Noah Lyles was feeling himself after he won his third-straight 200 metres world title at the athletics world championships in Hungary. 

The 26-year-old had just completed the 100m-200m double at the same event and claimed his fifth of what is now six world titles across 100m, 200m and relays.

And the Olympic 200m bronze medallist said what any number of sports fans around the world have said so many times when asked how to boost the profile of the world's best athletes.

"You know the thing that hurts me the most, is I have to watch the NBA finals and they have 'world champion' on they head," he said.

"We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show they are represented. There ain't no flags in the NBA. We gotta do more. We gotta be presented to the world."

It seemed a logical sentiment to most people who've watched American NBA, NFL and MLB teams proclaim their status as "world champions" after beating another US (or, if we're getting very exotic, Canadian) team in a play-off game or series.

Seemingly the first example of the US-exclusive idea of the sporting "world" came way back in 1884, when the Providence Grays beat the New York Metropolitans in a three-game baseball series.

As was the case before modern leagues like the MLB, NBA and NFL were established, the clash pitted the champions of two US leagues against one another, with the Grays winning the accurately titled "Championship of the United States".

But newspapers and advertising at the time billed the contest as a bid for "world" domination (despite the teams being located about 300 kilometres apart) and the title stuck, with the first official World Series played in 1903 and maintaining that title until today.

As Australian star Dave Nilsson told Roy and HG at the 2000 Sydney Olympics of Major League Baseball's season-ending "World Series":

"There's only two teams and they're both from America," he had to admit after some derisive prompting.

NBA stars call Lyles out

But, as obvious as the observations may seem, Lyles's comments touched a nerve with NBA stars.

"Somebody help this brother," two-time NBA champion Kevin Durant wrote on Instagram.

Other stars like Damian Lillard, Devin Booker and Draymond Green joined the chorus of NBA players calling Lyles out for his comments.

Austin Rivers and Tyler Herro pointed out the NBA is the best league in the world with the best players in the world, so they deserved to be crowned "world champions", while broadcaster Stephen A Smith came with numbers.

"The NBA currently features 120 players from 40 countries and six continents on its roster for last season and it's increased now," he said on ESPN, calling Lyles's comments "very ignorant".

"So how is that not global? How is that not the world champions? The best players from around the world descend upon America to join the National Basketball Association.

"The international players, rather than electing to stay in their respective countries … to play basketball, they want to come to the NBA because it's the best basketball league on the planet."

Smith also said by virtue of the global nature of the NBA, they face international talent more regularly than Lyles, missing the point that Lyles wouldn't claim to be a world champion for winning his national championships or even a prestigious Diamond League meet.

Smith's take (and let's not forget he's most famous for a show called First Take: it's literally his job to have one) isn't completely outlandish at its face and may not even be entirely wrong, but some European players may disagree that the NBA is the best league in the world.

Two-time NBA MVP and 2021 NBA champion Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is Greek, said, "the game in Europe is way harder than the game in the NBA", despite "the talent in the NBA [being] way higher".

Another two-time MVP and one-time champion from Europe, Serbia's Nikola Jokić, said: "Is it harder [in Europe]? Yeah, just because you need to have really quick thinking."

Slovenian All Star Luka Dončić said after his second season in the NBA, he "was really surprised" how much easier it was to score in the US league than in European competition.

Dončić agreed with Antetokounmpo and Jokić that the individual talent in the NBA was higher, but the rules made the games easier.

Over the years the NBA has introduced rules like the three-second violation (preventing enormous defenders from planting themselves under the hoop for longer than three seconds) and not allowing hand-checking on defence (effectively grabbing and pushing attackers).

They've been aimed at increasing the pace and scoring of games in order to increase viewership and therefore income. And it's worked, turning the NBA into one of the most lucrative sporting leagues in the world.

Perhaps the average salary approaching $US10 million ($15.5 million) is what attracts the best European, Asian, South American and Australian talent, rather than the quality of competition?

How the US can claim to be world champions

We have concrete evidence of the difference between the NBA and European/FIBA style of basketball.

Undeniably, the United States dominates international basketball on both the men's and women's side of almost all global competitions, like the Olympics or world championships.

The men have won 16 of 20 Olympic titles (and three of the losses were to countries that don't exist anymore), while the women have won nine of 12, including seven in a row. But it's not always open and shut.

Aside from the US men's infamous bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Spain won the last men's World Cup in 2019 and the women finished third as recently as 2006, when the men also took bronze behind Spain and Argentina.

The men's team also dropped its first group game at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics to France, and only beat them by five points in the gold medal match two weeks later.

With baseball, Japan and a number of minuscule Caribbean nations like Cuba and the Dominican Republic regularly challenge the US at the World Baseball Classic and only one of five Olympic gold medals have been claimed by the US.