When a major U.S. sports league concludes a season it normally declares it's champion as "world champion," despite the fact that this really isn't the case. Why is it that U.S. sports teams are generally considered "world champions" while champions from other countries are simply the champions of their respective leagues or countries? Does anyone else find this odd, or perhaps even arrogant in some sense? Granted, some U.S. leagues are the premier league for a sport in the world (i.e. NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL), but does that make them "world champions" or not? Should they be considered world champions? I'm just curious to hear anyone's thoughts . . .
when the US NBA players get beat in BBall at the olympics is when they should stop calling the NBA champs world champs. Baseball champs calling themselves world champs is only true in the fact that so many players from around the world play here in the US.
They got beat in the world championship, and I know that they didn't have their best players there, but the WC is treated as bigger than the olympics by most and that is where they send their best teams. Don't know why US threat it the other way around, but I guess it has to do with Dream Team being organized for the olympics and it became a tradition.
I think there was a topic about this before. World Champions sounds better than National Champions. It makes for better sound bytes and helps sell more t-shirts. Don't read too much into it.
No question...with so much diversity in the NBA, MLB, NHL ...perhaps not so much in the NFL....the champs of these lges deserve to called World Champs. People forget that when we lose to other countries in Olympic events/WC events, its to teams that are stocked with players from these leagues....especially in hoops and hockey.
Well...they really should be NBA champs. Or MLB champs. Or NFL champs or the such. And that could very well have more prestige than World Champs. In hockey they're Stanley Cup Champs. Not World Champs. And that doesn't deminish the win -- in fact, to many it means more than a 'world championship.' In Soccer there are a number of different championships...but only one is considered 'World.' -- and it's not simply the league champs of the best league (even if that league has representatives from all around the world). So it is kind of silly to call it World Champs when it's really a league championship. But you're quite right. It's not a big deal.
I've been questioning this for a while, and noticed that uncomfortably in the NBA finals again. It really doesn't matter you are the best or not, if the league is regional or domestic, it should never be "world champion". There are a few more countries in the world beside US. Yes, no doubt about it, NBA, NHL, and MLB is at the highest level in the world, but as European Champions' League, Sumo Wrestler Championship in Japan, Chinese table-tennis Championship should and will not be called as "world champions", nor should the NBA and NHLs. World Champion is not defined by the level of games, but solely by the participants' range. That's just my 2 cents. Although one is the best in something, one doesn't need to announce it every single day.
Other than baseball with its World Series, does any League itself use the term 'World Champions' themselves? I've seen it as a media thing with only Major League Baseball's using 'World Series' Champion having an official allusion to the entire world. In the NHL, it's the Stanley Cup champs. In the NFL, it's the Super Bowl champs. The NBA refers to it officially that their champ is the NBA Champion.
I think you're right. Anyway, I don't have a problem with it. It's got the best players in the world, and the best basketball teams in the world. They're world champs as far as I'm concerned. If the Chinese ping-pong league has all of the best players, then its perfectly fine by me if they declared their champion the world champ. The UEFA thing, I guess they could call their club the world champ too, though with the cup winners cup and the champions league and the fact that qualifying is based on the previous year and all that other stuff I don't understand, I think it would be a bit more problematic to pick one world champ for a given year.
Interesting the website guys didn't get the message that that was the official wording... or the guys making the hats and shirts. http://www.nba.com/finals2004/index.html
I guess they changed it then. The Rockets shirts I had definately said "NBA World Champions" (Hey, I thought I was agreeing with you)
well then perhaps it is more of a media and public opinion issue. all i know is i heard the words "world champions" and "detroit pistons" about 100 times last night, even from David Stern, and it seemed out of place to me. Also, even though the NFL may refer to it's champ officially as the Super Bowl champ, all you have to do is go to the Patriots official website and in huge letters it claims "World Champion New England Patriots." How is an NFL team a world champion when nobody else even plays american football? it just seems funny to me how we as sports fans look at our teams as world champs. i personally don't particularly like it since nobody else in the world does it and don't think it is justified . Aussie-rules football teams are not called world champions so it doesn't make sense to me that we do. it's obviously not a big deal, but it's something that always puzzles me come championship time in the U.S.
Well, in that case, one could make the case that the Patriots did beat the best the World had to offer. It's just that all the world's American football teams happen to be in the U.S. But it is somewhat silly, and I think unnecessary. Along the line somewhere, someone thought "World Champions" sounded cool, and so it's been used a lot since then. But it's a bit of hyperbole, and it apparently isn't the official nomenclature that the League itself uses. And I do think it's something that came from sportscasters originally and was adopted by some team marketing departments here and there (and apparently by some Leagues at some points, as the Rockets examples apparently show).
i'm going to give you 24 hours to retract your statement. smarty is a world champion!!! and he'll prove it at the real world championship, the Breeders Cup!! and then you suckas will be wishing you were on the bandwagon...suckas!!!
