Last week, American sprinter Noah Lyles made headlines after winning both the 100-metre and the 200-metre title (his third consecutive sweep) at the World Athletics Championship in Budapest. But the news cycle wasnโt so much concerned about his accomplishment as it was with what he said at the press conference.
The 26-year-old athlete aimed his verbal crosshairs at the NBA and expressed a sentiment that much of the world beyond the US had been thinking for some time now:
โThe thing that hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have โWorld Championโ on their heads. World champion of what? Of the United States?โ
RELATED: 30 Years Ago, Historyโs Greatest Basketball Team Won Olympic Gold
โDonโt get me wrong, I love the US โ at times โ but that ainโt the world. That is not the world. We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show that they are representative. There ainโt no flags in the NBA.โ
โWeโve got to do more. Weโve got to be presented to the world. I love the track community, but we can only do so much within our own bubble. Thereโs a whole world out there.โ
Naturally, these remarks invited criticism from countless NBA players and fans alike, who defended the โWorld Championโ status on the grounds that the league hosted the athletes from all across the globe. The jersey of the 2023 champs, for example, might suggest it was solely a win for Denver, Colorado, but many also view it as a win for Serbia through Nikola Jokic.
The week following Noah Lylesโ comments, the US menโs national basketball team lost 104-110 in a match against Lithuania at the 2023 FIBA World Cup. It isnโt the greatest USA basketball roster they could have fielded, sure, but maybe thatโs exactly the point. They can no longer expect to steamroll other countries anymore.
By no means are we implying the US has lost its status as the country with the highest concentration of native court talent. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry โ along with a majority of the NBAโs players โ on a single team would still be ridiculously unfair. Although itโs safe to say the rest of the world is catching up, and Team USAโs basketball dominance isnโt as guaranteed as it used to be.
An increasingly popular idea for the NBA is to once again change the All-Star Game structure to reflect this. It used to be Western Conference vs Eastern Conference, then it was the two players with the highest votes as team captains picking their playersโฆ how about Team World vs Team USA?
Yes, the top-fight US team would beat any other countryโs top-flight team. But what about every other countryโs best โ sort of like the Ryder Cup? Think of it now: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the starting five? The US would certainly have their work cut out for them against this hypothetical alliance of nations with Antetokounmpo and Doncic themselves both believing that Team World would dominate.
International players arenโt just designated role players that people accuse of being soft and unable to play defence anymore. The UA hasnโt had a player win MVP since 2018. Plus the #1 pick in this yearโs draft was a 7โ5โณ kid from France.
This was always the plan for the late former NBA commissioner David Stern. He always envisioned the globalisation of the NBA; and that exciting talents would emerge from every corner of the globe. Along with FIBA secretary-general Boris Stankovic, Stern petitioned for NBA exhibition games to be played overseas and forced the NBAโs biggest names to play in the 1992 Olympics โ Michael Jordan and the Dream Teamโs contributions having famously caused the sport to explode in popularity.
RELATED: Aussie NBA Icon Luc Longley Tells Us Everything โThe Last Danceโ Left Out
โWhen I got into the league, right off the bat, you could see there was a prejudice,โ explained San Antonio Spurs coach and basketball legend Gregg Popovich.
โA little hesitancy to sign a foreign player because either they wouldnโt play defence; that was the tone that would be used. Or they wonโt assimilate. They wonโt like it here. Itโs not gonna work out.โ
โAnd nothing couldโve been further from the truth, and I knew that because Iโd travelled to so many places, whether it was Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Russia, South America, all those places. And weโd played against some of these guys, and they were awesome every place we went. So, I knew they were out there. They were everywhere.โ
โWell, long story short, now they are everywhere in the NBA.โ
