Best American sports teams calling themselves 'world champions'

[Crazy Jamie]

Posting this because Noah Lyles has just criticised NBA teams for calling themselves 'world champions', which he says diminishes the title because it's not comparable to what he is trying to do. Now online you have the usual divide of (mostly non Americans) saying that you can't call yourselves 'world champions' after winning a national competition, and (mostly Americans) saying that the NBA, NFL etc have the best players in those sports from all around the world, so the winner of that competition is clearly the best in the world at any given time. Which side do you fall on?

Personally for semantic reasons more than anything I just think it's silly to call yourselves world champions when you're not competing in an international competition, and (with the greatest of respect to most of the members on here) calling yourselves 'world champions' in those circumstances is actually a pretty typically bombastic American thing to do in my view.

 

[Tubby23]

I've never had an issue with it personally. Certainly isn't how we describe it in Australia for our sports that are exclusively ours but I've never given it much thought.

At the end of the day it's just language, one would argue we didn't even know if Lyles is the true world champion given the disparate funding in athletics worldwide. He calls himself the best in the world but he's only ever been 3rd best in the Olympics

 

[Crystal]

I find it hilarious that they do it. It's that sense of...ego? I guess. America is the World, therefore winning an American league is winning the World League.

Start doing it, Europe. Let's have the World Champions of Hurling! The World Champions of Shinty! Premier League Champions of the World! Scottish Premier League World Champions! lol

 

[Tubby23]

World Champions of Hurling would be correct, the others would not be comparable.
The Champions League would be the World Champions for soccer

 

[Crystal]

The Champions League would be the World Champions for soccer

...or the world cup..

Also FOOTBALL!

 

[Mark]

I like to think that it in part has something to do with the nationalities involved… take baseball for example. We import talent everywhere from Japan to the Dominican Republic under the pretense of scouring “the world” for talent. Same applies to the NBA and their international talent.

As far as referring to any title as “world champion” without proper representation… nah… that’s just ego. I could see if it were soccer/football as it’s the most popular game in the world (or so I’ve heard)… there are a lot of countries represented there, but I noticed that there aren’t a lot of teams in the league I added to the pool. Could that be the same as American sports, where international talent represents nations they’re not from? Or am I thinking of another league that covers more countries than the EPL?

 

[Fool's Requiem]

The NBA, NHL, and MLB all have the best players from around the world. Players aren't just Americans.

The winner of those leagues are considered "world champions" because they won the championship in a league that features the world's best players.

The closest alternative is the World Baseball Championship, but even then, it's hard to suggest the tournament features the best players in the world because so many players do not play in the league out of fear of injury or a lack of a paycheck. And after Edwin Diaz's injury, don't expect many owners to be as willing to let their players participate in the tournament anymore.

 

[Joseph Snapple]

The NBA, NHL, and MLB all have the best players from around the world. Players aren't just Americans.

The winner of those leagues are considered "world champions" because they won the championship in a league that features the world's best players.

The closest alternative is the World Baseball Championship, but even then, it's hard to suggest the tournament features the best players in the world because so many players do not play in the league out of fear of injury or a lack of a paycheck. And after Edwin Diaz's injury, don't expect many owners to be as willing to let their players participate in the tournament anymore.

Yup, this is where I'm at. These are global leagues because their teams have the unique ability within their respective sports to pull in the best of the best from across the world to compete within them, and they do not shy away from doing so. 'World champions' is completely apt.

A league like MLS doing it, though....nah. lmao.

 

[A Punched Face]

I've always found it funny. I don't mind when the NFL does it because it's the only real league of it's kind. There was a European version of it for a while (is there one again?) And I'm starting to see a lot more German players in college football. Also a lot more Aussie rules or rugby players. It's becoming more international, but still doesn't have worldwide leagues.

The rest are funny.

 

[shortkut]

In some sports, like basketball, while they are competing against the best players in the world, technically they are not competing against other countries so they can’t call themselves world champions

 

[Crystal]

In some sports, like basketball, while they are competing against the best players in the world, technically they are not competing against other countries so they can’t call themselves world champions

Exactly, to be a world champion you have to compete against the rest of the world. The...insert whoever won the super bowl last year can't be world champions because they're representing one city of America against another city of America, irrespective of the makeup of players, those players aren't representing their homeland, they're representing [insert team name here].

The world cup, the world championships or hockey, whatever basketball has, etc those are world champions being crowned because it's those people, representing THEIR country against other countries. Hence it makes sense to call the winner the world champion.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

If America's best basketball players played in a tournament against other countries best basketball players, the US would win in extremely decisive fashion.

 

[Crystal]

If America's best basketball players played in a tournament against other countries best basketball players, the US would win in extremely decisive fashion.

In which case they can call themselves world champions, though aren't countries like Lithuania and Greece decent basketball countries? IIRC they have a big basketball culture.

 

[shortkut]

If America's best basketball players played in a tournament against other countries best basketball players, the US would win in extremely decisive fashion.

Yes but the nba finals do not have games against other countries’ national teams.

They may be the best team in the world, but they did not compete against the world

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Yeah, I don't see how the champion of a league thar features the world's best players can't be considered the world champion just because "countries didn't play against each other."

 

[shortkut]

Yeah, I don't see how the champion of a league thar features the world's best players can't be considered the world champion just because "countries didn't play against each other."

They can be considered the best in the world, but not world champions because the tournament was not open to all countries