The U.S. men’s basketball team won its fifth consecutive gold medal, but one of the first things on USA Basketball’s mind was to hit back at some past comments made by sprinter Noah Lyles.
The 100-meter gold medalist famously said a year ago that being an NBA champion doesn’t make you a “world champion.”
And after Team USA beat France to win the Olympic gold medal on Saturday, they called themselves “world champions” in a post from X’s official account. Technically, Lyles’ original claim was not wrong, even if it was made with little consideration.
“You’ve got to watch the NBA Finals. They’re head and shoulders above the world champions,” Lyles said last August. According to the Daily Mail“World champion of what? America? Don’t get me wrong, I love America sometimes, but that’s not the world.”
“We are the world. Nearly every country competes here, thrives here, has their flag represented. The NBA has no flags,” he added.
The U.S. team won the FIBA World Championship in 2010 and 2014, but fell to seventh place in 2019 and finished in fourth place in 2023 despite being one of the favorites to win.
In an interview with The Associated Press after the men’s basketball team won a gold medal, Lyles was asked about his past comments.
“It’s not a question of whether I would consider it,” Lyles said when asked if the U.S. team’s athletes could win the title of world champions. “They do. They’re Olympic champions, and with an Olympic champion, it’s the whole world.”
“And they knew how hard it was going to be,” Lyles added. “And of course they won, and of course I knew they were going to win, because we have some of the best athletes, but they knew they couldn’t just throw everybody together and say, ‘This is a great team.’ I know there’s a lot of countries out there that say, ‘Hey, just because we don’t play in the NBA doesn’t mean we’re being scammed. We have our unity. We have our own way of playing.’ And there was a lot at stake, but like me, I’m confident that the U.S. basketball team will make it all the way to the end.”
Lyles is His Marathon gold medalist Jonathan McClellan competed in the 200 meters and finished third on Friday despite having COVID-19 and a 102-degree fever, just days after winning the 100 meters in dramatic fashion.
This doesn’t seem to be Lyles’ only complaint about NBA players being held in higher regard than track and field athletes.
Circulating on Sunday was the Minnesota Timberwolves star, Team USA guard Anthony Edwards.
Adidas was in contract extension talks with Lyles last year and invited him to Edwards’ shoe launch.
Lyles didn’t seem pleased.
“What do you want to do,” Lyles told Time magazine? “Do you want to invite me in? [an event for] A guy who’s never been to the NBA Finals? A sport he doesn’t care about? And you give him the shoes? No disrespect, but he’s a great athlete. This is a great year. I love that they had the insight to give him the shoes because they knew he was going to be big. All I want to ask is, ‘How could you not see that I was coming?'”
Time magazine reported that Adidas declined to comment and that Lyles has signed a new contract with the company, which it says is the most lucrative in athletics since Usain Bolt.
