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Noah Lyles opened up about receiving backlash after his comments about NBA Champions. The Olympic gold medalist revealed that the NBA players, who lashed out at him, were mostly athletes who were Americans and revealed that he had a great relationship with European Players who played in the league.
During a press conference at the World Athletics Championships 2023 in Budapest, Noah Lyles' comments took the internet by storm. The American athlete revealed that he was always confused when he saw the winners of the NBA finals being termed as World Champions as it is a National League. This brought about a lot of criticism from players and fans who took to social media to express their thoughts.
Popular NBA players like Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and Devin Booker, among others, expressed their dissent about Lyles' comments.
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“Somebody help this brother,” wrote Kevin Durant
Noah Lyles spoke about the aftermath of the press conference in his appearance on the "Toure Show" and revealed that it brought about a lot of conversations. He revealed that people called him out for having an ego however, these comments were restricted to the United States of America. According to him, he received support from fans outside the US.
“It got the conversation around Noah Lyles is big, ego, marketing, all the things, right? I mean, like, it got the conversation. It got a lot of different conversations, because outside of the US is nothing but support. Inside the US, I mean, it's died down now, but at the time, it was like, this guy doesn't even know what he's talking about,” he said.
“And it was American NBA players. Because I have a decent relationship with a few European players or people who was, you know, actually Evan Fournier, we have the same massage therapist. So we've actually known each other for a little bit.“And he, you know, he was just laughing because he's like, yeah, when I play in the NBA, you know, these guys, they think it's, you know, the world championship,”he added.
Noah Lyles on dealing with hate comments and criticism
Noah Lyles spoke about dealing with hate comments in the famous Netflix documentary 'Sprint'. The American athlete revealed that he is often criticized by people on social media for his confident personality because he is outspoken about his goals.
The Olympic champion revealed that people often take his words out of context which in turn leads up to another conversation.
“Once the general public gets a hold of [what I say], they make their opinion and put it off as my opinion," he expressed.
Noah Lyles expressed that he often tries to ignore such comments and focus on his goals as he steps on the track to compete. However, despite the hate, he believes that it helps to keep up the conversation around track athletes and will eventually help the sport to grow over time.
