Gregg Popovich sees ‘world’ differently
By Steve Bulpett
The Celtics have 17 banners hanging from the Garden ceiling declaring the club’s world champions in the various years.
Gregg Popovich would beg to differ.
The Spurs coach isn’t disputing any of Bill Russell’s titles, and he isn’t saying the Lakers actually beat the Celts in 2008. But he is a bit perturbed by the use of the word “world.”
“There are no world champions in the NBA, so anybody that has the flag up that says world champions is not correct,” said Popovich prior to last night’s 94-73 Spurs win. “It’s not appropriate.
“The world champions, I believe, are the Spanish team right now. USA is the Olympic champion. The Lakers are the NBA champion. It doesn’t make sense for an NBA team to call themselves world champions. I don’t remember anybody playing anybody outside our borders to get that tag. Isn’t that true? I keep waiting for somebody to tell me I’ve missed something.”
When someone mentioned Toronto, Pop said, “There’s a team in Canada. That’s true. The world’s bigger than North America. I know sometimes we as arrogant Americans don’t respond to the rest of the world, but it’s true. There’s a big world out there.”
According to Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, the club simply ordered a banner to match the other 16 when the C’s won the NBA title two years ago.
Former Celtics general manager Jan Volk, who was with the team for the five titles previous, said yesterday that the designation stemmed from the league.
The practice began when basketball was not well developed beyond this continent.
“Over the years, there were some good players from other countries, but nothing suggested that there were any teams that could compete with the best in the NBA,” said Volk. “I don’t think we ever considered at that time that it would be inappropriate to refer to our champion as world champions.”
Popovich took note of that rationale and pointed out the practice is still in effect.
“There have been several championships in the modern era, and people still call themselves world champions,” Popovich said.
Beneath the Celtics name on their banners is NBA in smaller lettering, followed by the year and “WORLD CHAMPIONS.” The Spurs refer to themselves as NBA champions.
“I’m not trying to be an (expletive),” said Popovich. “Why can’t we just be NBA champions? That’s what we are. We’re NBA champions. That’s not good enough? I think that’s pretty cool. I think that’s pretty good to be an NBA champion. That’s hard to do.”
