‘World Champion Of What’: US Olympian Noah Lyles Takes A Jibe At NBA – News18

US Olympian Noah Lyles sparked a huge debate after taking a dig at the NBA. The American athlete wasn’t impressed with how the NBA presented its winners as champions of the world. “World champion of what,” he was heard saying at a media conference. Lyles said, “Don’t get me wrong. I love the United States, but that ain’t the world.” He then referred to the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary as “the world.”

“We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting their flag on show that they represented. There are no flags in the NBA”, Noah concluded.

Noah Lyles was asked to give his opinion about the current state of the sport in the interview. The 26-year-old gave a passionate response saying, “Right now the bar is low. Come on guys…I don’t see [Usain] Bolt, I don’t see Asafa [Powell], I don’t even see Yohann [Blake] and he’s still running.” He next took a jibe at the NBA saying, “You know, the thing that hurts me the most? I have to watch the NBA finals and they have ‘world champions’ on their heads.”

Noah Lyles’ criticism revolved around the fact that the NBA majorly hosts teams from the United States. The Toronto Raptors are the only foreign team that plays in the league. Lyles’ comments earned him a round of applause from the journalists in attendance. However, not everyone was a fan of Lyles’ remarks.

Coming back to the field of athletics, Lyles impressed at the World Athletics Championships after bagging a third consecutive 200m world title in Budapest. He clocked 19.52 seconds, finishing ahead of runners-up Erryion Knighton and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo. Noah also became the first man since Jamaican legend Usain Bolt to win both the 100 metres and 200 metres at the World Championships. He had bagged the 100-metre title earlier by clocking 9.83 seconds in the final on August 20. He narrowly beat Tebogo again and Northern Ireland’s Zharnel Hughes to clinch the first position. Bolt still remains to be the only person to achieve this feat on four consecutive occasions from 2009 to 2015, marking his era of dominance. The only other person to win three successive world titles is American all-rounder Allyson Felix.

Lyles will now be inclining towards adding a third gold medal at the championships as he is set to anchor the USA in the four-by-100-metre relay race final this Saturday. The 26-year-old will be looking to prepare himself for the upcoming Olympic Games in 2024 in Paris.