The Boston Celtics are the reigning NBA champions for the 2023-24 season. While the issue about Noah Lyles questioning why NBA winners call themselves NBA champions, it is worth noting that Ergin Ataman has now raised the same talk – taking it a step further by challenging the NBA champs to a battle for the world champion title – which doesn’t really exist at this point.

We wall know that the FIBA World Cup and the Olympics are two ways for basketball teams to be named as world champions, but then there’s association basketball where teams composed of players of different nationalities play the game. The NBA is an association, and so is the EuroLeague, which somewhat serves as the Champions League equivalent of basketball in Europe.

Sure, the NBA isn’t actually a world league to begin with, but with players from different countries flocking towards the league over the decades, it is fair enough to say that being a world champion in the NBA does make sense in a way considering the fact that no team in the league has no foreign player at this point.

Ataman’s Bold Claims

Panathinaikos finished with a 23-11 record to earn the second seed in the EuroLeague before beating the likes of Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel), Fenerbahce Beko (Turkey), and top-seeded Real Madrid (Spain) to win the EuroLeague title, which says a lot about how Ataman is confident that they deserve to be called world champions much like the Celtics do.

In a quick succession as soon as the Celtics won the NBA title, the EuroLeague was quick to throw shade by posting a photo of Panathinaikos on social media, saying that the Celtics should “Beat this team first”.

“They see themselves very highly. They want incredible numbers to come and play a game in Europe. You are not the world champion,” said Ataman. “If you want to get the world champion title, come and beat us, the EuroLeague champion. If you are so confident, I say come and beat us in OAKA.”

Ataman is one of the best coaches in the history of basketball, especially in EuroLeague, and it cannot be denied that his bold comments do really prove a lot of things, especially with the fact that Panathinaikos has a strong case to begin with.

World Champions of What?

A team that wins the championship of a US-based league is definitely not a world champion to begin with. That’s what US sprinter Noah Lyles believes to be quite the point, and being a 13-gold medal winner seems to be a good point for his claim in which the NBA doesn’t deserve to crown its winner as a world champion.

“You know what hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head,” said Lyles. “World champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong. I love the U.S. — at times — but that ain’t the world. That is not the world. We are the world.”

An argument can be made given how the NBA is the best competition in basketball for the whole world, and no one can deny the fact that it indeed stands out among other leagues in the globe, which says a lot about how the standard in the game remains to be in question.

For now, the Celtics can actually consider taking the challenge and bringing its squad to Europe for a massive clash with Panathinaikos to settle this argument once and for all.