On July 17, Ergin Ataman, coach of the Greek basketball team, Panathinaikos, triggered a wildfire about the NBA. He stated, “After they became the NBA champions, they tweeted ‘World Champion Boston.’ They see themselves very highly… (They) are not the world champions.” But not everybody agrees with him. Especially Boston Celtics legend, Paul Pierce.

In an episode of Undisputed from July 18, he started discussing Team USA defeating Nikola Jokić‘s Serbia ahead of their 2024 Paris Olympics campaign. “We saw Joker get dominated yesterday. We saw him get dominated yesterday. This thing is over cause look they came out though (in) first quarter but the depth of the US is too much. They came out (in) the second quarter, and third quarter and smacked them boys, come on now.”

To be honest, Team USA did assemble the ‘Dream Team 2.0’ when they roped in LeBron James and Stephen Curry. Pierce feels that this is one team nobody can defeat. “They don’t even got Kevin Durant yet, so you know that’s going to add something to it. So if y’all got some extra money lying around you want to throw something on, this is about as guarantee as a Floyd Mayweather boxing match that they gonna win gold.”

Well, though Mayweather won a bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, quite a lot of his professional fights saw him dominate his opponents. Now, while Pierce didn’t directly respond to Ataman, he sure did make his point. “There’s nobody beating the US,” he proclaimed at the end.

As it turns out, Ataman’s team claimed the Euroleague victory over Real Madrid, 95-80 in May. So, when the Boston Celtics called themselves “World Champions”, it probably pinched him a little. He felt that the Celtics couldn’t call themselves real champions until they beat the Panathinaikos.

However, when did this whole debate about NBA champions and world titles start? Well, it has always been a debate. It initially started when the USA track athlete Noah Lyles made the infamous statement last year, “World champion of what? The United States?” After a year-round debate on the statement, Ataman too shared similar thoughts. But are their arguments valid?

Do the NBA Champions ultimately become World Champions?

Many players have made their comments on this controversial subject. On June 13, Anthony Davis made a clear-cut statement to defend that the NBA champions were indeed world champions.

Speaking on the ‘Join the Lobby’ podcast, he said, “The best players in the world go to the NBA … to prove that you’re one of the best players in the world… That’s why it’s called world champions…We don’t only have US-born players. It can be from anywhere in the world.”

The masses may not still accept this. But Team USA still has the prove its point at the Paris Olympics. In fact, the Greek side headed by Giannis Antetokounmpo has also made it to the tournament.

The US team has the perfect opportunity to shut down the Panathinaikos coach, Ergin Ataman. They don’t have games scheduled in the group stage, but they still have a high chance of locking horns in the knockout stages. So, Ataman might just have to settle with the US Basketball team winning a gold every 4 years, we guess?

Jayson Tatum & Co. can take on Panathinaikos’s side in Greece before they return to Boston to defend the title. Who do you think will win the game? Let us know in the comments below.