NBA superstars hit back hard over Noah Lyles’ world champ dig

NBA superstars have responded in kind to outspoken sprinter Noah Lyles’ comments over the use of the term “world champion”.

To borrow a phrase from the legendary Ron Burgandy, that escalated quickly.

It all began when American sprint king Noah Lyles made some inflammatory remarks about other sports in the United States during the World Athletics Championships.

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Lyles was speaking in a press conference last Friday night local time after he had secured a third consecutive world championships gold medal in the 200m, adding to the 100m crown he claimed earlier in the meet in Budapest.

Asked about the state of athletics on a global scale, the 26-year-old took aim at both the marketing of his sport and some of the terms used in other sports in a passionate reply.

"I love the U.S... but that ain't the world!" ❌

Noah Lyles throws shade at the NBA's 'world champions' 🏀👀 pic.twitter.com/BRCJagckcK

— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 27, 2023

“You know the thing that hurts me the most?” he began. “I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their heads.

“World champion of what? The United States?

“Don’t get me wrong. I love the US at times. But that ain’t the world. That is not the world - we are the world.

“We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving and putting on a flag to show that they are represented.

“There ain’t no flags in the NBA. We got to do more. We got to be presented to the world.

“I love the track community, but we can only do so much within our own bubble. There’s a whole world out there.”

NBA players are typically covered in “world champions” merchandise seconds after winning a title, like the Denver Nuggets in June this year. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)

Lyle was referring in part to the “NBA World Champions” caps, along with T-shirts and other merchandise, that are printed and displayed on every player from the winning team right after the final whistle, this past season being the Denver Nuggets.

The US has often faced derision for slapping the words “world champion” on what are effectively its domestic competitions, although leagues such as the NBA, the NFL and Major League Baseball are considered the pinnacles of those sports.

Lyle’s comments received an extremely rare round of applause from the media in the room that night and were received favourably by most people that follow sport.

That is, until some NBA players got wind of them.

The NBA has been using the term “world champions” for a long, long time. (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images)

America’s professional basketballers are some of the most high-profile, popular, well paid and outspoken in all of sports.

The guys at the very top tend to have millions of followers on social platforms and are not shy about airing their thoughts.

So the response from players such as Phoenix superstar Kevin Durant, Suns teammate Devin Booker, Golden State’s Draymond Green and current NBA world champion Aaron Gordon was quick and largely predictable.

Durant, who is known to have burner accounts on social media and often engages with his followers, was the first to reply to a SportsCenter post about Lyle’s comments, stating: “Somebody help this brother.”

Booker replied only with the face palm emoji and Lillard used the letters “TF” with a couple of laugh-crying emojis. If you don’t know the meaning of those two letters used together, we suggest you look them up, but suffice to say they are NSFW.

Gordon took a different slant, suggesting he and his 203cm frame would be “smoking buddy in the 200m”.

Juan Toscano-Anderson, a role player that also won a “world title” with Golden State in 2022, at least tried to explain his take.

“Last time I checked,” he wrote, “the NBA was the best competition in the WORLD.”

The outspoken Green, who calls himself a leader of something he’s labelled “new media”, replied: “When being smart goes wrong.”

Noah Lyles (left), NBA players Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and some of the social media reaction to the sprinter’s remarks.

Lyle did get a lot of support, however, particularly from the athletics community as well as celebrity and fitness advocate Mario Lopez.

Lopez pointed out the English Premier League “has the best soccer players in the world, but the champions in the league don’t call themselves World Champions. And literally EVERY country in the world plays soccer”.

We’ll give the last word to Darrell Hill, an American who competed in shot put at the 2016 Olympics, who had a dig at the international status of the NBA.

“NBA dudes think (they’re) world champions because they play the Toronto Raptors,” Hill wrote.

Originally published as NBA superstars hit back hard over Noah Lyles’ world champ dig