“I appreciate it”- Noah Lyles denies recognizing Knicks shooting guard Josh Hart after he appreciates the athlete for winning the gold medal in Paris

Noah Lyles recently appeared in an interview where he denied recognizing the NBA player Josh Hart, who had praised him for winning the Olympic gold. The American track athlete ended his Paris Olympics campaign with two medals.

Lyles proved himself a formidable sprinter by clinching gold in the 100m dash. He clocked a time of 9.79s and trounced his arch-rivals, Kishane Thompson and Fred Kerley, who clocked 9.79s and 9.81s to claim second and third place, respectively. The American also won a bronze medal in the 200m dash, where he clocked 19.70s. The gold medal was claimed by Letsile Tebogo, who recorded 19.46s.

A few weeks after the conclusion of the Paris Olympics on August 11, Lyles appeared in an interview with GQ Sports where he read out comments from his fans posted on social media. One of them was by the New York Knicks' shooting guard, Josh Hart.

Lyles read out Hart's comment, in which the basketballer had replied to a hate comment for Lyles and praised him for his Olympic gold medal.

"Lol na he an Olympic gold medalist. He can talk for life😂 ," Hart said.

Following this, when asked if he knew who Hart is, Lyles said:

"No"

The interviewer revealed that Hart plays for the Knicks, to which Lyles responded and said:

"I appreciate it."

In 2023, Lyles questioned the NBA winners for calling themselves "world champions", which has been a point of contention among fans since then.

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Rai Benjamin opens up on how Noah Lyles helped track and field

Following Noah Lyles' "world champions" comment about NBA players in 2023, the NBA fans seem to have been more attentive towards the track and field community, as it probably made them track Lyles' performance at the 2024 Summer Games, thereby increasing the sport's visibility.

This point was recently highlighted by Rai Benjamin during an ESPN show. He said:

"Listen, I think, to be fair, a lot of people came up through the ranks such as Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, and Yohan Blake, but I think the level of attention that track and field now has is because of their series sprint and because of who Noah is as a person, his ability to bring the masses outside the track and field like the entire NBA environment where I feel like they were really tuned in to see what would happen."

Lyles has now competed in two Olympic games, the 2020 Tokyo and the 2024 Paris Olympics. He currently has three Olympic medals, a gold and two bronze.