A big area of concern in NBA professional basketball is the very noticeable lack of recent success against international competition. In the quadrennial World Championship tournament, a U.S. team has not won the top prize since 1994, and in the Olympics since 2000.

In the 2006 WC competition located in Saitama, Japan, the team only managed to come in third place, winning a bronze medal. The 2004 Olympics in Athens produced the same result. The 2002 Indianapolis, IN WC tournament was disastrous, as a team split by internal conflict placed sixth, the worst showing in history by an American squad in international competition.

This turn of events has brought on lots of hand wringing and harsh criticism as fans and commentators have taken turns lambasting the "lazy" players for not destroying the foreign competition. Not surprisingly, there is no dearth of proposed "solutions" to address the problem. The 2007 World Championship tournament to qualify for the 2008 Olympics is scheduled to be hosted by Las Vegas, NV, Aug. 22 through Sept. 2. We'll see what happens then.

There is a consistent theme here -- the world has caught up. Long gone are the days when a group of NBA players could just show up and easily pummel international opponents. That era passed after the first Dream Team, led by Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, won the gold medal in the 1992 Olympics by many accounts the greatest collection of talent on one team in any sport in history. Now, the international teams, who feature a more pass-oriented, free-flowing version of the game, smell weakness and are more than eager to heap more indignities on the heads of the American players.

All of this leads to a boatload of speculation as to whether the finest basketball is actually played in the NBA. Some sports analysts have indicated their preference for the European-style game. Due to the fact that U.S. teams have been soundly beaten in international competition for the better part of a decade, one would have to be very foolish to dismiss this notion.

Making it all the more awkward is the fact that the winner of the NBA championship is referred to as the "World Champion." Is that title appropriate? Shouldn't an NBA champion have to prove that it's the best team in the world?

What would be the problem with holding a true World Championship series between the U.S. and Euroleague champions? The 'PR' value, along with worldwide interest in such a series would be tremendous, and the games themselves would serve to settle for once and for all which side of the Atlantic the best brand of hoops is played on.