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Noah Lyles has taken center stage following the loss of the USA's Basketball team at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
During a post-race press conference in Budapest, Lyles called out NBA players for calling themselves the world champions. Lyles returned to the spotlight when he liked two memes on social media that trolled the USA Basketball team for their surprising loss at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
In a thrilling match, Team USA lost to Germany with a score of 113-111 held in the World Cup semi-finals in Manila, Philippines.
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Lyles had questioned why the players in the league got to be called World Champions while all they are "World Champions of United States."
“You know the thing that hurts me the most?" Lyles said. "It's that I have to watch the NBA finals and they have 'World Champions' on their head. World Champions of what? The United States?" Lyles said.
"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 fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show that they are represented. There ain't no flags in the NBA," Lyles said.
Noah Lyles received mixed reactions to his feisty comment on the NBA players
The 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest witnessed a remarkable performance from Noah Lyles when he won a hat-trick of gold medals. However, he received mixed reactions to his comment on the NBA players from a few basketball stars, fans, and other TV personalities. NBA star Kevin Durant said:
"Somebody help this brother."
Juan Toscano-Anderson said:
"Last time I checked, the NBA was the best competition in the WORLD."
Former American footballer, Robert Griffin III had a different view than the basketball stars. He aligned his views with Lyles saying,
“Drake and the NBA Stars don’t respect him, but Noah Lyles is RIGHT.”
“Now, Noah did pick a wrong league to take a shot at because those NBA cats, they gonna clap back with a vengeance," he added.
Lyles teammate, the world champion Sha'Carri Richardson also sided with him expressing that NBA players do come from different countries but do not compete against each other.
“I'm standing with Noah on this one," she wrote. "The organization have players from different countries but do they compete against different countries. You have to go against the world in order to be a world champion,” added Richardson.
Certainly, Noah does have a point with his statement but the NBA is indeed a hallmark basketball league in the world, and should the NBA Champions be called the World Champions is up for debate.
