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Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[url]http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/01/why-spurs-popovich-says-mavs-are-not-wor.html[/url]
[B]Why Spurs' Popovich says Mavs are not world champions[/B]
Just call them champs: Recall that a few days before the season, Mavericks forward Shawn Marion said that the national media wasn't showing the Mavericks proper respect in the wake of their first NBA title.
"I want y'all to address me like that from now on -- world champion," Marion said that day.
Well, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has a pet peeve about people interchanging "NBA" and "world" in front of "champion."
True world champions, Popovich points out, are teams that win the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) tournament played in non-Olympic years.
"Those guys are world champions, but the Dallas Mavericks and Spurs and Lakers and Miami, whatever, are NBA champions," Popovich said. Popovich, who has won four NBA championships, said before Thursday night's game that he was unaware of Marion's request to be addressed as world champion.
"I'll have to tell him tonight," Popovich said. "I sent him a note [this summer] to congratulate him, but he isn't a world champion."
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
The U.S. won the FIBA tournament anyways..
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
America SMASHED AND DESTROYED Spain.
So Mavs = Champs
America = Champs
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
The best player on the Mavs was German & Barea who was a key piece is puertorican so i have no problem to call them World Champions.
They would destroy ANY TEAM IN THE WORLD.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Do you bring anything else to this forum besides NBA vs Euroleague stuff?
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
NBA: Where the best players in the world play
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=tpols]The U.S. won the FIBA tournament anyways..[/QUOTE]
Since when is Team USA comprised of the current NBA championship team's roster? I'm pretty sure that the Dallas Mavericks didn't win that tournament.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=Eric Cartman]The best player on the Mavs was German & Barea who was a key piece is puertorican so i have no problem to call them World Champions.
They would destroy ANY TEAM IN THE WORLD.[/QUOTE]
Yet, they only played against teams from USA and Canada. Since when did the USA/Canada = "the world"?
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=Brujesino]Do you bring anything else to this forum besides NBA vs Euroleague stuff?[/QUOTE]
This thread has absolutely nothing to do with the Euroleague.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
NBA has the best athletes from across the world. So when you have an NBA champion, its the best of the best from across the world. Euroleague would be like "City champions"
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Winning the NBA title = "League Champions" or "NBA Champions"
LOL @ "World Champions"
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
The best players in the world play in the NBA
FACT.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Greg Popovich dipped from scrub Euroleague cause he knew it was awful.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=Eric Cartman]The best players in the world play in the NBA
FACT.[/QUOTE]
that doesn't change anything.
the winner of the fiba world championship are the world champions.
the winner of the nba championship are the nba champions.
see the logic there?
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Why can't you just admit that the best basketball players in the world are from the US?
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=Eric Cartman]The best players in the world play in the NBA
FACT.[/QUOTE]
The NBA champions only play against teams from USA/Canada.
FACT.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
I have to agree on this one. "World champions" is just silly. Imagine if winner of Champions League in soccer, the best league in the world, smt similiar as NBA in bball, is called the World champion. Maybe they should make small tournament for the best teams from each continent, and than it would be called like that. But now, naw, they are not "World champions".
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
I think it's a stupid semantic argument and anyone who really honestly gets offended or angered by it should check their priorities.
Glad we got that out of the way. :cheers:
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Nba champion and Euroleague champion should play for the world champion title .
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=Euroleague]This thread has absolutely nothing to do with the Euroleague.[/QUOTE]
Yes it does.
It's yet another thinly veiled attempt by you to say the NBA is not the best league in the world.
Like another posted alluded to you bring nothing to this board other than trying to troll users about a league NO ONE CARES ABOUT.
This is a NBA forum, what exactly will it take to get that through your head?
If you hate the NBA so much explain why you're here other than trying to insite arguements?
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Cut the crap and lets do this guys
[url]http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/report.php?p=6706015[/url]
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Yeah.... you can't be the world champions of something that's only played in 2 countries. Yes they probably are the best club team in the world. But they haven't won a world championship. I don't like how American teams do that. MLB can though, cos no one else gives a shit about baseball.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=Timmy D for MVP]I think it's a stupid semantic argument and anyone who really honestly gets offended or angered by it should check their priorities.
Glad we got that out of the way. :cheers:[/QUOTE]
This
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=BlackWhiteGreen]Yeah.... you can't be the world champions of something that's only played in 2 countries. Yes they probably are the best club team in the world. But they haven't won a world championship. I don't like how American teams do that. MLB can though, cos no one else gives a shit about baseball.[/QUOTE]
Japan has a baseball league so no, that doesn't work. BTW, this is Popovich. You know he got a stupid question so he was being saracastic, right?
And Euroleague, when there was a lockout, and people might have been interested in European BBall, all you did was act like a ****ing idiot and explain to us how American players would suck. Well, we heard you, didn't care and now the NBA is back. So just go away. NO ONE CARES. Do you see me in EPL threads arguing how underrated the Russian League is?
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
There's a reason Popovich is a great coach, he is smart dude.
The "World Champions" thing makes me laugh, it' idiotic, even more when it's used in sports that only the US play. It kind of reminds me the fat kid that doesn't get picked and goes to his room and makes himself world champion of something. It seems to be a overcompensation for sucking real bad on the biggest sport on the planet, the one that really matters.
Everyone knows Barcelona FC is the best soccer team in world, people that follow many sports will even acknowledge that it's the best "sports" team in the world, but they were called world champions only after defeating the best teams from all continents... because it's what makes sense.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Speaking for myself I dont care about the saying world champions. If a team uses it? So be it. Doesnt bother me.
This goes for any sport across the globe. A crickett team could call themselves world champions. I'm not going to see if it played enough teams internationally to qualify for the saying. Its really not that big of a deal at the end of the day.
Folks say its a silly saying? I guess, but I think its a silly argument. Does it bother you THAT much? Or are you just a smartass where you want someone to just acknowledge [I]"You are right."[/I] but the one constant is neither side really cares.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=niko]Japan has a baseball league so no, that doesn't work. BTW, this is Popovich. You know he got a stupid question so he was being saracastic, right?
And Euroleague, when there was a lockout, and people might have been interested in European BBall, all you did was act like a ****ing idiot and explain to us how American players would suck. Well, we heard you, didn't care and now the NBA is back. So just go away. NO ONE CARES. Do you see me in EPL threads arguing how underrated the Russian League is?[/QUOTE]
Well, if 3 countries play a sport professionally, it must be huge.
But he's right :confusedshrug: you aren't world champions if youve played teams from 2 countries. Premier League is the best football league in the world, are Manchester United World Champions? No, Barca (and Spain, I guess) are.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=Timmy D for MVP]I think it's a stupid semantic argument and anyone who really honestly gets offended or angered by it should check their priorities.
Glad we got that out of the way. :cheers:[/QUOTE]
I agree. I don't know of anyone who takes the term "World Champions" literally. Even as a child, I knew if the Detroit Pistons were "World Champions" it just meant they won the NBA championship, not some world-wide tournament.
We had a thread on this no more than a week ago. And I agree "World Champions" is totally inaccurate, but I don't think it birthed from some sort of collective elitist American viewpoint. Rather, I've always sort of assumed it was developed by some NBA representative in the 1950's who wanted to create an extra draw to the game. As I said in the other thread, to someone trying to sell the league, what sounds better: "Come watch the winners of last year's league tournament!" or "Come watch the World Champions!"
But to reiterate, again, I don't think anyone puts stock into the term "World Champion". It is indeed a matter of semantics in my opinion.
Here's a link to the original topic: [url]http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=246108[/url]
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
football (soccer):
champions league is the biggest competition in football. whoever wins it, is probably the best team in the world, but its not the "world champions", its the "european club champions". world club championship is another competition between champions from every continent.
nba is restricted to the US so they cant be the world champions
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
It's clearly world champion. NBA is the preeminent premiere league of basketball in the world. The NBA champion would wipe the floor with every international FIBA there out there short of the American team so yes I would call them world champs.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=triangleoffense]It's clearly world champion. NBA is the preeminent premiere league of basketball in the world. The NBA champion would wipe the floor with every international FIBA there out there short of the American team so yes I would call them world champs.[/QUOTE]
This, no team out there would beat the NBA champions in a 7 game series.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
we are the defending FIBA and Olympic champions, the champs can call themselves whatever the flying **** they want, dickwad
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
In order for them to be world champions, teams from all over the world should have the opportunity to participate.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
I agree with Pop, It makes no sense to say world champion. Even if the NBA is the premiere league in the world, it's still not the same thing as if it were an actual international competition. It just reeks of arrogance to claim that.
I know a couple of people said that no team can beat the NBA champions...well consider that last year's champions would be without their best player who would be playing for Germany & the champs for two years before that would be lost without their second best player who'd be playing for the Spanish team. It's not that simple.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
[QUOTE=BlackWhiteGreen]Yeah.... you can't be the world champions of something that's only played in 2 countries. Yes they probably are the best club team in the world. But they haven't won a world championship. I don't like how American teams do that. MLB can though, cos no one else gives a shit about baseball.[/QUOTE]
[B][COLOR="Navy"]Wrong on the baseball front. Baseball has the world baseball classic which is still in its infancy but each country brings a team in and that decides who the world champion is. Baseball isnt a World Series per se it should have been MLB or North America Series initally. Currently MLB is an international sport unlike basketball.
World wide no one gives a crap if an American basketball champion calls themselves world champions. Americans in general are xenophobes when it comes to sports and most things in general.
You definitely couldnt get away with it in Football because thats truly an international sport like baseball. Countries have been playing these sports longer than basketball, similar to American Football.[/COLOR][/B]
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Anyone who thinks this is some sort of "problem" that needs to be rectified is a moron. 100%.
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
Well Pop is right. This has nothing to do with NBA being the best league in the world (because NBA is the best league in the world there's no doubt about it).
It's just that the World Champion is the best national team in the world. I mean, the team that wins Euroleague is not Europe Champion, it's Euroleague champion (team that wins Eurobasket is Europe Champion) : Mavs might be better than the Spanish national team, but that doesn't make them world champion.
How can people argue that another team that the team winning the World Championship is "world champion" ?
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Re: Greg Popovich Agrees That NBA Champions Are Not The "World Champions"
The title "World Champions" for winning a domestic league is so obnoxious it's not even funny. You wanna call someone the World Champion you address Kevin Durant as that.