Noah Lyles is having quite the time at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, taking home three gold medals and cementing his ranking as the No.1 200m runner; however, his comments during a recent press conference are causing a stir amongst National Basketball Association athletes here in the States.
According to Sports Illustrated, the six-time world champion pointed out that players in the league only compete in the United States and Canada. However, they refer to themselves as “world champions” when they successfully win the Larry O’Brien trophy. “You know what hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head. World champion of what? The United States?” said Lyles. His comments made their way to NBA superstars like Phoenix Suns teammates Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and Portland Trailblazers leader Damian Lillard.
“Somebody help this brother,” wrote Durant, while Booker chimed in with a face-palm emoji of his own. “Whatever… I’m smoking buddy in the 200m,” wrote the current reigning NBA Champion Denver Nuggets power forward Aaron Gordon. In recent years, the NBA has amassed a large international player presence and has launched several global initiatives to bring the game of basketball to other countries and continents. Mexican-American player Juan Toscano-Anderson
, who has been an ambassador for the NBA in Mexico, also offered his opinion on the matter. “Last time I checked, the NBA was the best competition in the WORLD,” he said.Players from all over the world set their sights on being drafted to the NBA as confirmation of their skills and ability to compete with the best players from across the globe. Though Lyles makes an interesting argument, the USA has shown up on the world stage and dominated in basketball competitions against the best players from other countries to the tune of 16 gold medals since the sport was first introduced to the Olympics in 1936.