Who's the World Champ?
I don't see it possible to crown either nba champs or olympic champs as clear cut "world champs". The only example of the nba champs playing against the world teams was when the rockets of 94-95 with drexler played in the world bball tournament and won convincingly. I remember it well because it was the first time they showed off their horrible new and cursed uniforms with the rocket ship flying across it. But in fairness to the 'world', that was 10years ago and the level of international competition in 95 was much weaker than it was in the 04 olympics.
In soccer, the European Leauge is similar to the NBA, in that they sign the best players from around the world even outside europe (brazil, argentina, chile, US, japan, the middle east) and once a year they compete in the UEFA cup, fielding amazing teams composed of internationaly diverse squads. The winner is crowned the UEFA champion. The World Cup is a different matter, with each team representing a country, and the cup being held only once every 4 years it's a rarer prize, and the winner is the world cup champion. Does that mean that Brazil could beat Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus? not necessarily. World teams are different from league teams.
So i think that for a league like the NBA to publicly declare it's winners "world champ" is a bit dated and possibly a bit arrogant for 2005, especially because the NBA's rules and style are not internationally recognized. And just because Argentina won the olympics and was 2nd in the worlds tournament in Indiana, that doesn't mean that the Argentinian basketball league champs can be called World Champs either.
IF the 03 Spurs played in the Olympics, they wouldn't be the same team because they wouldn't have Parker and Manu. So that's the inherent problem of comparing league teams to international teams.
So until the year 2015, when the NBA becomes an International league, i don't think anyone can be called world champs.
Most of us agree that the Pistons had possibly a better shot in the olympics, BUT!! An interesting question though... If the 04 pistons played against The 04 US 'dream team', who do you think would win? let's say two diff cases, international rules and nba rules... oooh. isn't that an interesting thought! (ignore the Larry brown versus larry brown scenario)
In soccer, the European Leauge is similar to the NBA, in that they sign the best players from around the world even outside europe (brazil, argentina, chile, US, japan, the middle east) and once a year they compete in the UEFA cup, fielding amazing teams composed of internationaly diverse squads. The winner is crowned the UEFA champion. The World Cup is a different matter, with each team representing a country, and the cup being held only once every 4 years it's a rarer prize, and the winner is the world cup champion. Does that mean that Brazil could beat Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus? not necessarily. World teams are different from league teams.
So i think that for a league like the NBA to publicly declare it's winners "world champ" is a bit dated and possibly a bit arrogant for 2005, especially because the NBA's rules and style are not internationally recognized. And just because Argentina won the olympics and was 2nd in the worlds tournament in Indiana, that doesn't mean that the Argentinian basketball league champs can be called World Champs either.
IF the 03 Spurs played in the Olympics, they wouldn't be the same team because they wouldn't have Parker and Manu. So that's the inherent problem of comparing league teams to international teams.
So until the year 2015, when the NBA becomes an International league, i don't think anyone can be called world champs.
Most of us agree that the Pistons had possibly a better shot in the olympics, BUT!! An interesting question though... If the 04 pistons played against The 04 US 'dream team', who do you think would win? let's say two diff cases, international rules and nba rules... oooh. isn't that an interesting thought! (ignore the Larry brown versus larry brown scenario)
posted by introspectrum at 8:21 AM
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