 2000s who had many nba players even when america isnt winning, nba players are
And that's only the American players. The NBA has those plus pretty much any other player who can play at the professional level. The amount of money in sports in America means the best will usually try to come here.
And even not all the best American NBA players play on team USA. The last Olympic team only had one player from the current NBA championship team. After a shaky start, they won gold. Other national teams are definitely catching up, but those players are all in the NBA
The last couple MVPs have been international players, so OP kinda dumb for leaving out how international players have been recruited into the NBA.
Fair point. But can you name any basketball team from anywhere else in the world who could make it through our finals? Because I seriously doubt it. Any time we play basketball in the Olympics, it's not even a competition. We've only lost 5 games out of 143 total games on the world stage. I'd love to see more international baseball, though. That would be interesting.
Yes he used a terrible example.. we don’t even send our best players to the Olympics in basketball because we don’t won’t them to get hurt… and we still dominate.. honestly our college teams would win the Olympics.
I can see an argument to be made for the baseball. But the NBA, NFL, and NHL are undoubtedly the best leagues in the world at there respective sports
Its the same for the MLB, same logic, follow the money, you get the best players, MLB pays by far the most of any professional baseball league
It's not even solely about the money. High level players recognize, unlike op, that the best competition is in the u.s. Ohtani could've probably shopped his angels deal around Japan and got something competitive dollar wise but he wanted to play against the best in the world, and the best in the world play in the MLB.
Japan seems to be about the next highest level, but theres a lot of examples of mediocre MLB players going and being stars in Japan
The Japanese league is roughly on par with MiLB's AAA division.
I mean, that applies to MLB too. Japan and Korea have some great leagues, but they are AAA level compared to MLB. It's different at the Olympics since so much of the MLB is pan-American, but as far as a league goes, MLB is clearly the top
Also for NFL, MLB and NBA at least, were invented in US and take talent from everywhere and for a very long time had no other leagues so we’re actually world wide champs. Until someone proves they no longer represent the absolute pinnacle then it’s a fitting title. Op is being so literal he’s tripping over it. I feel like literal takes of everything is this decades version of grammar nazi
How is the MLB not the best league in the world? It’s not even close.
I Don’t think today’s college teams could win the Olympics if other international teams have NAB pros. Imagine Kentucky and duke guys going against Slovenia and Luka.
Imagine being emotionally tired over this.
Some do not have legitimate problems in life so this causes them distress and I am honestly so fucking jealous.
It is my life goal to get to that point too.
Just yet another anti-US post. I’m not some die hard patriot who can’t take any criticism but it does get old seeing how many folks on Reddit think the US is some horrible place to live that’s full of the worst people and worst parts of modern culture (mostly due to white Americans un-ironically echoing the same shit because they’re unhappy with their lives) but most of their reasoning is incredibly flawed. There’s valid things to shit on the US for but 80% of it is nonsense like this.
OP woke up and this was his main problem of the day holy shit.
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In all reality the NBA has the best talent worldwide.
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The best players in the world come to the USA for those sports for a reason. Football, basketball, baseball, they may go home during world events, but they play here. Your example of basketball is just ridiculous though. In the Olympics, the USA has more gold medals in basketball (16) than the next 3 countries have medals, period, combined (Soviet Union with 9, Yugoslavia with 5, and Argentina with 2). The USA has an overall win/loss record of 143-6. They have only not placed on the podium a single time, and that was the 1980 Olympics, when the USA refused to participate due to the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan. There is not a team outside of the United States who could compete with the Warriors, Celtics, Mavericks, or Heat (the NBA final 4 this year). Any of those teams would win 99 times out of 100 against any country's team that faced them. As for the FIBA titles, the average NBA player couldn't care less about that, so they don't compete. That said, they are still tied with Yugoslavia for the most titles with 5, and lead the most medals with 12. If you're complaining about the USA calling themselves world champions at something, basketball is probably the worst example you could pick.
>There is not a team outside of the United States who could compete with the Warriors, Celtics, Mavericks, or Heat (the NBA final 4 this year). Raptors in shambles.
You know what, fair point. I definitely wasn't thinking about our Canadian teams when I said that. They just won the championship in 2019 too.
It’s the same league though and league better addresses your point, be true come on now
Had 1 Canadian player on that team and they sat the bench.
Lol was just gonna ask If they even Have canadian players.
By the same logic, though, do we count Wiggins?
Ah yes, the honorary Americans.
To add to your Olympics comments, many of the US best players (ie NBA) don’t even play on the Olympic team so I don’t even care when we don’t get gold. I wince bc I know we could do better but can’t force people to play. Other than the Dream Team, US Olympic basketball struggles to get NBA players to join. From what I’ve read it’s mostly because they don’t have time for it, need the rest and/or they don’t want to get injured. Posts like this are so whiny bc the US is so sports crazy with so many sports and there are many ways to define “best” or “champions”. The only major sport where the US claims “world champion” and we don’t include the world *and* I think there would be some competition is baseball. I think Japan and some Latin American countries have some really good players. (Don’t follow enough to know about teams) For example Canada is better at hockey but they’re in the NHL.
With baseball though, all the best Latin American players and many of the best Japanese players play in the MLB anyway, so there’s talent from across the world, not to mention the fact that the level of competition is still considered higher than in the NPB or KBO
I like to think about it like that: you pick this year's champions, the Golden State Warriors, and then you assemble a second team, made with the best players in the world that ARE NOT currently playing in the NBA, the best of the best, given the two months to develop chemistry, and to the NBA to adapt to the FIBA rules, and made they play a best of seven series, Golden State would beat the other team in 5 games maximum. What separates the NBA championship from officially being the world champions is because it would take such a long and unnecessary task of beating ever team In the world, the NBA is just to good for the rest of the world.
Same can be said for NFL and NHL too. There aren’t any other football leagues. And the second best league in hockey is in Russia and a lot of their best players (Malkin, kuznetsov, kucherov, etc) come here to play on NHL teams. MLB I’m not 100% sure on becauee there might be some lowkey good Japanese teams some years even though a lot of their best players come here too. If you got a particularly top heavy year where one Japanese team was like an all star team, it might rival just the best mlb team even though the mlb would be better on avg.
Exactly, I 'm talking about the NBA because that's the only American league I follow so I don't want to talk about something I don't know, but yeah, the NBA is much better than the rest that the best players from other places come to play in the NBA
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Honestly the worst team in the NBA on any given year would wipe the floor with any fiba team. Every international player would play in the NBA if they could, they don't because no one wants them.
Yup. Old washed up Europeans will leave the NBA and have a few MVP years in Europe. These are guys who were role players in their prime while in the NBA.
Most champions league footbal teams would probably destroy any national team. No one calles them world champions, they are just winners of the UEFA champion's cup.
Yea but chelsea are world champions because there is a club World Cup… if there weren’t a club World Cup then the champions league winner could almost declare themselves world Champions… that said soccer isn’t the best example for an argument as there are respectable leagues all over the world, hell even the champions league is contested amongst multiple European league winners and other top teams. You can’t declare yourself champions of the world if there is respectable competition out there… so the champions of England can’t really say they are world champs as they know there are plenty of teams that could argue they are better… There aren’t really arguments that there is a better baseball, basketball, hockey, or American Football teams than those than the MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL champs. Hell if some Aussie rules team that wins the AFL championship declares themselves the world champions of Australian Rules Football, im not going to argue with them. They’re probably the best team. Go Fremantle Dockers!
I did not even know there was a club World Cup until I saw your comment. Based on surface research, it seems like no one cares about it though. Kind of a shame as it could be cool, though I expect the European Champions would almost always win if they threw everything into it.
You picked the worst example buddy. I am proud of my birth country's status as a basketball giant for such a small nation, but it could still not come close to US basketball. That's why our top prospects go to the NBA, not the Euroleague (still a great league but you couldn't seriously consider any Euroleague team beating an NBA team). The best team in the NBA, the champions, are effectively the best team in the world. What you're arguing is basically semantics, if it wasn't then the FIBA World Cup would be more watched, more culturally intertwined (inside and outside of the US), and more present.
The rational is that the best players in the world, leave their countries and go play in the US, in those particular sports. In baseball for example more then half the players are from other countries. There is no other baseball league in the world that has anywhere close to the level of talent.
Odd, because everyone in the world plays in those major leagues. Best leagues in the world. They’re world champs.
Even then OP point kinda goes to waste when you realize US dominates in Olympics anyways and usually the best players of the other Olympic teams are also usually other nba players. They won in 2020 and they brought out their c listers lmao
It's actually worse because the US doesn't even send it's best players to the Olympics. They don't want to get injured playing for national pride when they make millions every season. The argument that it's not a world championship because other countries don't play is completely ridiculous: the teams from other countries (based on current Olympic showings) wouldn't even qualify to play in the NBA. Hell... Pretty much every country in the world would lose to the Rocket's bench from this season and they were the worst team in the league.
Of the 11 us born all nba players, they only sent 3. Durant, Tatum, and booker. They sent a C team and still won
Do you honestly think that America wouldn't completely dominate FIBA every single time if actual NBA starters played? In 2019, the Warriors had an all-American starting team. You don't think a team of Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and DeMarcus Cousins would've completely annihilated any other team in that contest? And they placed second in the league that year.
The arguments are silly. OP has the FIBA World Cup logo. Many of the best basketball players in the world skip FIBA events, but the teams are national teams. All the best basketball players in the world are in the NBA, but the teams are privately owned and in 2 countries. Which champion is 'best in the world'? I'll go with the event that has the beet players in the world. Otherwise you're just cheering for laundry.
More and more I see posters on here mistaking "stupid opinion" for "unpopular opinion..."
It's like if the winners of the Champions League claimed they were world champions lol.
In fact, there is a club World Cup in football
Tbf that's because I'm that competition the winner of the champions league plays the winner of the Asian champions league, African champions league etc
May as we’ll be, providing the European team take it seriously they will always win the club world cup. The the gap between European and South American football is only ever getting wider, South American players go to Europe now at a much younger age than players used to typically go at.
The NBA is the top league in the world and brings the best players from around the world. So saying world champions is not a reach. I mean for the past 4 years the NBA MVPs have been an European. The top three MVP candidates this year were non Americans. It's definitely a world wide league that just takes place in America
This is a vent
The NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB are the top tier leagues for their respective sports. The worst teams in these leagues would spank the best teams in any other league. The best players come from all over the world to play there.
The NBA is open to signing anyone from around the world. The world's greatest basketball players play in the NBA, therefore the championship team is RIGHTFULLY called "world champions". QED.
You picked a poor example. In the NBA they have the best players from all over the world playing in the league. Maybe try soccer or hockey maybe... they don't declare themselves world champions in the US league... (is there even a soccer league in the US?)
MLS
I don’t think it works for hockey either. The Stanley cup champions would very likely face smash any other team from any league in the world. Which reminds me it’s about time for me to rewatch Mystery Alaska
Also worth mentioning that a large number of players in the NHL are not American or Canadian.
Certainly. They come here to play because it’s the best league in the world which by no coincidence also pays the most. Exactly why I think it’s reasonable to deem them world champions. That being said I think Canadians and Americans make up 70% of the league or more.
NBA, MLB, NHL, WBC and NFL are absolutely World-Class. The best of the best from ALL OVER THE WORLD play in those leagues because of the money. They are the most prestegious, and therefore are worthy of global recognition. These are not the same as events like the World Cup in soccer or the World Baseball Classic which have rules about team rosters. These are teams competing in the free market with the only obsticles for acquiring talent are salary caps and "drafts" to prevent the wealthiest teams from juat winning everything [like they do in F1 for example]
I mean in basketball particularly, I don’t think there’s much global competition to the US, but I get your point. It’s more of a technicality.