Greek basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo defended track athlete Noah Lyles, who was mocked for questioning the use of the term “world champion” for NBA title winners.
Antetokounmpo shares the same opinion as Lyles, who faced criticism from many for his statement.
“I really want to support him! He received so much backlash just for stating the obvious. People don’t understand it. Maybe it’s arrogance… In no other sport can you just call yourselves world champions. In football, which is much more popular than basketball, and in the Champions League, which is much more popular than the NBA, the winner doesn’t call themselves a world champion,” said Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Germans are rightfully world champions
He further explained the Greek perspective:
“In football, when you win the World Cup, you play against Americans and all the best in the world. If you beat them, then you can say you’re a world champion. But in the NBA, you immediately say you’re a world champion. You have to beat everyone in the world to be a world champion. I know the NBA is the strongest league in the world, and you can see talent there that doesn’t exist anywhere else. There’s no competition even close to it. But you can’t be a world champion just because you’re the league champion.”
This doesn’t mean that the best in the NBA can’t be the best in the world. They just have to prove it first.
“I’m not saying that there are currently other teams in the world that could beat the Denver Nuggets. But you have to show respect to others. We know who the NBA champion is, the ACB league champion, the EuroLeague champion… The Germans won the FIBA World Cup, and the Germans are world champions. They beat the Americans and then defeated the Serbians in the final.”
“It’s right for them to say that they are world champions. I believe I’ll get some criticism for what I’m saying, but I don’t care. I completely agree with Lyles. He’s the best in America, but he also came to compete with the best in the world and beat them,” said the Milwaukee Bucks basketball player.