That is extremely ignorant. There are tons of Euroleague players playing rec ball at the YMCA in Vancouver and they never had a chance to compete for the championship. NBA Playoffs only include Toronto and due to this lack of national exposure in Canada, Dirk can only call himself US and Euroleague Champion.
Of course, you won't, and that's your prerogative and no one can take that away, but the fact of the matter is that the European CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Champions don't call themselves that and we shouldn't, either, because they know they haven't played the entire world. THAT team then plays in the World CLUB Championship and only THEN they can call themselves WORLD CHAMPS and EVERYONE accepts this because everyone in the world got a chance to compete and didn't make it through. The whole discussion is about if EVERY TEAM IN THE WORLD got to compete in that tournament, and the answer is no. Until there is a world-level competition of basketball teams, like the Olympic teams, then we can call them World Champs. Right now, they're only NBA champs.
So, Panathinaikos is the Euroleague champions. Are the Mavs going to play them? Did the NBA stop doing this? I haven't been keeping track of that. I checked OHMSS claim that the lakers lost to Barcelona but that was during pre-season and not really a championship game. Who knows if they were even taking it seriously as the Lakers tend to take games off. I remember Houston played the Euro champs when we won the NBA Championship to rightfully own the title World Champions. Dallas should play them though. and the winner should be crowned World Champion.
Dirk doubling down via twitter, "Wow. That parade was insane. Best day of my life. Speechless. Mavs fans r the best in the world. Thanks everyone. We r the champions" Obviously Drik and the NBA use hyperbole to celebrate. Repeating the obvious, the "U.S. B-Team" are the obvious current world champions. Obviously!
The Wikipedia article on korfball states as follows: "Each team tries to score using tactics." I am intrigued.
The USA B Team is the select roster. FIBA official rules state that the "B" team is the secondary practice team, or the team that plays at minor tournaments. The FIBA rules state that the "A" team is the team that plays at major tournaments. That is the USA "A" team, and it is a pure fiction to claim otherwise. It is NOT based on sending all the best players or not. If that was the case, then USA was playing against many B and C teams of other countries in that tournament.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Nowitzki Coming straight from his coach's mouth but I'm sure he is ignorant since you have watched more Euro ball than him
Dirk played in Germany's version of the D-League. Probably something like the 30th-40th best league in Europe. He never played in Euroleague in his whole life. He did not leave the Euroleague to go to the "better competition" of the NBA. He left Germany's version of the D-League (not even the first level league of Germany, but the second level one) to go to the better competition of the NBA. You have been believing the stupid NBA marketing that pretends he played in Euroleague, the best league in Europe, when he actually played in about the 30th-40th best league in Europe.
Why do people continue to feed trolls? Well it is entertaining. The post above mine is particularly special. I had no idea Euro fans of this type existed.
OH, Why are you such here? You don't even live in Europe, why do you care what people think? The NBA is by far and away the best league in the world, the leagues in Europe are like the MLS in soccer compared to the premier league, they are laugh out loud funny, and not even close to as good as the NBA. And to read you constantly posting from your mom's basement in Arkansas like you have any real knowledge about anything other than the number of pubes lying in the drain from you cranking it every day to grainy Euro footage is disturbing to say the least. DD
Dude, just stop. Putting better competition in quotes is just stupid. It's sad that you see it this way. Good job on avoiding his comment on playing against the best competition. All you did was put down the league Dirk played in, which had NOTHING to do with my point. I bolded playing against the best specifically for you but your selective reading got in the way. SMH I love the crowds in Euro ball but that ish just puts me to sleep. I'll take NCAA college ball any day over anything Europe has to offer when it comes to hoopin.
using this logic, you could say the mavericks aren't really the nba champs either, because they didn't beat EVERY nba team in the playoffs. they only beat 4 teams !!! championship revoked !!!
Now you're learning, grasshopper. It's the same logic that says the Rockets back-to-backs were tainted "without" Jordan.
Kind of sucks to be on the same side of the argument with a crazy person. Have we ever established that OHMSS is not the same person as that "T-Mac is not a point forward" dude? They seem similarly obsessed.
The MLS is in the range of the 30th-50th best league in the world. The EPL is in the range of being top 3-5 maybe. Euroleague is 2nd. So far you have never achieved one logical argument in this thread. #2 does not = #30-50. #1 does not = somewhere around 3-5 You either have a very severe lack of basic sports knowledge, or you are just trying to stir the pot for no reason. OHMSS
I've got no problem with Dirk calling them world champions... the NBA is the best basketball league in the world and consists of many non-american players, dirk himself is german. Maybe in the future the champions of the euroleague and the nba champions can play to see who are the true world champions, but the fact of the matter is that no one would care about it, not even the NBA players most likely. Look at the FIFA Club World Cup, barely any coverage of it at all, compared to the champions league which everyone cares about. Can you name which team Inter Milan beat in the Club World Cup this past year? Didn't think so. Can you name which team they beat in the CL Final? Of course you can. I doubt even the players on Inter Milan cared that much about winning the club world cup, nothing compared to winning the cl final or winning the serie a.
Cuz We Are The CHAMPIONS.... <object width="560" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/76rZyVbM7YI&start=36&end=76"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/76rZyVbM7YI&start=36&end=76" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> ..of the WESTERN HEMISPHEEEEERE
Oh man, this is getting ridiculous. I don't know what you're problem with Dirk is. He just said it without thinking about it. How many players in the past have called themselves "world champion"? But now that Dirk says it it's something different? And, by the way, your arrogant style of writing doesn't really help your credibility. Besides that, there is no arguing that the NBA is the best basketball league in the world. Every player's dream in Europe is to play in the NBA someday. If you neglect that, then you simply don't know anything about basketball in Europe. And the fact that Barcelona beat the Lakers in a PRE-SEASON game doesn't mean anything at all. The Timberwolves were 6-2 in pre-season games 2010/11 and beat the Lakers 111-92. So, are they better than the Lakers? Obviously not. You see, pre-season games mean nothing. There is absolutely no doubt that any Euroleague team will lose to any NBA team in an official game. The best players play in the NBA. Period. And I say that even though I AM from Europe.
If what you say was true, the NBA would not have been the only league to refuse FIBA's world club championship league. The NBA refused to allow it to happen, while every other league wanted it. Only the NBA was afraid of playing against the rest of the world. If they would "definitely win any game" then they would not be so afraid to play a world championship, especially when FIBA was offering them $10 million a season to participate, to a league that is losing $350 million - $400 million a season in recent years....... and they STILL refused to participate. Which means the NBA is obviously too scared to play the rest of the world.
