A lot of folks here are confusing breadth with depth. Yes, track and field does have an authentic 'World Championships' that is theoretically open to all of the world's nations (even though they do not all compete with equal levels of resources and access). Yes, the NBA has only its American-based version (with all due respect to the Toronto Raptors). However, many more people around the world care more about NBA players, teams, and its championship, then they do about the Track and Field World Championships. That is a fact:
What Are The Most Watched Sports In The World? - GWI
Near 200 nations secured TV rights to broadcast the 2023 NBA Finals back home. When someone like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James visits a foreign nation, there are many more foreign fans and journalists there to greet them, compared to say, a Michael Johnson, Edwin Moses, Mary Decker Slaney, Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, or some of our other largely faceless contemporary track & field stars (sometimes a Carl Lewis becomes the rare exception). That is unfortunate, but the truth. It is quite likely that many more kids around the world who aspire to athletic greatness dream about coming to the US to play in the NBA, than they do about competing in the World Championships of Track & Field for their particular nation. Simply raging against the winds of media opinion may be self-satisfying, but it doesn't change the fact that what commentators like Stephen A. Smith are saying is valid in its larger point (that NBA basketball attracts and represents the very best of global basketball talent), as opposed to factually incorrect when you simply bean-count which sport has more official national participants at more global venues.