San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich has quietly evolved from a Stonehenge-like figure of oblique non-entity to a remarkably engaging, opinionated, relatively fascinating and often times hilarious coach who's unafraid to let you know what's on his mind. Perhaps most peculiar about Pop's more outspoken days is his selection of which issues to discuss. Early in the playoffs last year it was the over-the-top player introductions. Now, Popovich has turned his attention to championship terminology. The San Antonio Express News reports that Popovich said to reporters on Tuesday night that he doesn't "know why they call (the NBA title) the World Championship."
""Did any of us who won a championship play anybody in Spain or Russia or Italy, or any other country, other than the United States?"
It's a trivial quibble, to be sure, but I have to say, I kind of agree with Pop, here. I mean, we have the Olympics, we have the FIBA system, there are legitimate international competitions. So why refer to a title that involves only teams from North America a World Championship? Even with the influx of foreign players, the fact that they constitute such a small minority and even the fact that they are termed 'foreign' in the context of the game itself supports the idea that this isn't a global competition.
So what do you think? Is Pop right and we should just call it the NBA Championship? Or is the NBA big enough to warrant the "World Championship" phrasing?
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
I totally agree with Pop on this one...we're not playing ALL the world's team for the ring, only U.S. and Canada....so why do people think of that as "the world"....it's the same U.S. centric arrogance that alienates our country around other topics in the world....thinking we own the world....why not have a "world's championship" for real....are we afraid we can't compete with other countries? Yes we won the olympics so why not go ahead and make it ALL for real...we should do it with Baseball as well....we can't do it with football because no one else plays our version of 'football' but we could do it with hockey, basketball and baseball and recognize that we are not the world we are simply a part of it...
giff,
There is a for real "World's Championship" held every 4 years. Spain are the defending world champs.
Hes right, the only one that should be calling it that is respectably, soccer or "football". which of course, is "The worlds game" by infinity two times.
But hes right, whats with baseball teams doing it too, lol. i dont like that type of ignorance, just because that region is the only one that plays it, why include 80%+ of the planet.
Finally! This had bugged me for a long time. It's not a question of whether the NBA is bigger, or better, or has enough international players. It's about proper terminology. NBA players play for the "NBA Championship", World Championship tournament players play for the "World Championship", Olympic players play for "Olympic Gold", Spanish League players play for the "Spanish League Championship", etc, etc. To refer to the "NBA" Champs as "World" Champs is a semantic error, plain and simple, and should not be an accepted mistake in the sports journalism world.
The USA wants to be a part of;
That is one of the reasons Obama became the president
is no such thing like hate for the american people
it is more like the arrrogance of some politicians
in power to that no more;
No more wars , Asians are human beings like N. korea, so are
the muslims like Iran, iraq, turkey , etc, etc.
In the american continent Cuba and Venezuela just
people like us and be very careful with the so called
friends like Great Britain and Israel with friends like
that who needs enemies but they are welcome too.
Pop is right, I had a friend ask me the exact same question the other day and I couldn't really answer it haha XD! But yea, declaring the NBA Champions as World Champions seems to be a bit wrong.
Umm... I think Popovich is somehow right and somehow wrong.
Somehow right because NBA is the most popular and the most competitive basketball association/league in the planet. Meaning to say, the NBA is the place where the best basketball players in every side of the world play together. In that matter, a NBA champion can be called as the world champion.
Somehow wrong because... I know that there is more talented players in the other part of the world. Like San Antonio Spurs, they won the NBA championship without ever playing the other spectacular team with great players.
My conclusion is, NBA can be called as WORLD CHAMPION. Simply because the class and the level of play in the NBA are obviously above all other leagues in the planet.
By the way, you can visit my blog at http://online-auction-shopping.blogspot.com/. It is about auctions and sports. You can leave comments and suggestions. I'll very appreciate it. Thanks.
Well I guess the Phillies just won the MLB Championship Series, silly me I thought it was the World Series. But I guess until they beat the best teams in Taiwan and Japan, and every other country with a team they can't be called World Series winners. Sorry Phil's, the petty have spoken. Say has anyone else noticed the very real problems in the world?