Twitter debate erupts as basketball fans mock Noah Lyles for coming 2nd in heats: “Lost to a dude from the UK,” “Rent free”

On Saturday, US runner Noah Lyles finished second in the men's 100m race. While he performed well enough to advance to the semifinals on Sunday along with the other two runners in the top three, NBA fans were quick to crack jokes regarding his second-place finish.

Lyles had previously stirred up controversy by saying that the winner of the NBA Finals shouldn't be dubbed world champions, sparking debate around the NBA community.

While some agreed with him, given that the NBA playoffs only include NBA teams, others disagreed, saying the NBA champions are the best team in the world, and thus should be hailed as world champions.

His comments even caught the attention of popular rapper Drake, who joked on Instagram that Lyles likely practiced his controversial comments about the NBA in the mirror the night before speaking to media members.

Lyles then doubled down on his comments, telling Drake to go home, before taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, to clown Team USA for coming up short at the FIBA World Cup in a repost that has since been deleted. On Saturday, NBA fans reciprocated his energy, taking aim at the runner for his second-place finish.

"The reigning NCAA champion," one wrote.

"And he got his ah cooked by buddy," another joked.

Others were quick to defend Lyles:

"Noah Lyles still got you in your feelings. Rent free," one wrote.

"Bro does not watch track," another joked.

Others pointed out that Lyles didn't finish second overall but rather in that one particular heat.

"Lol it’s a qualifying round dude. You don’t have to come in first my guy. He’s just tryna get to the FINAL. Which is the main event," one wrote.

"It was the first round casual all he needed to do was qualify," another added.

Looking back at how NBA stars like Kevin Durant and Devin Booker reacted to Noah Lyles' controversial comments

As previously mentioned, last year, Noah Lyles made controversial comments following the NBA Finals. At the time, the track star was speaking to media members, when he boldly said that the thing that hurts him the most is watching the winner of the NBA Finals dubbed world champions.

As he explained, in his sport, where athletes compete against other competitors from around the world, the winners are truly world champions. Although the NBA doesn't include teams from around the world, many argued that there's no debate regarding whether or not the NBA is the best league in the world.

Some maintained that over the past decade, some of the NBA's biggest stars are international players. Many argued that over the past six years, all three of the NBA players to win the coveted MVP award had been international players, saying that despite the NBA being an American league, players from all over the world compete.

In response to Lyles' comments, some of the NBA's biggest stars were quick to react on social media. Future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant weighed in, as well as Devin Booker and Damian Lillard, as seen below.

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Other NBA standouts, Aaron Gordon and Tyus Jones, also reacted to Lyles' comments.

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NBA vet Udonis Haslem and Juan Toscano-Anderson also weighed in, clapping back at Lyles:

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Following his second-place finish in Saturday's heat, Lyles will be back in action on Sunday as he continues to pursue Olympic gold.