12/21/24
November 05, 2005
San Antonio Spurs no longer World Champions:: In an acknowledgement of the continuing global success of the game, the Spurs decide to change the designation on their championship banners & rings.
I thought it was a nice touch.
posted by chicobangs to basketball at 03:30 AM - 18 comments
What a classy move.
posted by dfleming at 07:11 AM on November 05, 2005
who cares now its a new season
posted by defrag3x at 07:19 AM on November 05, 2005
who cares now its a new season And if they win the NBA championship again, they still won't be the world champions. That was kinda the point. I like it.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:40 AM on November 05, 2005
Nice move, but still ... ouch. Losing international basketball competitions is embarrassing.
posted by rcade at 07:51 AM on November 05, 2005
Before anyone mentions that the White Sox won a series named after a newspaper. I think it is time the NBA and MLB invite other professional league winners to compete in true World Series.
posted by ?! at 08:07 AM on November 05, 2005
?!: When it becomes financially viable to hold an 80 games season in a league that spans even one major ocean, let me know.
posted by insomnyuk at 08:44 AM on November 05, 2005
Good move by San Antonio. It's about time America starts acknowledging the rest of the world.
posted by Texan_lost_in_NY at 08:55 AM on November 05, 2005
It hurts but its true.
posted by Richard j Garcia at 09:11 AM on November 05, 2005
No pain in this at all. The sport is the big winner here. Any league that has all its teams in one country (peace, Toronto) could only claim the global designation for so long.
posted by chicobangs at 11:40 AM on November 05, 2005
I think it is time the NBA and MLB invite other professional league winners to compete in true World Series. I would love to see the WS Champion do some kind of home-and-home with the Japanese Champion, or the Spurs going to Europe to take on the club league champ there, but that's not going to happen. Too much chance for embarrassment.
posted by chicobangs at 11:43 AM on November 05, 2005
I'm surprised but pleased. Well played Spurs.
posted by squealy at 12:19 PM on November 05, 2005
Ironically, though, the NBA is probably the most international sporting league anywhere in the world- there is no other sport that so ruthlessly combs the entire world for talent and then brings that talent together in one league. [Soccer combs the entire world for talent, but then spreads it out over countless national-level leagues; baseball, hockey and american football really aren't played very many places, relatively speaking.] To put it another way: does anyone really think that there is any basketball team out there, constituted for any event (euroleague, olympics, whatever) who could actually beat the Spurs? As far as holding an 80 game season across an ocean goes: (1) for the East coast teams, Europe is not really that much further than California (2) I'm sure transportation is a small cost compared to salary (3) one could easily picture a league with a American and European divisions which have minimal, structured interleague play, like the AL and NL in baseball. The real difficulty in making the NBA intercontinental is not profitability, but that it would require 1/2 of the existing American owners to give up their ownerships at the same time and sell to Europeans. [Salary caps and advertising revenue would also have to be somehow adjusted for taxation, exchange rates, etc., but surely that is doable.]
posted by tieguy at 01:33 PM on November 05, 2005
Well done, indeed. That said...fuck the Spurs (sorry, just getting ready for tonight's home opener).
posted by Ufez Jones at 03:21 PM on November 05, 2005
insomnyuk: I said "winners" and "World Series". Nothing to do with a single league or playing each other during the season. tieguy: The AL and NL did well for years without interleague play. (I wish they would drop it now.) Your NBA/Euroleague idea could do the same. Let each league play on its own continent. At the end of the season the two champions play each other. Half the NBA owners would haven't to give up their teams. They would just add a 20 team division/league at $X per team entry fee.
posted by ?! at 10:02 PM on November 05, 2005
Ironically, though, the NBA is probably the most international sporting league anywhere in the world- there is no other sport that so ruthlessly combs the entire world for talent and then brings that talent together in one league. The white sox during one world series game had starters from the dominican republic, japan, and cuba, with a coach from korea and the manager from venezuela. Pretty impressive.
posted by justgary at 11:29 PM on November 05, 2005
I think it is time the NBA and MLB invite other professional league winners to compete in true World Series How about adding a carriebian division. Travel would be a little tougher but you can cut out some divisonal game. I could go without watching yanks-redsox 50 times a year. I would really like to see some unknown dominicans spank these over paid cry babies.
posted by HATER 187 at 11:16 AM on November 07, 2005
Never mind the Dominicans, who would no doubt do just fine. I wanna see some more Cuban players. Travel would not be an issue, as Havana is closer to Miami than Atlanta is. You know, I suspect a Cuban-MLB baseball summit is in the works. Once Jesse Helms is gone, whoever is working behind the scenes will start floating the idea in public, and I suspect we'll see it happen pretty quickly. Think of it as the baseball version of Canada-USSR Hockey '72, or Nixon's Ping-Pong Diplomacy in China thirty-odd years ago.
posted by chicobangs at 02:16 PM on November 07, 2005
(Team spokesman Tom) James conceded that Ginobili and teammate Fabio Uberto, who both played on the gold medal-winning Argentina team at the 2004 Olympics, might better claim the 'world champion' moniker. "Basketball is now an international game," he said.