World Champions? Really?

Originally posted by sally cinnamon
Please enlighten me into what it is then?

From page 2:

Perhaps you are not aware that the "competitors" in the NBA aren't all from the US.

As of April 16, 2008, official rosters for the 2007-08 NBA season featured 76 international players from 31 countries and territories:

http://www.nba.com/players/int_players_0708.html

Originally posted by no1marauder
The Celtics would have kicked the s**t out of ANY team in ANY league in the world. The All Star teams cobbled together for international competition don't count.

All the other Celtic championship banners say "World Champions"; why should they change such a tradition because it offends some Canuck (they can't play ball anyway)? Go play with a puck, Darv.

I don't have a complaint that Boston Celtics are good enough to be called world's best. But "Champion" is a title reserved for a championship winner. It isn't an honourary title or an assumed one.

Why were none of the Celtics in the USA Olympic Team.. did the selectors not think any of their team worthy of playing at world level.. As an outsider I think I prefer the opinion of the US Selectors to that of a fan.

NZ is often refered to worlds best rugby team but they haven't won the world cup since 1987. Have The Celtics entered a world cup or world championship tournament.

Originally posted by FMF

Originally posted by no1marauder
[b]As I thought, this thead is nothing more than a pathetic "America bashing" one by smug EuroTrash. Grow up.

Ah yes, we reach the zone where you and DSR overlap.[/b]

Oh man, never thought I'd see the day...

Why do so many americans fall into that school-yard mindset when confronted by facts? Is this how you 'win' arguments in the land of the free?

Originally posted by Crowley
Oh man, never thought I'd see the day...

Why do so many americans fall into that school-yard mindset when confronted by facts? Is this how you 'win' arguments in the land of the free?

What "facts" in this thread have I been "confronted" with?

It's a little sickening to be accused of being jingoistic when my claim has absolutely nothing to do with any supposed bias in favor of the US (I'm sure DSR would find me being called "jingoistic" rather hilarious).

Originally posted by Crowley
Oh man, never thought I'd see the day...

Why do so many americans fall into that school-yard mindset when confronted by facts? Is this how you 'win' arguments in the land of the free?

i've been to the states a couple of times and so many of them just don't want to listen when they are wrong. you can't have an argument never mind win one.

Originally posted by trev33
i've been to the states a couple of times and so many of them just don't want to listen when they are wrong. you can't have an argument never mind win one.

More brainless America bashing.

What does it have to do with the subject of this thread?

Originally posted by no1marauder
From page 2:

Perhaps you are not aware that the "competitors" in the NBA aren't all from the US.

As of April 16, 2008, official rosters for the 2007-08 NBA season featured 76 international players from 31 countries and territories:

http://www.nba.com/players/int_players_0708.html

So because players from outside the USA compete in it, that makes it a non domestic league? Domestic leagues around the world in numerous sports attract players from numerous places around the world, non of these leagues would ever claim to be non domsetic just because the competitors don't hail from the country of origin. What makes the NBA so different?

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
I don't have a complaint that Boston Celtics are good enough to be called world's best. But "Champion" is a title reserved for a championship winner. It isn't an honourary title or an assumed one.

Why were none of the Celtics in the USA Olympic Team.. did the selectors not think any of their team worthy of playing at world level.. As an outsider I th ...[text shortened]... ld cup since 1987. Have The Celtics entered a world cup or world championship tournament.

It's a long story. The short version is that some of the picks for the team were based on who's skill sets supposedly fit in with the other players. The Olympic team did want Kevin Garnett, but he declined to play. It's somewhat in dispute what happened with Paul Pierce; it seems he wasn't willing to fully commit early enough to play in some preliminary events.

At any rate, the presence of certain players on All Star teams doesn't necessarily imply what the quality of the team is. The Celts had the best record in the regular season and won in the playoffs.

There is no World Cup or World Championship tournament for professional basketball teams. At the present level the leagues are at, it would be a foregone conclusion that the NBA Champions would easily win such a hypothetical competition.

Originally posted by sally cinnamon
So because players from outside the USA compete in it, that makes it a non domestic league? Domestic leagues around the world in numerous sports attract players from numerous places around the world, non of these leagues would ever claim to be non domsetic just because the competitors don't hail from the country of origin. What makes the NBA so different?

I guess you can use whatever definitions you can think up regarding what is a "domestic" league but IMO a league which has no restrictions on the number of foreign players allowed, has about 20% of its players from other countries and has a franchise in a foreign country cannot fairly be called a "domestic league".

Originally posted by no1marauder
What does it have to do with the subject of this thread?

Nothing really - it has to do with your idiotic 'arguments'.

I won't rehash them with you, I think Rags and FMF have basically covered it all and had you making some pretty ridiculous claims which made you look like the biggest ass the Sports Forum has seen in months.


BTW, Best Is Not Equal To World Champs.

- Crowley "World Champion Sandwich Maker While There Is An Ad Break"

Originally posted by no1marauder
I guess you can use whatever definitions you can think up regarding what is a "domestic" league but IMO a league which has no restrictions on the number of foreign players allowed, has about 20% of its players from other countries and has a franchise in a foreign country cannot fairly be called a "domestic league".

You guess?! So basically it is whatever you personally define it as, to suit your needs as a defence for calling the champions "world champions"?

Is it any wonder the rest of the world thinks you are all a little bit stupid?

Originally posted by no1marauder
More brainless America bashing.

What does it have to do with the subject of this thread?

its not, i actually like america.......and americans. but some of you guys really can't have an argument, even with presented with proven facts they still think they are right, won't listen to anyone else and will resort to the 'you don't know what you're talking about' 'shut up, i'm right' come backs.

what does it have to do with the title of this thread? nothing other than you don't listen, no one is doubting the fact that the nba has the best players and best teams in the world but if they don't compete against the other top teams in the world they can't be called world champions. like rag said about the fa cup, shocks always happen. even if the best teams are american theres nothing to say that if there was a world club basketball competition that a spainsh or greek team couldn't cause an upset. look at the olympics in 2004 who wouldn've predicted that?

Originally posted by no1marauder
Perhaps you are not aware that the "competitors" in the NBA aren't all from the US.

Uncanny! 😀

http://www.msxnet.org/humour/world-according-to-america.png

Originally posted by no1marauder
At the present level the leagues are at, it would be a foregone conclusion that the NBA Champions would easily win such a hypothetical competition.

Ah, the guaranteed sporting bet. Never thought I'd see one of those in my days.

D

Originally posted by darvlay
Finally! Greg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs, has remarked publically on the silliness of the term "World Champions" in the NBA. Did anyone else have a giggle while watching the Celtics raise that banner that proudly proclaimed them the WORLD CHAMPIONS? When is the NBA going to step into the modern era and change the title to LEAGUE CHAMPIONS or something similar? Will this ever happen? If not then how come?

We seem to have drifted away from the main thrust of the original post which was whether or not Greg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs, is an anti-American American who should just go somewhere other than America, if he doesn't like America. I mean, if American sports teams that decline to play in international competitions are not World Champions, then why are so many basketball players trying to come to America, someof them illegally and even risking their lives and the lives of their trophy wives. I don't see Cuba calling its best basketball team the World Champions, and some of their best players try to reach America on rafts. Perhaps every country in the World has its ungrateful "Greg Popoviches", although I don't know because I am only talking about America. The World has got nothing to do with it. World Cups, World Leagues and World Championships be damned. The Celtics are the World Champions because their fans say so. Change the dictionaries if you must. Anything is possible. Greg Popovich go back to where you came from.