I love how people login to CF.net from all over the globe to inform us that the NBA isn't a global league. Self pwnership at its finest.
European has the best soccer players and the UEFA champions league has the stars of the stars playing and is regarded one of the top league in the world. It has, also players from around the world. The winning teams aren't exactly calling themselves the world champions. I am not saying NBA isn't the best league in the world. But it doesn't represent the world.
well, no team winning the champions league ever proclaimed itself "world champion", you need to win this to do it. Guys, the point is that you can't hand anyone a "world champion" trophy just out of talent, you need to win against whoever challenges you. This games aren't proving that euro>nba, of course, what they're proving is that the top euro teams are no piece of cake, and that NBA teams are not guaranteed to win and that upsets can always happen. On thing is being the best team, another is being the champion.
Yeah, you know what? I was in asia when Liverpool played the world club cup (they were basically forced to due to Sepp Blatter threatening to rain down death upon Liverpool and the FA or something to that effect). It was a joke and and Liverpool pretty much approached it like a friendly, and nobody in the football universe cared too much when they didn't win. Liverpool earned the right to call themselves the best club team in the world that year, and no exhibition loss to Corinthians changed that.
I think you mean Sao Paulo, don't you? Once again, that game doesn't really mean that one team is better than the other, just as winning the ring doesn't make a team necessarely better than another. It just mean that you can call yourself champion. Maybe Liverpool didn't care about it, nothing wrong with that until that team starts to call itself WC as NBA teams usually do. BTW the intercontinental cup, as far as I remember, was much more than an exibition game.
As I remember it, it wasn't. It was barely even televised and forgotten by everybody until now. I mean look at the history of the world club championship cup (it is not called the IC cup, the IC cup was just Europe vs. SA, btw) Champions Year Winner Score Runner-up Venue 2006 Details International Stadium, Yokohama 2005 Details São Paulo FC (BRA) 1 - 0 Liverpool FC (ENG) International Stadium, Yokohama 2004 Not Held 2003 Not Held 2002 Not Held 2001 Details CANCELLED Cancelled due to the bankruptcy of ISL Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid 2000 Details Corinthians (BRA) 0 - 0 aet (4-3 in penalty shootout) Vasco da Gama (BRA) Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro LOL, yeah that's a prestigious tourney right there, I mean the champions are a very "select" group...... Contrast that with the NBA world championship, which is televised all over the world
I wrote Intercontinental Cup because I meant it. That was much more than an exibition game, and winning it was enough to be considered world champion (arguable since asian, african or north american teams weren't playing, actually). Afaik the FCWC, since last year, came out to replace it, not sure how prestigious it is now 'cause I'm not into football anymore, I assume there shouldn't have been a huge drop-off in interest. In 2000 it might have been a joke since the IC was there, but now?
World Clup championship is important in Sepp Blatter's wet dreams, and maybe in japan. Anywhere else....not so much. Liverpool almost didn't go last year until FIFA forced them to...why? Becuase they had important EPL and UEFA matches to deal with before and after rather than fly halfway around the world to play a bunch of glorified friendlies.
I think the NBA is the best basketball league in the world too, but I dont think we should call the NBA champion the champion world. Ok, I get the argument for it. The rest of the world is in the closet, they dont evev know what the hell we tilte ourselves witn . Plust they dont care because they dont know better. They have their own little sports called soccer, and they can call whatever the hell they want, so can we. Fine arguments except a little near sighted. I never claimed that I know what the rest world know or may not know. All I am saying, can we just be a little humble. The euro teams a no more walk in the park anymore. Any team that can rip Clippers at full strength a 20 some defeat is a NBA level team, albeit in an uninspring game. The landscape of world basketball is changing. The days of 92 dream team were gone. I dont even buy that Greece is lesser team but they play as team argument. How can it be a lesser team when they shot better, played more smartly. Let's just face it, we have to prove ourselves once agiain before we can use that world champion for NBA by title. The rest of world may very well not care right now. But what if tomorrow they wake up and start making fuss about it. All I am saying is let's be smart about it.
This post is so all over the map it makes no sense, god only knows what relevance "Greece" and the 92 dream team has to do with any of this. Are you saying that the 1992 Bulls are not the NBA world champions? Damn. You seem like you're afraid that the NBA World Champions may one day get transported to an alternate universe existing inside of the earth's core, as in the movie Space Jam, and be forced to play an exhibition game for the fate of western civilization agaisnt a team of subterranean monsters whose bodies are composed of rocks, poisonous gases, and molten magma, and thus be rather embarrassed when they lose....(and have to go back to their respective home countries...)...so we should tread softly in fear of this.
No, that's not what I meant. You seem like you like to run with other's argument and exaggerate to the nth degrees. Master of straw man. All I am saying let's not call NBA champ the world champ by default because the rest of world are no mimis that we can beat with 3 fingers and half a leg like prior to the 90's and playing them for the world title is not like pro champ playing high school state champ in which there is absoltutely no point. You came up with all these out of context exaggerations that dont have any merits in the arguments. It seems that you are really annoyed even debating about this topic. Isnt this the arrogancce we are talking about. By the way as far as I know, there is no other country call their league champion the world champion by default. DC United beated Chelsa, which was just the champion of EPL.
Straw man? Is this thread not full of you fretting about potential "embarrassment"? I'm just trying to crystallize the dire consequences of this semantic predicament that you're nervous about...which aren't very dire. I still have no idea what you are talking about in this post. You're telling me that I have no right to call the 2005 Spurs world champions (whose games I watched from a hotel room in Gansu province, China) because the US mens senior national team doesn't win enough? How is that relevant, considering that their top 3 players were all not born in the US (as were a number of other players on their roster). Poor Manu and Tony Parker - they are no longer world champions..they will be unhappy to hear it. What I'm annoyed about, really, is your disdain for the paragraph, among other grammatical misdeeds, as it makes your arguments that much more difficult to understand. I'm not annoyed about the fact that you're afraid to use the phrase "world champions"; the ones who are annoyed and always b****ing about it are the ones who get offended by it, who, like I said, take pleasure in logging in from around the world to explain to us how the world doesn't care about the NBA...lol. And finally, no, it is not the only league that calls itself the world champion. Football does it, Baseball does it, and frankly I don't get hot and bothered about that either, though I'm sure there's a fuming CFL fan somewhere who might think it's an issue.
Dire situation? Me FRETTING about potential "embarrassment"? Yeah, I am horrified. Let's not exaggerate, please. My disdain? Who started that dry paint analogy like there is even no point in bringing up this topic? Yes, I am offended. I am offended by your arrogance, and maybe that's not what you meant. But it sure feels that way in your post. I really find you argument unconvincing that because there are NBA fans all over the World, the NBA champion is the champion of the World by default. The fact that you watched Spurs NBA titiled in some other country doesnt convice me that they are World Champion either. You can even have a NBA champion consisting of only international players, and they are still not the World Champion until they play the Champions from other continents. To me the title of World Champion needs to be won convincingly and fairly via something like world cup to shut out potential disputes. Now, is there a point in doing that? Maybe not because nobody really cares like you put it. That's fine, but let's just not call NBA Champ the World Champion by default.
LOL, what do you call this then? I'm not embarrassed about preseason games; really, truly, honestly. Why would I be? You can call it whatever you want, I don't care what you call it. You shouldn't worry about what other people want to call it either. I wouldn't change a thing about this^
Cool. I am not on a mission to change your mind. I am a NBA fan too. I still think this is the best sports league in the World by miles, which I am only interested in right now. But you know in boxing, they always annouce this way " The undisputed heavy weight champion of the World .... " and that title needs to be earned regarless of who the chanllenger is. This is all to it. Peace, now.
The European teams don't even take the Intercontinental Cup/FIFA Club World Cup all that seriously, it's a glorified exhibition and it's played in December when they are focused on more important things. FIFA is trying to strong arm it into relevance. The recognized best club football team in the world is ALWAYS a European team (and that team typically has to win their domestic title AND the champions league that season) and that's because Europe -- mainly the big 3 leagues: Premiership, La Liga and Serie A -- is where the best players play and if they aren't already there, they aspire to be there. The NBA is where the best basketball players play and if they aren't already there, they aspire to be there and that's a fact. South American kids who play basketball aren't dreaming of playing in the Euroleague, same for the European kids, African kids, Asian kids, etc. ... that's a fallback for them if they can't make it to the big time.
