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American athlete Noah Lyles recently made headlines with his comment on the NBA’s ‘world champion’ tournament name.
A week ago, the 26-year-old Lyles won his first-ever gold medal in the 100m race at the 2023 World Athletics Championships. After that, in one of his post-victory interviews, Lyles made a direct remark on the ‘world champion’ title that the NBA has in its competitions.
Noah Lyles is the new 100m world champion and the reigning world champion in the 200m race. He ran his personal best of 9.83s in the former and 19.52s in the later event, boasting a stellar double sprint achievement. Overall, the American athlete collected three gold medals in this year’s world championship including the 4x400m relay event.
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After the world championship, Noah Lyles appeared in a press conference where he compared the weightage of the ‘world champion’ present in the NBA and the World Athletics Championships. Lyles was of the opinion that the WAC actually had players competing from all around the world whereas the NBA had players from the United States.
The video of Noah Lyles making the remark was shared by the official Twitter page of Eurosport.
"You know the thing that really hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head," he said.
"World Champion of what? The United States?" Lyles questioned.
He further explained his point:
"Don’t get me wrong. I love the US at times, but that ain’t the world. That is not the world. We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show that they are represented. There ain’t no flags in the NBA."
After Lyles' remark went viral, the internet began expressing mixed reactions to his belief.
One fan supported the American athlete.
"He's not wrong," wrote a fan.
Another user defended the Denver Nuggets who recently won the NBA championships:
"No team in the world are beating the nuggets in 7 games."
Here's what other comments read:
NBA players react to Noah Lyles' remark
Noah Lyles' remark offended the NBA community to a great extent. Many NBA players expressed their discontent with the American athlete’s comment.
Here’s what NBA players wrote for Lyles:
"Somebody help this brother,” Kevin Durant replied on social media.
Toscano-Anderson of the Golden State Warriors wrote:
"Last time I checked, the NBA was the best competition in the WORLD."
Three-time NBA champion Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat wrote:
"Big fan but gon wit that bulls*** bra... #suckas"
