"What he said made sense but also didn't make sense" - Frances Tiafoe responds to Noah Lyles 'world champions' jibe, sides with NBA players' criticism

On Monday (28 August), Frances Tiafoe was asked to give his take on track and field star Noah Lyles' recent jab at the NBA self-proclaiming its championship-winning teams as the "world champions".

Olympic athlete Noah Lyles divided opinions earlier this week. The 26-year-old questioned whether the NBA could possibly call itself the hub of basketball all over the globe, when nearly all of its teams are US-based.

“I watch the NBA finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head. World champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong. I love the US – at times – but that ain’t the world," Lyles had said in a press conference

Although Frances Tiafoe somewhat agreed with Lyles, he added that the 200m track runner was missing the bigger picture. To elaborate more on his point, the World No. 10 referred to how some of the best players in the NBA currently were non-Americans.

"To Noah Lyles, Jesus Christ. He had, like, I get what he was saying but I don't get what he was saying. You know what I'm saying? What he said made sense but what he said also did not make sense," Frances Tiafoe said during his press conference.

"You know what I'm saying? Because it's the best league in the world, NBA. You can argue the three, four best players in the NBA are not American at the moment."

He also asserted that while he got "both sides" of the argument, he agreed more with the comments of NBA stars like Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Aaron Gordon — all of whom had piled up on Lyles after his jab.

"I mean, so what do you say to that? The best foreign players are playing in the NBA. But then on the flip side, yeah, it's played in the States. So I get both sides but I'm definitely probably leaning more to all the hoopers' responses, for sure."

Frances Tiafoe off to a great start at the 2023 US Open

Frances Tiafoe celebrates after reaching the second round at the 2023 US Open

Frances Tiafoe was in sublime form during his opener against local wildcard Learner Tien on Monday (28 August). The World No. 10 got off the blocks pretty quick as he broke his 17-year-old opponent twice to take the first set 6-2.

Tien, an American tennis prodigy, gave more resistance to his older opponent in the second set as the two players exchanged breaks till 5-5. Tiafoe, however, reminded the youngster that he wouldn't bridge the experience gap so easily, as he broke again to take the second set 7-5.

The third set was even more clinical from the 25-year-old as he broke Tien's serve three times to close out a 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 victory in just over two hours.

Frances Tiafoe will next face world no. 58 Sebastian Ofner for a place in the third round of the 2023 US Open.