By Jordan Long
The Track and Field World Championships that were held in Budapest Hungry just ended. American sprinter Noah Lyles won the 100 and 200 meters and had some strong words about US sports. According to CBSsports.com, Lyles said, “I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have world champions on their heads. 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. We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting and thriving and putting on a flag to show that they are represented. There ain’t no flags in the NBA.” Let’s see how valid his comments are for all professional sports in the US and Canada.
Of course, the major sports in the U.S. are baseball, hockey, basketball, and football. The NHL, MLB, and NBA have teams in Canada. With teams in Canada that is not just the US. In baseball, there are plenty of foreign-born players. When opening day rosters came out for MLB this season, the foreign players stood at 269, with 104 of them coming from the Dominican Republic. Some other countries represented in MLB are Venezuela, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea.
In hockey, most of their skaters are from Canada and the US totaling 743 players. After that Sweden has 107 skaters. Russia sent 62 to the NHL. Other countries in the NHL are Finland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Germany to name a few.
The NBA game has become more global. The MVP of the NBA finals, Nikola Jokic, hails from Serbia. He also won the MVP of the regular season from 2021 to 2022. Giannis Antetokounmpo took home the MVP in 2019 and 2020 and he is from Greece. Joel Embiid, who was voted MVP this past season, is also a foreign player, coming from Cameroon.
There are plenty of other foreign players in the league. Countries represented in the NBA besides the US and Canada include Australia, France, Germany, Nigeria, Serbia, and Spain.
The NFL is the only sport where the players are predominately from the United States. Even so, there is some international flair with players from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, Canada, and Cameroon.
The comments made by Lyles don’t make sense. He is in a sport where many countries and flags are represented when a person wins an event. When it comes to professional team sports, sure it may look like one or two flags, the US and Canada. In reality, they come from other countries. In the end, winning a championship in the NBA, NHL, and MLB is a world championship because of all the foreign players who are in the league. Lyles should do his research next time.
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