Noah Lyles may have proven the basketball haters wrong, but new detractors still continue to emerge.
The day after Lyles won the gold medal in the men’s 100 meters at the Paris Olympics, he received an unwelcome greeting on social media from Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin.
“Noah Lyles is my least favorite American. Good morning.” Franklin Post to X Monday morning.
Franklin, 28, played in 16 games with the Indianapolis Colts in 2023.
The former seventh-round pick recorded 179 tackles, three tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and six pass deflections in his sixth season with Indianapolis and his second as a full-time starter.
Franklin’s play caught the attention of his professional peers, who ranked him No. 100 on their “NFL Top 100” list.
It’s unclear exactly why Franklin took such umbrage with Lyles, but the sprinter has had conflicts with other American athletes in the past.
2024 Paris Olympics
Last August, Lyles suggested that NBA players who boast “world championships” can’t back up their claims because they haven’t actually beaten competition from around the world.
“World champions of what? USA?” Lyles responded. “Don’t get me wrong, I love USA sometimes, but it’s not the world…there’s no flag in the NBA.”
In response, NBA stars and US national basketball team stars Kevin Durant and Bam Adebayo slammed Lyles on social media.
A year later in Paris, some American basketball superstars were on hand from the Stade de France to watch the match, which created a slightly awkward atmosphere as Lyles beat Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by just one second in a thrilling photo finish.
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Knicks guard Josh Hart, for example, posted a number of tweets acknowledging that Lyles had proven him wrong.
“He’s an Olympic gold medallist. He can talk for life,” the 29-year-old says. I wrote to Xhe added, along with a laughing emoji.
