What is the Noah Lyles-NBA players beef? All about the sprinter's comments about basketball stars

By Adityan Pillai

Modified Aug 09, 2024 09:21 GMT

Noah Lyles has been at the center of controversy ever since he took a shot at the NBA Champions in a press conference during the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. The American athlete had won the gold medal in the 100m at the World Athletics Championships and was discussing being a World Champion in the post-race as well as the prospects of track and field.

It was then that the American athlete spoke about the NBA and threw shade at them for calling the winners of the NBA finals 'World Champions'.

"You know the thing that hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have 'world champion' on their head," he said. "World champion of what? The United States? Don't get me wrong, I love the U.S. at times, but that ain't the world...We are the world. We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show they are represented. There ain’t no flags in the NBA," he said.

His comments went viral on the internet with NBA fans and players slamming the American athlete for his take on the league. Several prominent players like Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Udinus Haslem among others slammed the athlete for his take on the NBA finals.

“Somebody help this brother,” wrote Kevin Durant

NBA players respond to Lyles' take | Instagram

The controversy stirred up once again after Noah Lyles placed third in the men's 200m finals. NBA fans took to social media to poke fun at the athlete on his comments and Kevin Durant also expressed his opinion on the matter and said:

“World champion of 3rd place?”

Earlier, Lyles put forward an impressive performance to clinch the gold medal in the 100m at the Paris Olympics.

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Noah Lyles on competing in the 200m finals despite testing positive for COVID-19

Noah Lyles - Athletics - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 13 - Source: Getty

Noah Lyles competed in the men's 200m finals despite testing positive for COVID-19. Shortly after the race, the USATF released a statement about Lyles running the race despite testing positive. The American athlete spoke about his decision to run in the finals and said (as quoted by "Time"):

"I still wanted to run; they said it was still possible. So we just stayed away from everybody and just tried to take it round by round. And to be honest, I knew if I wanted to come out here and win, I had to give everything I had from the get-go. I didn't have any time to save energy," Lyles said.

Furthermore, a few hours after the race, Lyles took to Instagram to reveal that he was ending his campaign at the Paris Olympic Games.