Damian Lillard: “The NBA champs is world champs… If you take the best team in the NBA and just send them on a tour to play in the best leagues everywhere else, they getting smoked… I don’t understand what the debate is.”
by Brady331
@National Basketball Association
47 Comments
How tf y’all still on this nonsense
Nba players are really struggling with this concept.
Another day, another hypothetical. A true basketball content /s
what does lame time even know about being a champion 😅
You don’t throw jerseys on the court.
You play games.
It’s hilarious to me that every American NBA player that discussed this cannot comprehend it, but every international NBA player that discussed this understands and agree with it
I hate everything about this debate.
First of all, everyone can probably agree this is a silly debate, but hey, it’s the off-season.
So would this “tour” consist of single games or actual 7 game series? Let’s just say it’s going to be one game. What if the NBA champs get some key injuries? What if the Adelaide Sixers get insanely hot? What if it takes place at some neutral venue with a 12 hour timezone difference? What if the players enjoy the nightlife just a bit too much?
Point is, just because someone’s a clear favorite doesn’t mean they would win 100/100 games no matter what. This is why you actually have to play for stuff.
And if you’re saying the NBA champs are so many levels above that they would absolutely smoke anyone, anytime, anywhere, then maybe being the world champs doesn’t actually mean all that much.
The debate is that you “could” do it, but you “don’t”.
I get the assumed superiority, but the National League had the exact same hubris when they first started playing the American League champion in baseball.
He is right about him not understanding the debate.
He’s right.
Show me a team that could best last years nuggets…
Do it then.
This is such a dumb, uniquely American take LOL
Never did I expect to see Back On Figg on this subreddit lmao. Like a r/NoJumper crossover
>If
Yeah, to actually be world champions you have to earn it.
That would benice to see.
Tf Dame know about championships?
Yes that’s the thought, but they haven’t so they can’t say that, yet. Nobody actually knows until it’s done.
The NBA community is still on about this shit?
We all Know that the Campions League fixtures the best players, the best teams and the best coaches, but Still the CL champion is not the “World Champion”, not until they win the Club World Cup.
Its not that hard really.
NBA champions aren’t just world champions, they are galactic champions.
Then fucking do it. Let’s see a basketball Champions League and if they win they like they say they would they can jerk themselves off with at least some merit to it.
The USA vs the World game at All-Star Week is gonna be a bloodbath
“If you take the best team in the NBA and just send them on a tour to play in the best leagues everywhere else”
That’s the IF. You are not declared world champs until you do it. You can’t really claim things based on IFs, do you?
By Lillard’s thinking, when Lebron joined DWade, and they added Bosh in Miami, they should’ve been declared NBA champion right there and then before playing a single game.
That’s what American need to understand about calling an nba team world champion. On per an NBA team destroys the world, but they have to play a world championship before calling themselves world champions, just like Lebron, DWade and Bosh had to play and win an nba championship before calling themselves nba champion.
However, I’m not trying to convince Americans. I know how embedded superlatives are in their culture and nobody can say anything about it that will change their mind. Those who want to listen will though, like Stephen A Smith who finally understood it.
The Nuggets would destroy Germany.
> If you take the best team in the NBA and just send them on a tour to play in the best leagues everywhere else, they getting smoked… I don’t understand what the debate is.
Everybody expects this to happen… but you have to do it anyways.
If you won the UEFA Champions, you are the UEFA Champion, not the world champion.
I feel like this whole thing is a big miscommunication.
Champion does not mean best. Champion means the winner of a contest. Often the best team is the winner of the contest (and therefore champion), but they are not identical.
A team (even the undeniable best team) cannot be a champion of a contest that did not happen.
If the 95-96 bulls had boycotted the playoffs and everything else remained the same, would they still be the 95-96 NBA champions? No, because they did not win that competition, even though they were the best team.
If Magnus Carlsen becomes a Jamaican citizen, is he automatically the Jamaican Chess Champion because he is the best Jamaican player? No, because he hasn’t won that competition yet.
As a Canadian, it’s funny watching the Europeans cry about Americans’ ego while simultaneously using semantics to defend their pride of the “world Champs” title. Like lol ur both doing the same thing, Europeans care about it because it matters for their other sports, for Americans it doesn’t really apply to Football or Basketball.
I don’t think Americans will ever be able to understand it. Nobody is saying that the NBA champs aren’t the best team in the world, just that calling them world champs is incredibly cringey and ridiculously stupid.
How would Dame know? He’s never been on the best NBA team.
His non-winning ass doesn’t need to worry about this conversation
If we go down the pedantic route, does olympic soccer champ get to claim world champion or World Cup champ get to claim world champion? Lol
Who gives af, NBA champion is the only one that means anything.
Guys, to decide who is World Champion, we should start a league with all the best talent from around the world and have them play a regular season to determine seeding for a tournament. The tournament would then decide the World Champs and everyone can settle down! If only that could be done…
In reality, why do people assume World Champion means country against country? Segregating based on nationality is a terrible way to determine the true best in the world. Germany does NOT have the best basketball team in the world. If the term World Champ only means whoever wins in nationally segregated tournaments, and not who is actually the best based on non-segregated play, then the term is worthless. The NBA is truly the best system we have to determine the World Champions and pretending otherwise is silly.
Yet he hasn’t even sniffed a Championship
Except in 2004 when the US national team placed 3rd in the olympics.
What the hell is this podcast setup. And who are all those randos just hanging out in the background.
2002,2004,2006,2019,2023….
This debate is hilarious. The NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB are all the best leagues in their respective sports. The best players in the world have a goal to make it to these leagues. Not the Euroleague.
The best players throughout the world playing each other for a title, yes the NBA is the world championship. The majority of the players Euroleague champions can’t play in the nba. Or have tried and failed.
It’s a marketing thing that the nba had in the 70s or smth to garner more interest that never got removed, it’s really not that deep
I really don’t get how thick these dudes can be…
NBA is a national league. National Basketball Assosication, right? “National”. When you win it, you become the champion of that nation.
UEFA Champions League is the highest level competition in football. But when you win it, you become the European champion. FIFA Club World Cup is a much, much lower level competition, but when you win it, you become the world champion.
These things have got nothing to do with the difficulty of that competition. Being a world champion means winning a worldwide international competition, regardless of it’s difficulty.
Who thinks Germany would beat the Denver Nuggets?
Well… since they arent sent on that world tour, they still just best team in the best league. But hey surely all the rest of the world is wrong and these American athletes are on to something, we should just cancel all these different world championships now.
He’s right
I think we should say NBA Champion instead of World Champion because of how much the gap in quality has closed. Everyone knows The Nuggets would destroy Germany, particularly in a seven game series.
The NBA Champion is more like the Champions League winner than the World Cup winner. If Real Madrid or Bayern played Argentina in soccer they would probably win since they have elite talent from multiple countries.